Homelessness in Union City declined by 26% in the last year. That’s according to initial results of the 2026 Point-In-Time Count (PIT), a bi-annual count of people experiencing homelessness in Alameda County. The city council received an update from the city’s homeless program at the July 28 city council meeting.
The results also came with the city’s response to homelessness. The CAREavan program is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year. The program offers people experiencing homelessness a safe place to park their vehicle every night.
Homeless program coordinator Jesus Garcia said 100 adults and 21 children have been served through CAREavan the past year. The team provided outreach and support 1,325 times. “It is required by them to meet with us once a month, at a minimum, just to discuss case management, any other things that they are in need of, they might just be in need of applications, work, health or just any other items that Elaine and I can help them with,” he said. Elaine Winnington is the homeless program outreach worker.
No drugs or alcohol are allowed at the CAREavan parking sites. The locations offer open restrooms, case management and family-focused activities. There is also coordinated entry access, a system that provides resources to people experiencing homelessness, including a path towards permanent housing.
The city’s homeless program staff said the rest of the PIT data would be released in the late summer. It would include more information about homeless people, including their ages, veteran status, ethnicity and income level.
Councilmember Lance Nishihira asked if a certain data set could be collected to figure out why people become homeless, including housing affordability, substance abuse and mental health issues. He said it would be great if they knew the localized reason for homelessness, because it can be different from Hayward’s or Newark’s reasons for homelessness.
The city would continue to get quarterly updates on the homelessness response, including state budget updates, grant funding and funding updates from the county’s Measure W, a county-wide initiative to build permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.
