Pacific Beach-based resource center says unsheltered numbers increasing
People gather outside Shoreline Population Services early in the morning in January to conduct the annual Point in Time Count Photo by Caryn Blanton Special to Beach Bay Press 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 mentioned especially among seniors Homelessness in the city dropped from a year ago according to details distributed by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness from the the majority modern Point-in-Time Count in January But the homeless status quo looks quite different from the viewpoint of a arrangement provider who deals with unsheltered people along the coast everyday Of the count Caryn Blanton executive director of Shoreline Locality Services a drop-in fund center for the unhoused in Pacific Beach explained It s just one moment in time with helpers going out to count at a m and they re back by 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 announced 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 and now they re saying that number is down from last year Homeless count numbers are skewed toward certain subgroups of the homeless population contends Blanton The areas in the count that demonstrated the biggest progress were families veterans and transitional-age youth to years old the three target populations focused on she declared That s the good news But there is selected bad news too They should have talked to seniors people age and over Blanton mentioned One in three of those people were living in their cars And of those people were revealed to be homeless first-timers That s not good news People on the margins are definitively falling through the cracks and it s not by choice Numerous factors like clinical conditions and the loss of a spouse or a death in the family are disproportionately impacting the aging beachfront homeless population This aging population they re so vulnerable Blanton declared Living out of your car is often the first step to being totally out on the street Concerning the homeless who contact Shoreline Society Services for a variety of necessities Blanton revealed that number is presently growing not shrinking The number of homeless individuals contacting us here in the Central Beach Area in was just over but over were accessing homelessness services in the entire San Diego region she noted In that number is announced at throughout the region accessing services I believe that s closer to the real number of how numerous people there are out there Blanton noted that all three target populations of families veterans and transitional-age youth in the Point-in-Time counts are smaller subsets of the dominant aging over- homeless beachfront population So what requirements to be done to stem the growing tide of homelessness along the beachfront and elsewhere We need to stop the flow before people become homeless Blanton disclosed Certain people age and older are struggling Programs that backing them with subsidies are way less expensive than caring for people after they fall into homelessness One example is rental subsidies that help them stay where they re in the present housed That s central Shoreline in PB participates every year in the count Afterward Blanton talked to unsheltered people who came in in asking them if they d been counted Majority of our people revealed they weren t counted she revealed That was the same last year Shoreline s executive director noted one bit of surprising figures from the annual counts Over of people who are out on the street are not coming from somewhere else Blanton revealed People like to think that the homeless are coming in from all over But of the people who ve fallen into homelessness have invariably lived in San Diego These are homegrown folks
