It was a 4 a.m. start Thursday for nearly 60 volunteers in Vista who took part in the one-day "snapshot" of the region's homeless population — known as the Point-in-Time Count.
Before they headed out, they got a briefing from Daniel Sturman, a management analyst overseeing homeless contacts for the City of Vista.
“You're looking for people that are covering their windows at night, so somebody that might have a sunshade up. Somebody that has a bunch of trash in the back of a vehicle,” Sturman explained to the group.
KPBS joined a team of three volunteers — Catherine Manis, Joan Faus and Alicia Tabares — as they set out in the dark to cover their assigned district along the Vista-San Marcos border.
Tabares was driving the vehicle to cover the large area. She is a school social worker with Vista Unified.
“I work with a lot of families who unfortunately don't have a house or are living in their vehicles,” she said.
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Tabares led the group through business parks, canyons and almost everywhere in between as they searched for people without a proper home.
It was very hard to see at times. The group used flashlights in dimly lit areas.
Admittedly, it's far from a perfect system. Volunteers look for clues to give them insight on where people may be sleeping.
“We did find several families living in their RVs and cars, individuals that are working also,” Tabares said of the early morning tally.
During the four hours of searching, the team encountered numerous people without homes and interviewed those who were willing to talk.
“There's some good people out here. Trying hard, working hard, doing their part,” said Jason, a homeless man who didn't want to use his last name.
He was a longtime Oceanside resident, and became homeless in the city six years ago. Now Jason sleeps in a van near his place of work in Vista.
“I've always paid taxes, I've always held a job, I've never taken a subsidy from the government, never taken food stamps. Always supported my children, always done that — all the time,” he said.
Jason said the cost of food, gas and housing are just too much.
“Prices were going up in rent, especially here in San Diego,” Jason said. “My wife at the time was permanently disabled with asthma, had two children, on a single income — just couldn't afford it anymore.”
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The data from people like Jason during the Point-in-Time Count really matters. It's used to determine how to distribute federal homeless relief funding.
The city of Vista’s Sturman said those funds should go towards a regional solution.
“North County homelessness isn't necessarily a singular city problem,” he said. “We have the SPRINTER line up here, the 78 corridor right. And so a lot of our clients travel across that 78 corridor. One night they may be in Escondido, the next night they may be Vista, Oceanside, Carlsbad.”
As for Tabares, who grew up in Vista and was forced out of the county due to cost of living, it's personal.
“The concerns that I have for the community where I grew up in, it's been a lot of just not having access to affordable housing,” she said.
Official numbers for the full count are expected in late spring or early summer, but Tabares said solutions to the affordability crisis are needed now, or the problem will get worse.
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“The displacement of families is what we're seeing here,” she said.
