‘What we saw this morning was a humanitarian crisis.’ Homeless count reveals depth of problem
“Whitburn described seeing people in their 70s living on sidewalks and others in tattered clothes shivering in the cold morning. He noted that information collected from surveys will help inform civic leaders of steps needed to address the problem.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses data from the required count as part of a formula that determines funding for cities and counties with homeless programs. The last local count was taken in January 2020 — last year’s was skipped because of the pandemic — and San Diego County had the seventh-largest homeless population in the country with 7,619 people. Of those, more than half were living without shelter.
The event used to be a simple head-count, but now involves a survey that asks people their age, if they were fleeing domestic violence, if they are veterans and if they have an addiction or a mental or physical issue.”