Morning Report: Homeless Census Shows Year-Over-Year Drop

Since the pandemic, the region’s annual homeless census numbers have been surging.

But the Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported a more positive trend following this January’s census: a 7 percent year-over-year drop in both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness countywide.

Our Lisa Halverstadt broke down the numbers, including an overall 13.5 percent decrease in the city of San Diego.

Why the decrease? Task Force CEO Tamera Kohler cited state investments and more targeted services for groups including families and veterans. She also noted that both cities with and without homeless camping bans saw drops in homelessness.

Yes, but: Halverstadt highlighted other numbers that don’t quite line up with the point-in-time results. For example, the Task Force separately reported a 3 percent spike in people accessing homeless services in the past year. That total: More than 23,000 – more than double the 9,905 counted during this year’s point-in-time census.

The bottom line, according to the Task Force CEO: San Diego County may be making some progress but many people still need help.

More By-the-Numbers

Our Jakob McWhinney made a handy chart breaking down the annual results for cities across San Diego County.

Among the outliers from McWhinney’s chart: El Cajon saw 21.6 percent year-over-year increase in street homelessness. Volunteers also counted more unsheltered people in Poway and Fallbrook, communities that historically have had very small homeless populations. 

Read the story and check out the charts.

Some of San Diego’s Cops Are Racking Up Overtime Pay

San Diego’s highest-paid city employees are a group of police officers who work thousands of hours of overtime, according to a report by KPBS.

Some officers made upwards of $430,000 in 2023. and early data from last year showed some were on track to make that amount again in 2024. That’s significantly more than the $234,000 Mayor Todd Gloria made in 2023 or the $310,000 the police chief earned that same year.

The bulk of the money is from overtime pay, KPBS reported, with these officers working upwards of 1,000 to 3,000 hours in overtime in one year.

Those working thousands of hours in overtime are limited to a group of about 50 to 60 officers, KPBS reported. Other officers in the department typically worked around 180 hours of overtime each year.

The department has had a hard time filling vacant officer positions, leading to some officers having to cover shifts, said Police Chief Scott Wahl. He also said he would support some safeguards to manage and track overtime hours.

In Other News

• Around 3,500 apartment and condo buildings and at least 76 public and private schools in San Diego are overdue for fire safety inspections or have no recorded past fire inspections largely due to understaffing . (Union-Tribune)
• San Diego leaders are considering bringing ambulance services in-house despite seeing healthy profits since partnering with a private ambulance service for the past 19 months. (Union-Tribune)
• The San Diego Police Department cleared a backlog of thousands of untested rape kits after multiple years due to an overhaul of the testing process that included more staff and more equipment. (Union-Tribune)
• The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office ordered extra patrols around the region’s fertility centers on Monday following a deadly bombing at a fertility clinic in Palms Springs over the weekend. (KPBS) 
• Chula Vista, the county’s second-largest city, will vote on a spending plan today that’s expected to exceed $300 million for the first time in the city’s history. (Union-Tribune)

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Tigist Layne. It was edited by Scott Lewis.