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Marin County’s homeless population increased by 3.5%, to 1,128 people, between January 2024 and January 2026, according to the latest biennial count.

The census, known as the “point in time” count, was conducted by the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services. The count also showed that the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in Marin increased 102%, to 438, over the two-year period.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a chronically homeless person as someone who has experienced homelessness for a year or longer — or who has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness totaling 12 months in the last three years — and also has a disabling condition that prevents the person from maintaining housing.

The department does not require that a person be unsheltered to be classified as homeless during the count. Anyone who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence — such as people living in vehicles, abandoned buildings, emergency shelters or transitional housing — also qualifies.

Nevertheless, 83% of the chronically homeless were unsheltered, compared to 74% of the total homeless population.

“It’s mixed results for sure,” said Gary Naja-Riese, who heads the county’s homelessness division.

Naja-Riese noted that the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in Marin dropped from 49 in 2024 to 11 this year. The number of homeless families fell from 64 to 60.

Since 2017, the county has focused on a “housing first” approach to addressing homelessness, which prioritizes placing the most vulnerable, chronically homeless people in permanent, supportive housing. Over that period, 900 homeless people were housed.

Naja-Riese said progress in housing people has slowed since 2024 because of a lack of federal vouchers, which the county has relied on to cover the cost of providing the housing.

Section 8 vouchers and other vouchers issued by the federal housing department generally require voucher holders to pay no more than 30% of their monthly adjusted gross income toward rent and utilities.

Naja-Riese said the Marin Housing Authority has been granted a fixed number of vouchers, but when people drop out of the program, those vouchers become available for new people.

“There is an agreement between the county and the housing authority that we are able to refer up to 50 people who are chronically homeless to submit applications and, if approved, be placed on the voucher wait list,” Naja-Riese said.

Previously housed homeless people who are in danger of being displaced have had to be moved to the top of the wait list. Naja-Riese said these people were granted emergency housing vouchers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congress allocated $5 billion for the emergency vouchers through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and the funding was expected to last for about 10 years. Due to higher than expected rental costs nationwide, however, the funds are expected to be exhausted by the end of this year.

“We have over 150 people that have been moved onto the Section 8 waiting list in the past several years, but have not come up for a voucher because we’ve been in a voucher shortfall for so long,” Naja-Riese said.

Christine Paquette, chief executive officer of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin, said, “We have a bunch of clients on the street who have everything ready to be housed and landlords who will take them, but we’ve been shut off from having vouchers.”

Paquette pointed to other data points in the report that she believes are important. She noted that 88% of homeless people surveyed said they were living in Marin County when they became homeless, up from 62% in 2024.

“That’s a good reminder that these are Marin County people becoming homeless,” Paquette said. “These aren’t people coming into Marin County.”

She also observed that first-time homelessness in Marin increased from 27% in 2024 to 62% in 2026, and that 56% of survey respondents cited economic issues as the cause of their homelessness.

Paul Fordham, chief executive officer of Homeward Bound of Marin, which operates the county’s permanent homeless shelters, said, “The rental market is still out of reach for a lot of people who are in poverty. Some people are staying longer in the shelters, and they’re aging into chronic homelessness.”

The number of older adults counted as homeless in the survey decreased from 171 in 2024 to 151 this year. More than half of them were over 64, and 69% were unsheltered.

“I know the count showed that the number of seniors went down,” Fordham said, “but in the shelter we’re seeing more older adults than we’ve seen before, and that’s much harder to solve. It’s not easy just to springboard people back into the rental market if they’re 70-plus years old.”

Naja-Riese said, “We are successfully exiting people from homelessness in Marin in significant numbers every year. However, almost an equivalent number of people are entering homelessness every year as well.”

To address the issue, the county is partnering with All Home, a San Francisco nonprofit, and the Marin Community Foundation to start a program aimed at preventing homelessness in Marin by providing people at risk of becoming homeless with rental support. The county has pledged $1 million toward the effort, and the Marin Community Foundation and All Home are providing matching amounts.

County supervisors approved the program in November 2025, and it is in the process of launching now.

Naja-Riese said that when prevention efforts receive adequate support, “that is when we’re going to start seeing significant declines in our numbers.”