San Diego tallies homeless
Homelessness in the county is down, but the number of people living on the street downtown rises dramatically, report says
SAN DIEGO — Although homelessness in San Diego County is down slightly from last year, the number of people living on the street in downtown San Diego saw a dramatic increase during the same period, according to a report by the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.
A total of 8,692 people were living on the street or in shelters, a 0.6% decrease from last, according to the report. The annual homeless count was conducted Jan. 29.
Homelessness in the county is down 3.6% over the last five years, and efforts specifically aimed at helping veterans appear to be paying off, said task force Executive Director Dolores Diaz.
But though the number of people in the county living in shelters has decreased by about 18%, the number of unsheltered people has increased by almost 19%, she said.
Overall, 3,752 people were in shelters and 4,940 were unsheltered.
“I was disappointed in number of unsheltered, but I was very pleased with the silver lining in this, in that we are seeing reductions where we put the resources and the efforts,” Diaz said at a news conference in the United Way’s Mission Valley headquarters.
This year’s count found an 8% dip in the overall number of homeless people living in the city of San Diego, but significant increases in homeless people living in the downtown area and in the northern and southern ends of the county, Diaz said. The count found 2,348 sheltered and 2,745 unsheltered people in the city for a total of 5,093.
In downtown, the number of unsheltered homeless people increased by almost 21% for a total of 1,006. Specifically, the concentration of homeless people around Petco Park and Market Street saw an increase from 314 to 400.
The area around Market Street between State Street and 9th Avenue saw an increase from 151 to 276 since last year, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Oceanside had the second-highest number of homeless people of any other city in the county, with 667 in and out of shelters.
Chula Vista had the third-highest homeless population with 538, followed by Escondido with 532. Vista was next with 423 homeless people, followed by El Cajon with 321.
The 876 people in coastal North County cities represented a 38% increase from last year. North County inland cities had 1,159 homeless people, a 26% jump.
The 896 people counted in South County represented a 27% increase, while the 668 people in East County was a 29% decrease from last year.
The annual count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Department, which uses the figures as part of its formula to determine homeless funding throughout the country.
Diaz said the figures in Friday’s report do not explain why the homeless numbers had changed, but instead are intended to prothe vide a snapshot of homelessness in the county on one specific day.
The task force will have to dig deeper to determine why the number of sheltered homeless number had decreased, Diaz said. A more comprehensive report is due by June 30. She could not say whether there were fewer shelter beds in January compared with the previous year.
Friday’s report did give some specific data about efforts to help homeless veterans.
The overall number of homeless veterans in the country decreased from 1,381 to 1,157, a drop of 16%. The number of veterans living in shelters dropped from 750 to 584, a 22% decrease, and the number of unsheltered vets dropped from 631 to 573, a 9% reduction .
Cara Franke, a coordinator with the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System, said the decrease is the result of a concentrated effort to help homeless veterans.
“VA locally has really put a lot of our resources into addressing the chronic homeless veterans, specifically with our HUD VASH [Veteran Assisted Supportive Housing] program or our permanent housing program,” she said about the 39% drop in chronic homelessness among veterans.
Of the 1,485 VASH vouchers, 1,163 already have been used for veterans to rent apartments, she said. An additional 200 veterans have vouchers and are looking for housing, Franke said. This year’s count made an extra effort to count unaccompanied homeless youth, a difficult population to identify, Diaz said.
The count found 145 people younger than 18, with 31 in shelters and 114 unsheltered. Of homeless youth 18 to 24, the report found 226 in shelters and 459 unsheltered.
The report can be found at the Regional Task Force on the Homeless’ website, www.rtfhsd.org/publications.