By Macy Meinhardt, V&V Staff Writer, CA Local News Fellow
For the first time in five years, reports show a substantial decline in homelessness across San Diego County, resulting in a cumulative drop of 7%.
The City of San Diego saw the largest drop in homelessness by 13.5% last year.
Numbers come from the most recent Point in Time Count (PIT), which was held in January by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. The PIT count is an annual event where thousands of volunteers fan out across the region to physically count and survey homeless individuals. The data collected helps provide a snapshot of the crisis to leaders and policymakers.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria was quick to celebrate the news.
“The data released today by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness confirms that our comprehensive strategy to reduce homelessness and build more affordable housing is working,” said Mayor Todd Gloria in a May 20 press release.
This city invested a record amount into homelessness this year, allocating $315.9 million to the city’s homeless services and solutions department, a 54% jump from the year prior.
The core strategy in recent years has been to diversify shelter options to meet the needs of overrepresented homeless populations, such as veterans, women, families, LGBTQ youth, older adults and those struggling with behavioral and substance abuse issues.
Within the city, unsheltered veteran homelessness declined 22%, and unsheltered youth homelessness declined 23%. Families experiencing homelessness declined by 66%.
Other alternative options the city has explored include the implementation of safe sleeping and safe parking. The Safe Parking Program, with four sites across the city, provides designated parking lots for people living out of their vehicles overnight.
Meanwhile, safe sleeping offers a legal camping site where individuals can enroll to receive meals, showers and restrooms, and housing navigation services.
Although PIT numbers show an overall decline, the rate at which people enter homelessness continues to outpace the number who make it off the street and into permanent housing. According to data from the first quarter of 2025, 2,985 people were housed, but 3,189 newly entered homelessness. This has been a consistent trend over the last five years.
The cost of living in the city is the number one contributor, experts say.
“Homelessness is not the result of someone’s bad choices,” Hanan Scrapper, regional director at PATH San Diego. “It’s a direct result of the high cost of housing and severe shortage of affordable options.”
As a result, the City maintains that they have more than doubled the rate of new home permits. Before 2023, the City permitted about 4,300 new homes annually. In 2023, the City permitted nearly 9,700 new homes.
To learn more details on county and city homelessness data, visit: https://www.rtfhsd.org/reports-data/