Caitlyn Jenner Overstates California’s Share of U.S. Homeless Population

As of January 2020, California had a little more than one-quarter of all the homeless people in the United States, according to the most recent federal estimates of homelessness. 

But Caitlyn Jenner, a Republican candidate to be the state’s next governor, wrongly claimed that California’s portion of the homeless population was twice as high.

Jenner, a former Olympian and reality TV star, is one of several people running to unseat Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a special recall election expected to be held later this year.

Part of her campaign platform calls for addressing homelessness in California, which she has said caused at least one person she knows to leave the state because he didn’t want to “walk down the streets and see the homeless.”

Jenner discussed homelessness again during a May 26 Fox News interview on “America’s Newsroom,” in which she overstated the percentage of the country’s homeless residents in her state.