Street homelessness fell 11 percent year-over-year across the county, according to the region’s latest annual census.
The Regional Task Force on Homelessness, which oversees the annual point-in-time count held each January, also tallied a 12 percent increase in people staying in shelters.
This translated into an overall 1 percent decrease in homeless San Diegans counted during this year’s January census.
The Task Force also reported a 6.6 percent drop in unsheltered homelessness in the city of San Diego. The group also cheered overall decreases in cities including Lemon Grove, Santee, La Mesa and the Encinitas area – and regionwide drops in unsheltered veterans, youth between 18 and 24 and people living in vehicles.
In a statement, Task Force CEO Tamera Kohler attributed the reduction in unsheltered homelessness to efforts including state-backed Encampment Resolution Grant projects in communities including Lemon Grove, increased shelter options and a regional focus on diversion strategies to help people avoid or limit their reliance on the homeless service system.
“This is what progress looks like,” Kohler. “We’re seeing good results where we’ve made investments.”
But Kohler and the Task Force also pointed to challenges.
Homelessness among seniors continued to spike this year. The Task Force reported that people over 55 made up a third of the unsheltered population. Among them during this January’s census was an 86-year-old Latina woman in Chula Vista.
Kohler also noted the loss of crucial housing vouchers that have bolstered the region’s housing efforts and the uncertainty surrounding federal funding that has haunted homeless service providers for months.
The Task Force separately reports many more San Diegans accessed homeless services during the past federal fiscal year. The nearly 23,000 people who received services was more than double the 9,803 counted during this January’s homeless census and remains close to last year’s tally of people accessing aid.
The gulf between those two numbers drives home the reality that the point-in-time count represents a minimum snapshot of the region’s homeless population.
During the same period, Task Force data also showed the number of newly homeless San Diegans eclipsed the number of newly housed ones by 212 people – a narrowing of the region’s years-long homelessness math problem.
That gap continued in January, the month that volunteers fanned out throughout the county to tally people living in vehicles, canyons and on sidewalks. In January, 88 more people fell into homelessness for the first time than found homes.