There are also lots of reasons to question exactly how such numbers are determined and what they really mean, which is a long discussion I don't care to have.
Due to the temperate weather, California has largely become the dumping ground for America's chronic homeless.
Not all homeless are chronic homeless.
You don't need all your homeless to be chronic homeless to dramatically and negatively impact the scale of the issue for one state that has, iirc, 12 percent of the US population and 25 percent of the US homeless population.