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Fewer people are sleeping in Eureka’s homeless shelters than there were two years ago, according to a recent survey performed by the Eureka Police Department’s Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), Uplift Eureka and Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE).

At last night’s Eureka City Council meeting, EPD Commander Leonard La France presented the findings of the 2026 Homeless Survey, a biennial poll conducted between March 8 and April 4 that asks unhoused residents about their housing and employment status, substance abuse history and struggles with mental illness to help improve the city’s homeless outreach services. This year’s survey reached 239 people, up from 221 in 2024.

When asked, “Where did you sleep last night?” 26% of respondents said they had slept at a local shelter — a 20% drop from 2024. “This is a giant drop for shelters,” La France said, referring to the Eureka Rescue Mission and Betty Chinn’s Blue Angel Village. “We dropped from about 46% to 26%, [which is] a pretty big drop, and I’m not sure why.”

The survey also found that fewer people are sleeping in greenbelt encampments, and are instead sleeping in doorways and alleyways. The number of people sleeping in vehicles is about the same as it was in 2024. 

Councilmember G. Mario Fernandez asked why the number of people sleeping in shelters had fallen so drastically. “Is [it] because people are getting into permanent or maybe some sort of transitional housing?” he asked.

There are a few factors at play, said EPD Sergeant and CSET Supervisor Brian Ross. For one, most surveys were conducted during Free Meal at St. Vincent de Paul’s dining facility rather than at local homeless shelters. “It felt like this year I went in there a few times and I couldn’t get a lot of people interested,” he said.

In some cases, Ross said, people may not be staying at a shelter because they’ve been kicked out for bad behavior. 

“There’s only so many options, so once something bad does happen to them, they’re kind of stuck on the street,” he said. “In my personal opinion, it seems like the drug use is the issue. If you go in [the shelter], you can’t smoke weed, you can’t use drugs, and they can’t live the lifestyle they want to live when they’re outside of the shelter.”

Ross added that fewer people are camping out in the city’s greenbelts and are instead sleeping on the street near Free Meal “because they feel safe there.”

“It’s lighted, there are services there, they feel safe, people can see them, and so that’s definitely a struggle,” he said. “They don’t have anywhere else to go, so they get up in the morning there, and they can get food and services. … [If] you go out into the bushes of the trail, you’re kind of on your own out there. There’s no lights, there’s no people watching you, and some people don’t feel safe.”

CARE Managing Mental Health Clinician Jacob Rosen noted that the city has expanded both transitional and permanent supportive housing facilities since the last survey was conducted in 2024, which could explain why fewer people are sleeping in shelters. 

“I don’t know that that would explain all of the differences that we’re seeing, but I would expect that that explains a significant portion of it in those changes in the data,” Rosen said. “I mean, Bayside Village was able to pull a number of people in who had been homeless for very long periods of time. … That made a huge impact.”

The survey also found that the vast majority of respondents were either born and raised in Humboldt County or had lived here for 20-plus years. “We always hear stories about people being bused in from San Francisco and other areas,” he said. “Not saying it doesn’t happen, but for the most part that’s not true.”

Survey respondents were also asked how they became homeless. The majority of respondents said they were homeless because of a “family situation,” while others said they were evicted or had lost their jobs.

Earlier in the discussion, La France acknowledged that there is a “margin of error” in the survey results, given that it is self-reported. Still, he felt the city’s survey provided a more accurate count of the city’s unhoused population than the Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, a federally mandated biennial survey conducted by county staff and volunteers on a single day in January.

In 2022, for example, the city identified 249 unhoused residents in Eureka. The PIT Count’s estimate for Eureka was 498. 

La France | Screenshot

“[There is] a giant difference in those numbers,” La France said. “What’s important to know is that the PIT Count has a correlation to getting money from the government. Our homeless survey has nothing to do with [that]; there’s no money connected to it. … I’m not a fan of [the PIT Count], but they just get a general guesstimation of how many of us are in our community.”

Even if their numbers differ, the city still works closely with county staff to help get people off the streets and into housing. Rosen highlighted the success of CARE Court, a voluntary court-based treatment program for adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychotic disorders. While CARE Court has failed to live up to expectations in most California counties, the program has worked remarkably well in Humboldt.

“The county has done a really great job with their CARE Court program, and I think our teams have done an excellent job,” Rosen said, adding that Gov. Gavin Newsom recently named the county a CARE Champion. “Our collaboration and networking across the city and the county level … has really made the Humboldt County system stand out to the point where there have been other agencies from large cities, such as San Diego, that have reached out to try and learn more about what is being done here, so that they can try to kind of codify and reimplement it.”

Councilmember Renee Contreras-DeLoach asked what the county is doing to achieve such remarkable results. 

“I think we’re small enough to be able to gather consensus quickly about being creative, but large enough to have the resources to do it,” Rosen said. “Due to the level of interconnectedness with the various agencies involved and the kind of people who are in the key positions to do that networking, combined with the [ability] to be able to think creatively … we’ve been able to fix some of the gaps and maybe tear down some of the silos that other counties might be facing.”

La France added that CSET was built on the same principle of “thinking outside of the box” and cutting through the “red tape” wherever possible to strengthen programs and get people into housing.

“We really, really try to remove red tape and bureaucracy through the process, which really fails people who are in need,” he said. “If I can get from point A to point Z in 15 minutes, that’s a giant win. If it takes me three weeks, that’s a fail, and that’s a system fail. Our job is to make the system better and make it work for us.”

The council did not take any action on the presentation.

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What else happened at last night’s meeting?

The council unanimously approved the christening of Duane Flatmo Alley, a one-block stretch running behind Redwood Capital Bank and the Arkley Center, between F and G streets, and parallel to Fourth and Fifth. The proposal was submitted by Councilmember Kati Moulton on behalf of Flatmo’s wife, Micki.

Hey! That’s Duane Flatmo! | Screenshot

“[Flatmo’s] work can be seen in every corner of our community, from the six-story dancer overlooking the center of town, to his memorable kinetic sculptures — floating or sometimes not floating across the Humboldt Bay — to local product and event artwork you can find in most of our closets, refrigerators, and garden sheds,” Moulton said. “Flatmo’s style is as unique and recognizable as the man himself. It has become a part of the landscape, part of the local vibe. It’s a little gritty and pretty weird, but playful and approachable, like Duane.”

After singing Flatmo’s praises, the council approved the new alley name in a 5-0 vote.

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The city council also unanimously approved a resolution opposing offshore oil drilling and deep-sea mining. 

If you recall, the council had previously asked staff to draft an ordinance that would prevent the federal government and oil developers from using onshore support facilities in Eureka. After a bit of research, the city’s legal team realized an ordinance would require substantial changes to the Local Coastal Program and advised the council to pass a resolution opposing offshore drilling instead. 

The resolution passed in a 5-0 vote. Read it here.