New data shows nearly 186,000 people now live on the streets and in homeless shelters in California, proving the crisis continues to grow despite increasing state and local efforts to stem the tide.

That’s according to an exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest results of the point-in-time count, a federally mandated census that requires counties to tally their unhoused residents over the course of one night or early morning in January.

The count is up slightly from last year’s tally of about 181,000, and up 8% from 2022 (the last year most California counties counted people living in encampments). But there’s some good news: The rate at which the homelessness crisis is growing appears to have slowed. It grew 13% between 2019 and 2022, 13% between 2017 and 2019, and 16% between 2015 and 2017.

And homelessness actually dropped significantly from 2022 in at least nine counties – bucking what for some was a yearslong trend of increases. At least four other counties saw their populations remain relatively steady.

CalMatters’ analysis is based on data from the 32 counties that have reported it so far this year.

In counties that made progress this year, officials say they added more shelter beds and affordable housing – much of it through federal funding related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other new state money.

“Folks got serious,” said Kari Howell, a program manager for the Homeless Services Division of San Luis Obispo County, which saw a 19% dip in homelessness compared to 2022. “Service providers started to get the support they needed from local communities that allowed them to further expand the work they were doing. I think we’re really proud, while also simultaneously acknowledging there’s so much more work to do.”

But experts warn these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. The county that reported the biggest increase in homelessness (San Joaquin) and the one that reported the biggest decrease (Sacramento) both changed the way they counted this year – calling into question how accurately this count can be compared to prior years. And in every county, experts warn the tally is likely an undercount, as volunteers are sure to miss people sleeping tucked away out of sight.

“Ever since the (point-in-time count) became a mandate we’ve been railing against it,” said Christy Saxton, director of health, housing and homeless services for Contra Costa County. “Because it’s incredibly flawed. Everyone has a different methodology.”

Those challenges point to a bigger dilemma: Voters and politicians alike repeatedly report that homelessness is one of the most important issues facing California, but it’s hard to address the problem without knowing its full scope.

Sacramento and San Joaquin counties saw big changes. Or did they?

Homelessness doubled in San Joaquin County this year compared to the county’s last count in 2022. And the number of people sleeping outdoors — not in a shelter — increased nearly a whopping 160%. No other California county saw such a massive increase.

But the huge change raised questions.

Community leaders say the increase is, at least partially, part of a broader trend of more people landing on the streets in the Central Valley. Kern County saw the state’s second-worst increase: Overall homelessness grew 67% compared to 2022, and the number of people sleeping outside increased 128%. Fresno County didn’t count its unsheltered homeless population this year, but it saw a nearly 80% increase in overall homelessness from 2019 to 2023.

Activists in the Central Valley blame rent increases, which, unlike in big cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, are rarely moderated by local rent control rules.

The Rev. Nelson Rabell, a pastor in Stockton who also serves on the board of affordable housing organization Faith in the Valley, blames the recent influx of people moving to the region from the Bay Area in search of cheaper housing. Families in his congregation keep coming to him with the same story: Their landlord kicked them out and wants to remodel their home to attract Bay Area renters with more money, he said.

“They’re always on the brink,” Rabell said of those displaced families. “One check away. Someone gets sick, or you have a landlord trying to take advantage of the situation. They’re one month away from being homeless.”

But there could be another factor behind San Joaquin County’s massive increase in homelessness: A major change in the way the county counted.

This year, instead of doing the count itself, San Joaquin County used data firm Applied Survey Research, a company also used by nine other California counties this year.

“They’re always on the brink. One check away. Someone gets sick, or you have a landlord trying to take advantage of the situation. They’re one month away from being homeless.”
— Rev. Nelson Rabell, board member, affordable housing organization Faith in the Valley

In a change from last year, the county also assigned volunteers to every census tract in an effort to count all homeless people. And their numbers skyrocketed.

“Knowing how many people are living unsheltered is very disheartening,” said Krista Fiser, chair of the county’s continuum of care, “but most people involved with the county feel confident that it is a significantly more accurate count.”

The new methodology likely doesn’t account for the entire increase. “Anecdotally, you can see it’s getting worse,” Fiser said.

But because of the data discrepancy, officials don’t really know how much worse.

A questionable decline in homelessness in the capital

Activists have raised similar questions in Sacramento County, which saw the state’s biggest drop in homelessness. Overall homelessness fell 29% compared to the county’s last count in 2022, and the number of people sleeping outside dropped 41%.

But Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit that provides food and other services for homeless communities in Sacramento, says its programs served more people this year than last year. It questions whether the point-in-time count numbers are too good to be true.

“These numbers are incredibly difficult to believe and further highlight the trust issues with local government that our guests have consistently expressed over our many years of service,” the organization said in a June news release.

Like San Joaquin, Sacramento County changed the way it counted. Instead of using Sacramento State University, the county hired Simtech Solutions – a data firm that also counted for more than a dozen other California counties this year. Sacramento made the switch because officials liked the idea of being part of that broader cohort, said Trent Simmons, director of data for Sacramento Steps Forward, the nonprofit that leads the county’s count.

Simmons stands behind the reported drop. Though the vendor was different, the method they used was the same as in 2022, he said.

“When we point to a lot of other contextual data around the count, it all does point to the same direction,” he said. “We see an increase in services, we see more people housed, more shelter capacity, more permanent housing capacity, we see more funding, we see more service providers in the system.”

Problems with the homeless point-in-time count in California

The feds tell counties throughout the country to count their unhoused populations at least every two years using a point-in-time census, which generally takes place over the course of one night in January. In California, the counts generate tons of fanfare. Armies of volunteers fan out to tally every person they see sleeping in a tent or a car, and mayors, city council members and other elected officials often join in. They also count everyone spending the night in a shelter.

The results are crucial. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses the data to help determine how much homelessness funding to give each county. But the numbers also have come to serve as a framework around which states base their understanding of the homelessness epidemic. State and local politicians constantly reference them in speeches: Decreases allow bragging rights, and increases are lobbed as ammunition at opponents.

The data also factors into legislation. Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, introduced a bill last year that would require local governments to provide enough housing for their homeless populations based on their most recent point-in-time count. While that provision is no longer on the table, the counts continue to come up time and time again in legislative hearings.

Most California counties that conducted a count this year released the results this summer. Thirteen counties, including Santa Clara, didn’t count this year – they counted last year and will count again in 2025. Another 13 counted this year but haven’t yet released their results. CalMatters compiled and analyzed the results available for each county. In reaching the statewide total, if there was no 2024 data, CalMatters used the most recent data reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The feds eventually will compile the data into a national report, but that likely won’t happen until the end of the year. When it does, its total for California may be different from CalMatters’ total, because it will include data that wasn’t yet reported at the time of publication.

The federal agency recognizes the limitations of its mandatory count, saying it’s not meant to capture the “entire universe” of people who are homeless throughout the year. But, according to spokesperson Andra Higgs: “There is no other data source available that provides a more accurate count of both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness across the country.”

There are ways local officials can make their counts more accurate, such as calling people on housing waitlists to ask where they sleep, or using school data to contact families of homeless students, said Peter Connery, vice president of Applied Survey Research – a nonprofit consulting firm that conducted counts for 10 California counties this year.

But the problem, Connery said, is that most counties conduct the counts on a shoe-string budget, using staff who already have a full plate of other responsibilities. His firm charges between $50,000 and $185,000 for a count, depending on the size of the county. Those prices include paying people who are or have been homeless to help.

Counties do the best they can with what they have, Connery said.

“Does every county do an optimal job of it? I would say no, they don’t,” he said.

Did cracking down on encampments change homelessness numbers?

As officials in cities throughout California experiment with new ways to manage homelessness, they eagerly awaited the results of this year’s point-in-time count to see if their efforts paid off.

In San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria didn’t get the reduction he was hoping for after cracking down on street encampments and directing people to “safe sleeping” sites. The number of people sleeping outside without shelter increased 6% in the city compared to last year (unlike many other California jurisdictions, the city and county of San Diego count every year instead of every other year).

San Diego banned homeless encampments across a wide swath of the city in July 2023. To give people somewhere legal to go in a city without enough shelter beds or housing, city leaders opened sanctioned camps where people sleep in tents purchased by the city, and safe parking sites for people living in RVs. The 749 people living in those sanctioned camps and parking sites are still counted as homeless and “unsheltered” by the feds, meaning they don’t help San Diego lower its unsheltered point-in-time count numbers.

Gloria called that “frustrating.” He sent the Department of Housing and Urban Development a letter this summer asking the agency to re-classify both types of sites as shelters.

“I believe the streets are better today than they were a year ago,” Gloria told CalMatters.

In the city of Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass has made clearing encampments a priority, homelessness dropped 2% this year from the year before. It’s a small decline, but it’s the first time in six years the city has seen any decrease. The number of people living on the street without shelter dropped 10%.

Bass drastically changed the way the city clears encampments in December 2022, when she launched Inside Safe, a program that moves people from camps into hotel rooms. More than 2,700 people have come indoors through that program, according to LAist. But a CalMatters investigation found officials have struggled to provide the medical and mental health services participants need, and to move people from the temporary hotels into permanent housing.

“Ever since the (point-in-time count) became a mandate we’ve been railing against it. Because it’s incredibly flawed. Everyone has a different methodology.”
— Christy Saxton, director of Health, Housing and Homeless Services for Contra Costa County

People living in those temporary hotel rooms are still classified as homeless by the federal government.

The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped nearly 45% in Napa County from 2022 – the biggest decrease in unsheltered homelessness of any California county. City and county officials say that’s because they’ve gone to great lengths to snap up state and federal funding.

In 2022, the county received just under $100,000 per year for permanent supportive housing from the feds, said Jennifer Palmer, the county’s director of housing and homeless services. Now, they rake in more than $400,000.

“We’re really decided that is the greatest need in the community,” Palmer said.

In two years, the county also added 95 new shelter beds, more than doubling their supply.

But in some areas of California, the funds they used to make gains against homelessness have dried up. Homelessness decreased in Santa Cruz County by nearly a quarter between 2022 and 2023. Then it plateaued this year.

The county received nearly 400 new federal housing vouchers in 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while those have been used up, people continue to lose their homes faster than the county can pull people out of homelessness, said Robert Ratner, director of Housing for Health in the county.

“We’re not going to see progress in the (point-in-time) count if that is the continuing dynamic,” he said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Janice Kaye Barham went home to her Lord on September 4, 2024. Born in Iowa on January 8, 1941 to Reed and Arlene Diltz, Jan moved to Humboldt at the age of 11. She married her husband Dale Barham at the young age of 17 and had two children, Cherri and Tyrone, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Janice devoted her life to serving Christ and was an active member of McKinleyville Baptist Church for many years. She served in the McKinleyville Elementary Schools as an aide for almost 50 years and got great joy from helping children learn, especially two of her great-grandchildren, who attended school while she was there. Her great-grandchildren knew to always expect a spelling or math quiz from their Nana! Some of her favorite times were teaching bible study at church. She also fostered many youth while her own children were growing up.

Jan loved spending time in her garden and doing arts and crafts. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have many memories of helping her feed the birds and watering her flowers in her backyard. She was always very thoughtful in making handmade cards for every special occasion or holiday – we will miss receiving her colorful drawn-on stickered envelopes in the mail. She was also very proud of her poetry.

Besides the Lord, no one came between her devotion to her husband of 63 years, Dale, until his death in 2022.

Jan is survived by her daughter and dedicated caretaker Cherri (husband Eric), son Tyrone (wife Mona); grandchildren: Nicole (Sean), Jessica (Lorenzo), Erik, Tyrone Jr and Terran; and great grandchildren: Ashton, Zoey, Hunter & Kenzi.

The family would like to thank the staff at Timber Ridge McKinleyville for their kindness and her close friends and bible study group.

We will miss you Nana and your signature red sun hat.

Hebrews 13:5 “…God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Robert John Kamberg
October 27, 1958- September 5, 2024

Robert John Kamberg was the only living survivor of John and Soraida Kamberg of Grizzly Flats, California.

As I sit here watching you take your final breaths I have been thinking about our 44 years of marriage. From high school sweethearts to grandparents. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it any other way or with anyone else. We have three amazing children Robert “Bobby” Kamberg (Elicia) of Camden, South Carolina, Steven Kamberg (Samantha) of Eureka and Stephanie Kamberg of Eureka, and along with them comes our beautiful grandchildren Hayden Kamberg, Hallie Jean Skillings, Killian and Koah Kamberg and Russell Hann. They were his pride and joy.

Robert lived mostly in Humboldt County with a short time in the Santa Rosa area and when he enlisted in the Marine Corp. He was really proud of that, “Once a Marine Always a Marine” was his saying. One of the things he was most proud of was working for the railroad. He referred to that as his dream job. He was good at what he did and always provided for his family, even when it took him out of the area to work.

Buddy, as his extended family called him, was always there if they needed someone to talk to. He would soon have them laughing with a stupid joke he had told. He will be missed by his best friend Mike Wright, who he considered a brother to him.

As the youngest child of his family he was the last to pass. Both parents, brother Rodney and Lenore Kamberg, have since left this earth. He also is now with his mother-in-law who passed away a year ago, Jean Vanderklis. Robert leaves behind his wife, Debra, father-in-law Piet Vanderklis, nephews PJ and Matt Vanderklis and other family members. He was worried most of all about his beautiful dog, Midnight. I think they could read each other’s minds. She will continue to live in the family.

As for me, my love. There is a hole in my heart that will never be filled until we meet again. Always and forever, Bob and Deb!

California Department of Parks and Recreation release: 

California State Parks, in cooperation with CAL FIRE, are planning to begin a series of prescribed burns in Prairie Creek and Humboldt Redwoods State Parks starting as early as mid-September and possibly through November. Smoke and flames may be visible from the Newton B. Drury Parkway in Prairie Creek State Park and Mattole Road at Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Forest management and prescribed burns are designed to reduce the encroachment of conifer trees and shrubs into prairies, as well as reduce fuel loads in the forests to lessen the likelihood of catastrophic wildfire. These proactive measures not only protect park infrastructure but also significantly reduce the chance of a catastrophic wildfire, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars while ensuring a safer environment for both the park and neighboring communities.

For thousands of years prior to European settlement and colonization, local Native American tribes regularly used fire to manage the various landscapes of our parks, shaping the ecosystems we see today. These traditional practices continue to play a vital role in sustaining the natural systems and biodiversity of the area. Returning fire helps to maintain these natural systems that can be threatened by a lack of fire and continue an ongoing resource management program designed to maintain prairie grasslands, enhance forage for wildlife, control exotic plant species, and maintain our old-growth forests for generations to come.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Jean Etherton | HCSO

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office needs the public’s help to locate missing person Jean Marie Etherton, age 63, of Eureka.

Etherton was reported missing by her family on Sunday, Sept. 8 at about 7 a.m. Etherton was believed to have walked away from her residence, located in the 6000 block of Walnut Dr., Cutten, in the early morning hours of Sept. 8. Etherton’s family advised law enforcement that she may have been having a mental health crisis, and they suspect that the wooded area near their home may likely be her location. Her family also reported that Etherton had walked away from her home one other time last week and was located in the McKay Tract. Etherton was last seen wearing leopard print leggings, pastel pink and purple slippers, and possibly a pastel tie-dyed hoodie.

We are asking our community to please be on the lookout for Etherton in the Cutten and Elk River areas as well as the McKay Tract Community Forest. We are also urging the public to please refrain from the wooded area north of Ridgewood Dr. and south of Lundbar Hills due to the ongoing Search and Rescue (SAR) K-9s tracking in that area.
The Sheriff’s Office is actively coordinating the SAR operation.

Sheriff’s deputies are searching the trails on ATV, on foot and utilizing thermal drones. Deputies are also searching the public roadways. The Sheriff’s Office has called in the use of the U.S. Coast Guard to search from the air. HCSO has also called in the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) volunteers; the Humboldt County Sheriff SAR volunteers are also assisting with the coordinated search.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding Jean Etherton’s possible whereabouts should call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251.

Cal Poly Humboldt release: 

Nearly 100 years after the Humboldt County logging community of Falk became a ghost town, the National Park Service announced its addition to the National Register of Historic Places this year.

The designation is thanks to decades of excavation and research from faculty, staff, and students at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Cultural Resources Facility (CRF) and Anthropology department, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The 19th-century town, now an archaeological district, is in the Headwaters Forest Reserve.

Above: Falk in its heyday | Photos: BLM; Below: Falk location in the Headwaters Forest Reserve.

The recognition officially acknowledges the town’s local, state, and national significance, and is part of a nationwide effort to identify and protect America’s historic and archeological resources, according to the National Parks Service, which oversees the register.

It joins nearly 60 other sites in the county—including Hotel Arcata, Fernbridge, and parts of old town Eureka—on the register.

Like many communities along the North Coast, the town started as a lumber camp. In 1884, entrepreneur Noah Falk established the company town by building a mill and an entire community to support it, according to the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau. With a population of 400, Falk had its own post office, cookhouse, school, general store, dance hall, and a railroad. Called the Bucksport and Elk River Railroad, it connected Falk to the town of Bucksport, now the site of the Bayshore Mall. The mill shut its doors and the once thriving community was abandoned as a result of the Great Depression. Much of the town’s structures were later demolished.

As the forest reclaims the town, only the ruins of Falk remain. Interpretive signs mark some of its remnants on the Elk River Trail. One restored building, a locomotive barn, stands as the BLM’s education center.

The former town is now an archaeological district that has offered opportunities to learn about extractive industries and the history of life on the North Coast.

Between the late 1990s and 2012, Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and student interns and volunteers with the CRF conducted research at the site, according to Mark Castro (‘10, Anthropology), Cal Poly Humboldt Anthropology instructor and co-director of the CRF.

The facility specializes in historic preservation, and offers services such as: archaeological surveying, GIS, remote sensing, site mapping, excavations, construction monitoring, historical research, heritage interpretation, and ethnographic consulting, according to the CRF.
As an undergrad, Castro participated in the excavation of the town’s engine house and a bachelor’s cabin, and conducted research on the pianos found in Falk.

Undergraduates earned much needed archaeology practical skills by participating in excavations; working with different agencies including the BLM; taking museum-quality photos; developing site sketches, aerial maps and timelines; and collecting, identifying and cataloging artifacts. The process has yielded hundreds of historic artifacts, now used for learning purposes.

For example, students learn how to date sites throughout Falk with artifacts like round or square nails and glass bottles found during excavations, Castro explains. By examining the items, they learned about residents’ lifestyles—what they ate, what medicines were available to them, and more.

Other items found on site include medicine bottles, kitchenware, logging tools and equipment, and instruments.

While there are not currently any active projects at Falk, the BLM artifacts continue to provide valuable learning opportunities for Cal Poly Humboldt students.

In addition to hands-on experience, the research was also integral to the establishment of the site as a historic place. The recognition, says Castro, helps preserve and protect Falk for current and future generations.

“We can bring the story of Falk together,” Castro says.

PREVIOUSLY:

• (VIDEO) HUMBOLDT OUTDOORS: A Look at the Historic Ghost Town of Falk

On a morning just days before the New Year, Kiran Thakkar received a worrying phone call. A friend had found anti-India graffiti overnight on the Newark Hindu temple he co-founded. Someone sprayed phrases disparaging India’s prime minister and hailing a secessionist movement for the country’s Sikh minority.

Support rushed in from Indian American community leaders and politicians. But Thakkar and the rest of the quaint suburban temple’s board had little disagreement about how to move forward. They didn’t want to make a fuss. They painted over the vandalism within the day.

“We didn’t want to politicize,” said Thakkar, who’s called the Bay Area home for more than a decade. “So we were clear from day one that, yes, it was a hate crime or fringe incident, and let’s just move on from there.”

The Newark Shri Swaminarayan Temple was one of three California Hindu houses of worship desecrated in 2023, when a record eight anti-Hindu hate crimes were reported in California, according to data released by the Department of Justice in June.

Kiran Thakkar, a volunteer at SMVS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu Temple, at the Newark temple on July 31, 2024. Photo by Florence Middleton, CalMatters

Separately, California is collecting more anecdotal reports of hate incidents through a new civil rights hotline that’s intended to connect people with resources that could help them. A disproportionate number of incidents involving Hindus were reported in its first year, according to state data.

But Hindus aren’t the only ones in California’s Indian community who are seeing a rise in hate crimes and bias against them. Sikhs, members of the ethno religious minority whose separatist slogans appeared on the Newark temple, reported six hate crimes against them — the highest number since the state justice department began displaying that data in 2014.

Many Sikhs are on edge because of several recent high-profile attacks across the nation. The slaying of Canadian Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023, a subsequent foiled plot in New York, and an August shooting outside Sacramento have revived fears among Sikh activists that they’re being targeted by India for their advocacy in North America.

The potential for escalation has left Thakkar, a key figure in the local Hindu community who moved from India to the Bay Area in 2012, feeling a responsibility to avoid stoking tensions. While there were a few devotees who expressed fear after the attack, by and large, he said, his temple members were ready to move on.

“I have not personally experienced anything,” he says when asked if he’s ever faced discrimination in California.

Other Hindus are not willing to forget the temple vandalism. Instead, they’ve petitioned the Legislature to recognize that Hindu Californians are the subject of “pro-Khalistan extremism.” That’s a reference to the name of an independent state that some Sikhs want to carve out of India.

They also opposed two bills in the California Legislature over the past year that they believed would have discriminated against them. One would have explicitly prohibited caste discrimination in California, and the other would have named India as a sponsor of international political repression. Neither proposal became law.

First: A crowd celebrates after SB 403 passes at the Assembly Judiciary Hearing at the state Capitol in Sacramento on July 5, 2023. Last: Proponents and opponents of SB 403 battle for a spot to get their voices heard outside the state Capitol in Sacramento before the Assembly Judiciary Hearing on July 5, 2023. Photos by Semantha Norris, CalMatters

“Nearly all documented anti-Hindu hate in California comes from pro-Khalistan activists who employ violence and harassment to advocate for an independent theocracy in India,” wrote the Hindu American Foundation in a letter opposing the political repression bill, citing the temple vandalizations as an example of such harassment.

National and local groups for Sikhs supported both measures and have roundly disputed that characterization of the modern separatist movement. They had hoped the Legislature would stand with them, given Sikhs’ over-a-century long presence in California, and some felt the hand of India’s government in the opposition.

“They’re using these broad terms, like Hindu Americans, to justify killing a bill against transnational repression,” said Karam Singh, advocacy director for the California Sikh Youth Alliance, which supported both bills. “I think most Americans of all stripes would be clearly in favor of having protections for Californians to not be intimidated, harassed and targeted by a foreign government.”

Is anti-Hindu animus on the rise in California?

California is especially equipped to track incidents of hate and bias because of the hotline that Gov. Gavin Newsom launched in 2023. The so-called “CA vs. Hate” hotline reported receiving over 2,000 calls in its first year, according to a May 2024 report from the California Department of Civil Rights.

During that period, hotline researchers said they documented 24 acts of verified anti-Hindu bias, around 23% of all acts of religious hate that investigators verified. Nearly 37% were anti-Jewish and 15% were anti-Muslim. No anti-Sikh figures were listed.

The numbers jolted California Hindus across the political spectrum. Extremist and hate-motivated acts are not new for Sikh and Muslim Americans, who have endured decades of hate crimes in the United States since 9/11. There have been isolated cases, but Hindu Americans have largely not been disproportionate targets of such crimes.

Pushpita Prasad, a spokeswoman for the Coalition of Hindus of North America, is no fan of the state’s civil rights department. The department holds anti-hate partnerships with major Sikh, Jewish and Muslim organizations, but no Hindu groups. Her organization opposed last year’s caste bill.

But she called the hotline data “one more validation” of the “experience of Hinduphobia.” Her group encouraged Hindus to use the hotline during debates over the caste discrimination bill, she said. They also told people to use it after temple vandalizations in Newark and Hayward.

“Anti-India issues are constantly conflated with Hinduism,” she told CalMatters. More non-Hindus are becoming aware of caste and Indian politics, and “there’s a double standard in play that we all subscribe to, and some of us push back but most of us don’t.”

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story.

Analysts with the state offered few details on the anti-Hindu incidents. They are not necessarily criminal acts; some of the incidents could allege workplace discrimination or other kids of bias.

“I’m not sure there is too much more I can add on the specific questions regarding anti-Hindu acts,” Arvind Krishnamurthy, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley, wrote in an email. “Any data on reports to CA vs Hate should not be used to make generalizations about the extent of any particular kind of hate across California.”

Five Indian American lawmakers, meanwhile, have cautiously attempted to address the fears of both communities. None are Sikh.

In March, they requested a briefing from the federal justice department concerning attacks on Hindu temples and anti-Hindu hate. They also in December called federal prosecutors’ allegations of the foiled plot against a Sikh activist in New York “deeply concerning” and welcomed an India-led investigation into the matter.

That was slammed as “insufficient to ensure accountability” by a major Sikh civil rights group, which wants an independent review.

“There needs to be other actors,” said Sangay Mishra, an associate professor of political science at Drew University who studies South Asian Americans. “Not necessarily government agencies, but other kinds of nonprofit or civil rights groups who are willing to invest in this and make sense of what’s happening so that it doesn’t become such a deeply partisan, polarizing issue.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Ro Khanna, who signed onto both letters and represents Newark in Congress, declined an interview request and did not respond to written questions. He condemned the vandalism at the time on social media.

Anti-Hindu incidents are ‘taken very seriously,’ authorities say

Thakkar said elected officials did everything right at the Newark temple. He never had to call a hotline from the state to get help from the local community.

The State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and three California state lawmakers denounced the incident. Local authorities said they moved swiftly to provide the house of worship with the resources necessary.

“The temple vandalisms were taken very seriously,” wrote Newark Police Capt. Jolice Macias, in a statement. A similar vandalism took place at a Hindu temple in Hayward a few weeks later, and investigators combed through security footage from nearby businesses for leads. Officials from the FBI and Department of Justice were in attendance. “Every possible investigative lead was followed up on.”

First: A Ring camera outside one of the SMVS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu Temple doors in Newark on July, 31, 2024. After a vandalism incident in 2023, the temple community installed additional cameras around the property. Last: Inside the SMVS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu Temple in Newark on July 31, 2024. Photos by Florence Middleton, CalMatters

One of the bills that some Hindu groups opposed would have given law enforcement agencies more training on how to combat and respond to incidents of foreign governments harassing American citizens, a trend that is known as transnational repression. Some Hindu leaders opposed it because it listed India alongside Russia, Iran and China as states of particular concern for law enforcement. It died in the Senate Appropriations Committee in August amid the opposition and a price tag of over $600,000.

In opposition letters to Assembly Bill 3027, the transnational repression bill, the Hindu American Foundation and Coalition of Hindus of North America argued that the legislation would usurp federal law and give police officers further leeway to ignore acts of violence from the separatist movement.

The bill’s author, Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a Democrat from Bakersfield, is the Legislature’s only Sikh. She has said that California is a safe haven for immigrants that should take more steps to make good on that promise. She has also reported threats and intimidation at her office, similar to Sen. Aisha Wahab, the Democrat from Hayward who sponsored the caste discrimination bill last year.

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a Delano Democrat, on the Assembly Floor during session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on July 13, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

But it hasn’t always been clear from where the threats and violence are coming. In fact, the graffiti on the Newark temple misspelled the name of an infamous Sikh leader from India.

One Sikh media group suggested in October that a man who stormed a Fremont gurdwara and tore down a poster devoted to Nijjar was an “Indian nationalist extremist” and Hindu. In fact, his family told the house of worship he was experiencing mental health issues. And in June, federal authorities charged a Hindu man from Dallas for sending threats to a Sikh nonprofit group about separatist activism while often using anti-Muslim language.

“The citizens themselves are in some sense all victims of this phenomenon, whether Sikh, Muslim or Hindu or any other religious tradition,” said Nirvikar Singh, co-author of “The Other One Percent: Indians in America,” and a professor of economics at UC Santa Cruz. “Democracy allows us to work through differences in nonviolent and equalizing ways, but we’re seeing a lot of disruption.”

Tensions in politics or online, though, are far less palpable on the ground in California. The Bay Area defacings did not spark direct or immediate protest. Rallies led by Sikh separatists in California have by and large avoided counter protests and violent clashes. That’s a contrast from demonstrations over the war in Gaza after Oct. 7, which saw a subsequent spike in Islamophobic and antisemitic hate crimes.

Thakkar, nowadays, is less concerned with the temple vandalism, and can often be seen preparing the temple for dozens of attendees to come pray and eat on weekends. Just a quick drive away from Newark, local Sikh leaders came from a Fremont house of worship and helped paint over the graffiti, he said.

This year, he’s planning on applying for the state’s next round of security funding for vulnerable houses of worship. The only other remnants of the attack are the new security cameras all around the perimeter, and splotches of off-white paint covering the front sign.

“We informed the regular devotees that we have taken some measures. We are careful,” he recalls. “We are working with the police department to get immediate attention if anything were to happen again. So we are safe, secure, and you shouldn’t be worried.”

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