Orange County, CA estimate soars to 7,000

Orange County released results from the one-day PIT count completed in January 2019 showing an estimate of 6,860 homeless persons representing a 38% increase over the 2018 estimate of 4,955 homeless persons. Officials report that the county added 1,390 additional emergency shelter beds over the past two years within the county which drove the increase in sheltered homeless.   The unsheltered estimate rose from 2,584 in 2017 to 3,961 in 2019 with officials noting that the switch from an estimation procedure to a physical count in 2019 using the mobile apps has produced a better estimate than in previous years.  For more information, read the full 2019 ORANGE COUNTY Report.

Riverside and San Bernardino:  Mobile Apps lead to 20%+ increases in homeless counts

Riverside County reported a 22% increase in homelessness finding a total of 2,811 homeless persons this past January compared to 2,316 in 2018 and 2,406 in 2017..  The count effort recruited a record 747 volunteers who assisted with the one-day count.  Estimates of unsheltered homelessness rose from 1,685 in 2018 to 2,045 in 2019, while sheltered persons increased from 625 to 766. The Continuum has not released a full report detailing the numbers.

San Bernardino officials reported a 23% increase in the 2019 PIT count tallying 2,607 persons, nearly 500 more than the previous count estimate of 2,118 persons in 2018.  Seventy-three (73%) of the total, or 1,920 persons, were found living unsheltered, a jump of more than 500 over 2018.  The City of San Bernardino has witnessed a near doubling of homelessness rising from 491 in 2017 to 890 in 2019.  
 

San Diego reports slightly lower numbers

Improvements in methodology (including curtailed use of estimators) appear to play a primary factor in the lower unsheltered numbers reported by the San Diego CoC.  While sheltered homeless remained steady, the 2019 estimate of 8,102 total homeless, approximately 500 fewer than the 2018 estimate of 8,576, was driven largely by a 10% decrease in unsheltered count from 4,990 in 2019 to 4,476.  Males continued to be more than twice as likely to be unsheltered than women. 

Updated PIT Survey results

The NHIP encourages Readers to Participate in our 2019 PIT Survey.  An update of responses to selected questions are found below:

Q5:  What approximate time period did the unsheltered count occur?
26%   Late evening hours (6 pm to 10 pm)
13%    Late night hours (10 pm or after)
29%    Early morning hours (4 am to 8 am)
32%    Various hours (including all day)

Q7:  In your opinion, how close is your unsheltered count number to the real number of unsheltered persons?
39%   Pretty close (within 10%)
23%   Somewhat close (within 25%)
29%   Not really close (over 50%)
9%      Do not know

Have a Nice Day -
The NHIP