One morning every January — along with more than 1,000 other area residents — Joseph Villanueva wakes up before dawn to count the number of people experiencing homelessness in San Diego County.
Participants spend hours on their feet talking with people for the annual Point-in-Time Count, a nationwide effort to survey and identify the needs of the unhoused community.
“Waking up very early in the morning, it's cold, but you feel very motivated to do the count,” said Villanueva, a social worker in San Diego County’s Office of Homeless Solutions. “It makes me feel very grateful for all the work and how well we collaborate together.”
The Point-in-Time Count is more than just arriving at a number. It influences spending and decision-making on homelessness for the next year. The effort largely depends on volunteers fanning out across the region to carry out the count.
The Regional Taskforce on Homelessness (RTFH) is responsible for overseeing the count locally. Chief Programming Officer Kat Durant said that by gathering basic demographic information, the taskforce can gauge which groups need more support. For example, after a previous count, RTFH added more senior citizen programs.
“(The count) gives us a very comparable data set from year to year, so that we can definitely see increases and decreases and maybe discover trends in those experiencing homelessness that we might not otherwise have noticed as easily,” Durant said.
Roughly 1,700 people participate in the regional Point-in-Time Count every year. RTFH still needs around a thousand more volunteers for the 2026 count, which will take place on Jan. 29. Volunteers can sign up through the RTFH website. Durant said the anticipated deadline to sign up is Jan. 23.
From 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., teams of up to four volunteers will count the number of people they see experiencing homelessness in a designated area. There are 46 sites across San Diego County where volunteers start their day, and volunteers can choose their site. They’ll ask survey questions and give a $10 7-Eleven gift card to participants in return. Volunteers also give socks and pocket guides for the community service nonprofit 211 San Diego.
Dijana Beck is the director of the county’s Office of Homeless Solutions. She said the count can help destigmatize myths around homelessness for the people who volunteer.
“I think people should just go into it with an open mind, not make a lot of assumptions because it really is one of those events that could be very, very enriching,” she said.
Each year, the Board of Supervisors authorizes county staff, such as Beck’s team, to participate in the count on paid county time. The employees that choose to participate are dispersed into groups with volunteers from the public. Since many county employees have more knowledge on homeless outreach than the average person, they’ll often lead their group.
Beck’s team specializes in outreach for unsheltered people, so during the count they handle situations that may require more expertise.
“You go into areas where they may not want to send some less-experienced volunteers, like into a riverbed or an area where you have to go off the beaten path,” she said.
Mat Brown is the Chief of Agency Operations for the Office of Homeless Solutions. He said ahead of the count, they ask the police and public works to hold off on enforcement efforts so unhoused people are easier to find.
“We would love to count them and really validate them, but if they get pushed further and further into canyons and riverbeds, we may miss them,” he said.
Brown volunteers annually at his local site in Santee. Volunteers complete online video trainings and download an app where the data is collected. There is no in-person training due to the large number of volunteers.
“The training is limited,” Brown acknowledged. “(New volunteers) might have questions in the morning. They're gonna meet veterans, people who do this every year. There's a lot of people that have done it more than once and any questions they have will be answered right on the spot.”
The county is also trying to get the number of its employees who participate back up to pre-pandemic levels. Brown said an average of over 450 county employees signed up from 2014 to 2020, but only 314 signed up for the 2025 count.
After the morning shift, safe parking and safe sleeping sites are counted at night. Service providers also tally people experiencing homelessness on Caltrans properties, including near highways and train tracks, and a week-long count happens at youth sites.
Counties across the country that receive federal funding for homeless services conduct a count and submit their data to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
HUD cleans up this data and sends it back to each county in the spring. That’s when RTFH will publish San Diego County’s stats on its website.
