San Diego's homelessness is outpacing housing options
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San Diego hasn't been able to keep up with the pace of its growing homeless population.
By the numbers: More than 10,600 people in the county experienced homelessness in 2024, with around 8,100 beds available for them in interim housing, according to a new annual housing report by the California Housing Partnership released last week.
- From January to March nearly 3,000 people were housed permanently, but about 3,200 became homeless for the first time, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.
What they're saying: "Homelessness is not the result of someone's bad choices," Hanan Scrapper, regional director at PATH San Diego, said last week when the report was released. "It's a direct result of the high cost of housing and severe shortage of affordable options."
- Local residents becoming homeless are "seniors priced out of their homes, families struggling to make ends meet and students who can't find housing they can afford," she said.
Case in point: Renters currently need to make about $50 per hour to afford the average monthly asking rent ($2,571), per the housing report. That's nearly three times the city's minimum wage.
- More than 135,200 low-income renter households did not have access to an affordable home as of 2023.
Catch up quick: The city scrambled to add shelter beds as it was set to lose hundreds at the end of 2024, and has been expanding safe sleeping sites and opening new shelters for women and young adults.
Friction point: With budget constraints, the city is planning to close a shelter that offers mental health services, and its homelessness department doesn't plan to open new ones next fiscal year.
- About 1 in 10 requests for shelter have been successful in recent months, the Union-Tribune reported and hundreds of more people could soon become homeless with federal rental aid currently at risk.
- A legislative effort to get California counties to cover half the cost that cities pay to run interim housing and homeless shelter operations was recently scrapped.
The bottom line: "Our system works, but it's under-resourced," Scrapper said. "We need sustained reliable funding for prevention, wrap-around services and above all the construction of more affordable housing."