San Diego County’s Official Homeless Depend Rises 22% to 10,264

The Regional Job Drive on Homelessness introduced Thursday that the official point-in-time survey for San Diego County in January discovered 10,264 homeless people — a 22% improve from the 2022 depend.

The quantity included 5,093 individuals in shelters and transitional housing and 5,171 unsheltered people.

The 2023 WeAllCount Level-in-Time Depend happened on Jan. 26 with greater than 1,600 volunteers checking shelters, streets, encampments, vehicles and different places throughout the county.

For the primary time, volunteers had been allowed to entry Caltrans property, the place 661 homeless had been discovered. Excluding these people, the depend confirmed a 14% improve from final yr.

“These outcomes present what’s been clear from our month-to-month reporting and from what we see on the streets — the area’s homeless system and suppliers merely can’t maintain tempo with the ever-increasing stream of individuals throughout the county falling into homelessness for quite a lot of causes,” job drive CEO Tamera Kohler stated.

“The disaster we face was created over a long time — years of overly restrictive housing insurance policies, restricted funding for homelessness, and extra — and won’t be solved in a single day,” she stated. “We will and should do higher to fulfill this daunting problem.”

Ray Ellis, chair of the duty drive’s board, cited a “worrying soar” in individuals experiencing homelessness for the primary time regardless of greater than 11,000 people moved into a house over the previous yr.

“This ought to be a clarion name to put money into what we all know works,” he stated. “We’d like much more housing, much more shelter beds, and extra funding for outreach and providers.”

Officers cited some hopeful statistics. The variety of households experiencing unsheltered homelessness decreased by 25%, and shelter capability is rising considerably within the metropolis of San Diego.

Mayor Todd Gloria has referred to as on the Metropolis Council to cross an ordinance proscribing homeless tenting when shelter beds can be found.

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