Homeless Project

For a sixth consecutive year, The Chronicle presents its Homeless Project, dedicated to examining and seeking solutions to a seemingly intractable problem made more acute by the pandemic. During the first five years we focused primarily on the crisis in San Francisco, but this year we explore homelessness in Oakland. Find our comprehensive coverage below.

Homeless Project

2021 Coverage

They had roots in the community. How did they lose everything?

San Francisco’s homelessness is a humanitarian crisis

Register for our Homeless Project live event

Places you can donate to or volunteer at

2020 Coverage

Can the coronavirus force California to cure its chronic homelessness?

97 answers to your questions on homelessness

Mentally ill homeless may have a harder time finding help

Pandemic puts homeless seniors in greater jeopardy on Bay Area streets

Homelessness surging in Bay Area suburbs

‘The real pandemic is homelessness’: Stories of fear, hope, survival

One family, $1,200 a month: The financial devastation of coronavirus

Homeless crisis: Will the pandemic make things worse?

As homeless crisis worsens, seeking signs of hope

Housing Affordability requires a regional cross-sector response

2019 Coverage

24 hours inside San Francisco’s homeless crisis

Bay Area’s new homeless epicenter?

What do you want to know about homelessness?

Everything you need to know

SF's program to bus homeless out of the city

New SF homeless center coming to Bayview

Growing homeless crisis could spur awareness needed to solve it

2018 Coverage

What's done, what's left to do

City's Civic Epidemic

Gateways to new lives

For some, hope after homelessness

The situation on the streets

A view of progress

To help homeless, more housing is the answer

Four groups changing lives

Prescription for a health Bay Area? Homes for all

2017 Coverage

Old-school shelters need to upgrade services

In short supply, but tiny homes may fill need

Housing best weapon against mental illness

Police strive to focus on referrals, not arrests

Bay Area's long road to ending homelessness

Oakland homeless camps point to racial bias

56-year-old moves from streets to apartment

Shantytown on Vermont Street that won't go away

Homeless take different paths after SF street camp is shut down

City faces bleak prospect of entrenched homeless camps

Despite money and effort, homeless in SF as bad as ever

How Oakland, SF and San Jose have vowed to help homeless

Struggle for solutions continues

2016 Coverage

No simple path to ending tent cities

7 lives, 7 paths, little change

Aging hotels, chronic problems

Federal disability aid an elusive solution

A problem that looked the same 20 years ago

What would it take to solve homelessness?

Are the most destitute people treatable?

Can a smarter model find success?

Can stricter rules curb the crisis?

How many people live on our streets?

Portraits of like on SF's streets

How to help homeless people in the Bay Area

How the candidates view homelessness

How SF's last 5 mayors tackled homelessness

Homelessness remains a civil disgrace

The time to act is now

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