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Bay Area residents have come to believe that homelessness is the region’s biggest problem — extending far beyond the borders of its major cities — and that it’s only getting worse. But their compassion toward their homeless neighbors only goes so far.

In a new five-county poll of registered voters, conducted for this news organization and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, 89% of residents say homelessness is an extremely or very serious problem — up from 79% the year before. But while most voters support progressive solutions like tiny homes, a majority balk at certain proposals that would bring the unhoused into their communities, allow them to camp in public spaces like parks and sidewalks, or let them park on local streets.

That dissonance represents the essence of the homelessness crisis, and the reason it has proved so difficult to solve: Residents want to help, but most have their limits. And while everyone knows the homeless need somewhere to live, many people don’t want that somewhere to be near them.

“I think people are compassionate, and in Oakland and Berkeley in particular, there’s a lot of people who bring food and clothing and help out in ways they can to people in their neighborhoods,” said Dan Siegel, an Oakland-based attorney who represents homeless clients. “But there’s also a lot of people who are upset about the dirt, the rats, the garbage, and in some cases, substance abuse. And it’s not surprising, and I don’t necessarily condemn people for it. But it shows the limits of compassion.”

The survey polled 1,259 registered voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — and voters everywhere had major concerns about homelessness. Seven in 10 reported the issue has gotten worse in their community over the past year. And for many, the crisis is personal — more than half of voters know someone who has been homeless. Fewer than a third think many people who live on the streets are there by choice.

To give people without shelter somewhere to go, more than three-quarters of respondents said they’d support the idea of temporary, sanctioned encampments. But that number dropped to half when residents were asked if they’d allow those camps within half a mile of their own homes.

When asked if they were comfortable with homeless people living in their neighborhoods, residents were split — 48% said yes, and 45% said no. Seven percent had no answer. Renters and liberals were more likely to welcome homeless neighbors into their communities than homeowners and conservatives.

Five or 10 years ago, voters mainly considered homelessness a problem in big cities like San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, said Dave Metz, partner and president of FM3 Research, which conducted the poll. But now, a majority of voters in all five core Bay Area counties reported homelessness is getting worse in their community. The percentages are highest in Alameda and San Francisco counties — 79% and 80%, respectively.

“The concern about homelessness is rising, and it’s become less of a local and more of a regional concern,” Metz said.

Five years ago, 70-year-old Paul Warren started volunteering to feed the homeless, mainly as a way to learn about a population he was afraid of. Every Monday, Warren and the other volunteers at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek cook and then sit down to eat and talk with the people they serve.

It’s changed his perception of the issue, said Warren, a poll participant who lives in Concord. He was surprised by how many people he met wound up on the street not because of addiction, but because of one tough break in their lives.

“A lot of these people have degrees,” he said, noting that “bad decisions” and mental health issues also play a role in homelessness. “A lot of these people have children who work and have families but they just kind of live on the edge.”

Warren isn’t alone in coming to those conclusions, according to the poll. Almost two-thirds of people agreed with the statement: “Many people in my area are just one or two bad breaks away from being homeless.”

Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, found it encouraging that so many residents view their homeless neighbors as people instead of statistics.

“Because the more we put a face on people who are homeless,” he said, “the more we are reminded that there but for the grace of God go us and our families.”

But Warren still worries about the homeless people he doesn’t know — especially those with behavioral health issues — and he doesn’t want them near his house.

“I’ve seen people in Oakland by Gilman and 80 that are just absolutely crazy, and I wouldn’t want those people in my neighborhood,” he said. “I mean, there are children around here.”

For many Bay Area residents, the homeless are more than statistics. Fifty-two percent of voters said they know someone who has experienced homelessness. Among black voters, 69% said they know someone who’s been homeless, and among Latinos, it was 71%. Renters and people making less than $120,000 a year also were more likely to know someone who’d experienced homelessness.

Yvonne Denison, a 59-year-old retired human resources manager from Fremont, suspects she feels more compassion for the homeless because her husband spent some time living on the streets of Los Angeles 25 years ago — before they met — while battling drug and alcohol addiction.

Denison also has a friend who is currently homeless — a man who lived in her condo community in Fremont until he and his wife divorced last year. Now he sleeps in the park by Lake Elizabeth, and sometimes comes by Denison’s house to shower.

“It makes me sad because (I’ve) seen him in a better place,” said Denison, who participated in the poll. “I’ve seen him with his kids. He’s a good father. And I’ve seen him be a productive member of society. And now I see him and he’s lost a lot of weight. He just doesn’t seem like the same person. He’s just lost that spirit in him.”

Because the issue is personal for her, Denison is quick to get angry with friends who make disparaging remarks about the homeless, or to get into heated debates about homelessness with her neighbors on Nextdoor. Denison has no problem with homeless people living in her neighborhood or camping in public spaces, as long as they have proper resources for waste disposal.

“Where are they supposed to go?” she asked.

But most people don’t agree. Just 33% of voters believe homeless people have the right to live in public places like parks and sidewalks if there isn’t enough housing to shelter them. And the majority of voters don’t support allowing RVs to park along major streets or in parking areas.

Local officials struggle with both issues as well. Cities throughout the Bay Area are making tough decisions about how to police unsanctioned tent and RV encampments on their land. Oakland is considering setting rules to dictate where the homeless can and cannot camp. And cities from Oakland and San Jose to Mountain View and Palo Alto have set up “safe parking” sites where people can sleep in their cars or RVs.

But voters are more interested in solutions like increased medical, mental health and substance abuse care, and transitional housing. Eighty-seven percent approved generally of building permanent supportive housing for the homeless, and 81% approved generally of temporary tiny homes. When they were asked if they’d support those solutions within a half-mile of their own homes, support flagged some, but not much — dropping to 71% in favor of permanent supportive housing, and 66% in favor of tiny homes.

That’s music to the ears of Bay Area advocates working to build that housing.

“That there’s such a large majority that want to do something about it is really encouraging,” said East Bay Housing Organizations spokeswoman Grover Wehman-Brown.

Some of that support might be born from experience, said Jennifer Loving, CEO of the San Jose-based nonprofit Destination Home. For years, many people assumed housing for the homeless would be ugly and unsafe, and because not much was getting built, there was nothing to prove them wrong, she said. But now that permanent supportive housing projects are opening, like the new Villas on the Park in San Jose, residents can see what it’s really like.

“Here we are showing you that it’s beautiful, that it’s safe, that it’s well-maintained, that it brightens the neighborhood,” Loving said. “I’m hoping that people are going, ‘Oh, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be.'”

Paloma Concordia, a 40-year-old mother of four who runs a boutique public relations firm from her house in Daly City, agrees something needs to change. She’s constantly coming across homeless encampments all over the Bay Area, and it makes her uncomfortable. Still, Concordia said in the poll she’d be OK with homeless people living in her neighborhood.

“I think you have to embrace that and say, ‘Yeah, this makes me uncomfortable, what can I do about it?'” she said. “Instead of pushing people away, I think you have to sit with that discomfort and figure out how to be part of the solution.”