Local and federal officials expressed cautious optimism Wednesday about new statistics showing only a small rise in homelessness throughout San Diego County.
The annual point-in-time count found more than 10,600 homeless people in January, a 3 percent increase from last year. The previous tally recorded a 22 percent jump.
Yet budget deficits are forcing leaders to make tough choices over how to fully reverse a crisis that has grown every month for two-plus years.
“The results show that there are still too many of our San Diego neighbors who are unsheltered,” U.S. Democratic Rep. Scott Peters said in a statement. “The silver lining is that the increase was smaller than it was last year, which at least shows a small bend in the curve and, I hope, with every level of government working together, that downward trend will continue.”
The city of San Diego is currently wrestling with a $167 million deficit and some council have expressed hesitation about creating new shelters when some existing housing and homelessness programs may be at risk.
Mayor Todd Gloria has pushed back to say San Diego nonetheless needs to convert a vacant warehouse near Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street into a 1,000-bed facility and use an empty lot by the airport as a place for people to sleep in cars.
The new statistics signal the city “is turning the tide on this crisis,” Gloria said in a statement. “While this trend is promising, it is further proof that now is not the time to retreat.”
The region also relies on funding from the state Legislature, which is facing its own multibillion-dollar deficit, and leaders around California are concerned about how that could effect local programs.
A bipartisan group of 10 mayors, including Gloria, Karen Bass in Los Angeles and San Francisco’s London Breed, spoke Wednesday at a virtual press conference to warn against cutting the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, known as HHAP.
The governor’s budget proposes slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from that initiative.
The point-in-time count is overseen by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. At the start of the year, more than 6,100 people weren’t in traditional shelters and instead could be found outside, in tents or in vehicles.
A large share of that number is made up of older adults. Thirty percent of the county’s unsheltered population was at least 55 years old, a slight increase from the previous year.
Paul Downey, CEO of the nonprofit Serving Seniors, said the trend of older adults sleeping in cars was particularly “troubling.”
“Affordable housing is the end goal, but people need help now,” Downey added.
He again criticized San Diego’s camping ban, which boosted penalties for sleeping outside, and advocated for more aid to those struggling to pay rent.
County officials did recently announce the expansion of a pilot program offering $500 a month to low-income seniors.
An additional 160 residents will now be able to receive a year-and-a-half worth of subsidies paid directly to landlords. That comes on top of the 222 households previously chosen, although it still represents a fraction of the demand.
When the county created the program, nearly 2,200 applied.
Participants are randomly selected and must be spending more than half their incomes on rent. Residents can apply online starting Wednesday at https://workforce.formstack.com/forms/sdhhsa.
