by Dave Schwab • Times of San Diego June 3, 2025, 6:34 p.m.
SAN DIEGO – Citywide homelessness is down in the latest Point-in-Time Count. But a Pacific Beach unsheltered services provider doubts the reliability of that assessment, noting the situation there is worsening.
Homelessness is growing, she said, especially among seniors.
Homelessness in the city dropped 13.5% from a year ago, according to data released by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness from the most recent Point-in-Time Count in January.
But the homeless status quo looks quite different from the viewpoint of a service provider who deals with unsheltered people along the coast everyday.
Of the count, Caryn Blanton, executive director of Shoreline Community Services, a drop-in resource center for the unhoused in Pacific Beach, said: “It’s just one moment in time, with volunteers going out to count at 4 a.m., and they’re back by 8 a.m. It’s just a snapshot. It’s a minimum look.”
Blanton noted that the annual count is split. “Part of that number is people out on the street,” she said. “The other part is people who are counted in shelters. So last year they’re saying that snapshot in time number was higher, just over 10,000, and now they’re saying that number is down 7% from last year.”
Homeless count numbers are skewed toward certain subgroups of the homeless population, contends Blanton. “The areas in the count that showed the biggest progress were families, veterans, and transitional-age youth 18 to 24 years old, the three target populations focused on,” she said. “That’s the good news.”
But there is some bad news too.