Report: First-Time Homelessness Up In San Diego County

Speaker 1: 00:00 No point in time, count of the homeless population in San Diego was done this year because of the pandemic, but based on the number of people who sought out homeless services last year, the increase in the first time homeless population Rose dramatically, the regional task force on the homeless estimates, the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time last year, nearly doubled from 2,320 19 to 4,100 in 2020 officials say, they're not entirely sure that the pandemic accounts for that increase, but COVID-19 related jobs and housing losses are likely causes. Joining me is San Diego union Tribune reporter Gary Warthen Gary. Welcome now because there was no point in time count what exactly are these numbers? Speaker 2: 00:52 They're based on a system that the regional task force on the homeless uses our network, where they communicate with all the homeless service providers in the County, and they track you unique visits to service providers for people seeking help. That could be a variety of things that people actually seeking help to stay out of homelessness. Uh, some kind of rental assistance to people who go into shelters and people who do receive some kind of housing, uh, there's various types, uh, some are called rapid rehousing, and then there's permanent supportive housing. So rather than doing a single night point in time count, this actually is often considered a more accurate count about how many people are in need, because somebody may be homeless for like six months. A lot of people may be homeless for six months, but they won't be counted on the annual point in time count because they're not homeless that night. Uh, so this data came from interviewing people and yeah, it was, it was alarming. The number of people that were, uh, first-time almost, uh, 40, 4,100, and that was compared to a 2300 last year and, uh, 2,400 the year before. So actually those numbers have been going down slightly and now it was up 79% Speaker 1: 02:11 Pandemic would seem like the likely cause of this increase. Why is the regional task force on the homeless reluctant to say so in its report? Speaker 2: 02:19 Well, they just don't want to say is absolutely certain of that. That's what caused it. Uh, they're saying actually it is likely a cause, but they always fine tune methods that they have every year. So even during the point in time count, and I'd been doing that for more than 10 years, uh, I always hear that, uh, you know, we're doing it a little different this year. We might have a different numbers this year, so they might've reached out to more people this year, but still a 79% jump. And it, coincidentally it happened to her in a year when there was a pandemic. A lot of people think that's not a, that there, there is an association with a pandemic. And with these numbers going up for first time, almost Speaker 1: 03:05 Do these numbers indicate that the rental assistance and the, the eviction moratoriums put in place during the pandemic were not entirely effective. Speaker 2: 03:15 No, not necessarily. Uh, you know, this is just data. So it doesn't try to say, this is why this happened, or, you know, this wasn't working. Uh, the next step is to really go into this data and try to maybe do followup interviews with people and then report back on, on why these numbers happened. And all I can say is it probably would have been worse if we didn't have a rent moratorium, but, or an eviction moratorium. As even with that moratorium, I've talked to people who were affected. I talked to a lady who was in a shelter and she said that her a person who was renting a room from said, you've got to go. And she said, but there was a moratorium. And she said, but I don't care. You've got to go. And she realized that's not a good environment to stay in. Speaker 1: 03:59 Can you tell us some of the demographic information on the homeless population that was included in this report? Speaker 2: 04:05 Yeah. Uh, 2,530 we're veterans, um, 2200 were unaccompanied youth 882 were families. About 3000 of them were over 62, uh, who were in shelters or had been on the street and received help from, uh, from somebody about, uh, twenty-five percent of the people in shelters. Now we're 55 years or older. So there's an older population. I don't know what the age was before, but they think maybe the people in shelters might've been higher this last year, because when they did do outreach, they did try to prioritize older people who are more, more vulnerable to COVID. That was what they were speculating. But I was out with some outreach teams and we were bringing people into the shelters from, you know, areas that not on the street, but in canyons and stuff. And, you know, they were just taking anyone that they would find, uh, though. But, uh, it could be that maybe people were coming forward because people on the street had heard about the pandemic and older people were saying, I don't want to get it. I know I'm particularly vulnerable. I hear older people are dying. So more people were going into shelters. In fact, I talked to, uh, a service provider who said that they were seeing people that they had never seen before. And they knew that they were otherwise reluctant to go in a shelter. But, uh, but they were this past year, they were coming in. Speaker 1: 05:30 There's concern that there's an over-representation of the number of black people who are homeless in San Diego in context to the overall population. Speaker 2: 05:40 Yes, there is a, they are overrepresented in shelters and people on the street by people make up like 5.5% of San Diego county's population. But, uh, in, uh, when they did the point in time, count it, it was like 21% of, uh, people, um, uh, black people were living without shelter and 30% of people in shelters on the night of account, uh, of, um, January 20, 20, uh, were black people hit. That's something that the task force is going to look into also, but it is something that we've known for a while. The black population is overrepresented in the homeless population though, when compared to their overall population in the County. Speaker 1: 06:27 Now, many of the programs designed to help people with their rent or keep people in their homes during the pandemic. Many of those programs are about to expire is that causing concern. Speaker 2: 06:39 I I've heard people talk about it, fearing a tidal wave of new homeless people. People are concerned. Uh I've I was talking to some homeless service providers and they say, they know people who are months behind in their rent. And if they come do, they're not going to be able to pay it. Uh, once a moratorium is lifted. So they're hoping that's local and other government programs can help these people to stop the evictions. But gosh, it, it really is, is a concern that there's going to be that much more people that's, uh, that may become homeless just because of evictions Speaker 1: 07:16 San Diego, union Tribune, reporter Gary Ward. Then Gary, Speaker 2: 07:20 Thank you.