Nearly 1,500 volunteers took to the streets this morning for the region's annual Point in Time Count, which helps San Diego County get an idea of the number of its residents living on the streets, in cars and in emergency shelters.
The final count will not be made available until this spring.
The volunteers for the count, which were led by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. interact with the county's unhoused residents, asking them questions for surveys that are ultimately used to apply for federal and state funding to help people experiencing homelessness and find solutions that will serve them best.
"The annual Point in Time Count helps us get an idea of the unsheltered population in our region in order to connect them with resources," said Barbara Jiménez, County Community Operations Officer in the Department of Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities. "It's also an opportunity for more county employees to interact with our neighbors experiencing homelessness."
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The hundreds of volunteers began the day at 4 a.m. in one of 36 different sites throughout the county where they split into teams to walk or drive around their designated areas looking for people living outside.
Unsheltered Population in San Diego
A total of 254 county employees volunteered to take part in the Point in Time Count this year, including Beatrice Maleno and Dahiana Jimenez, who work in the Department of Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities, and Maria Lischin, a social worker III with Aging and Independence Services.
"Participating in the Point in Time Count for over five years has afforded me the opportunity to advocate for resources," said Maleno, a program specialist. "`It's important so that we as a community can build and create permanent housing solutions that allow our most vulnerable to thrive and live their best lives."
In November the County Board of Supervisors voted to continue paying county employees for participating in the count. Employees have been paid for their participation since 2014.
In the 2022 count, the RTFH found that homelessness had grown by at least 10% since 2020, with volunteers finding 8,427 people experiencing homelessness across San Diego County, a minimum number.
That number included 4,106 unsheltered San Diegans, with 4,321 individuals in shelters. Of those surveyed, 85% said they had fallen into homelessness while living in the region.
The RTFH said comparisons between 2020 and 2022 should not be measured by the same standard and that heavy rains the night before and frigid temperatures the morning of the count may have impacted the number of people sleeping outside. Still, the total number of people sleeping outside without shelter increased by 3% in last year's count.
The 2022 Point-in-Time Count saw a 30% decrease in the veteran homeless population and a 7% decrease in the chronic homelessness population versus 2020 but saw an increase in families experiencing homelessness, up 56% from 2020. Black San Diegans, who make up under 5% of the total population in San Diego County, made up 24% of the region's unsheltered homeless population.
According to RTFH CEO Tamera Kohler, between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021, more than 36,500 San Diegans interacted with homeless services, meaning the true number of San Diegans living without permanent housing could be far higher than what the count found.
