hosting a post-Count press conference.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re grateful to work with partners like the Regional Task Force on Homelessness who bring additional awareness to the homelessness crisis in Downtown and across the region,” said Betsy Brennan, president and CEO of the Downtown San Diego Partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data collected during the census will help us better understand the circumstances of our unhoused neighbors and how we can continue to work with the city, county, and service providers to create solutions that will meet their needs. The annual #WeAllCount effort also is a crucial step to identifying areas of need like Downtown and securing resources to create meaningful change for our unhoused neighbors,\u201d Brennan said.<\/p>\n
Community Housing Works CEO and RTFH CoC advisor board chair Sean Spear was among the volunteers who canvassed the county on Jan. 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is important work, eye-opening work, that informs the work so many providers and others do every day to assist those experiencing homelessness,\u201d Spear said. \u201cWe are making strides but as we heard today on the streets, we need to do more. There\u2019s much more to do to make homelessness a brief and rare occurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the news conference, Council President Sean Elo-Rivera expressed a wide range of emotions. He said he was saddened by what he saw, encouraged by the volunteer effort, and frustrated that in 2023 in San Diego it takes 1,600 people working several hours to count the number of people living on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard sad story after sad story today so the question is going to be, \u2018What will the count look like next year?\u2019 Elo-Rivera said. \u201cSo what are we willing to do to prevent homelessness? Every single San Diegan has an opportunity to take part in ensuring that this doesn\u2019t have to be such a huge effort every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Count concluded on Friday, Jan. 27, with RTFH staff returning to specific areas to ensure known hotspots were not missed. The data collected by the 2023 Point in Time Count will be released later this year by RTFH.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt rained a lot last year leading up to the count so we expect this year\u2019s number to be higher since so many people last year found a hotel bed or another form of shelter to escape the rain,\u201d Kohler said. \u201cThis year, it was dry and not as cold as last year, so we were able to locate more people. Their stories are often difficult to hear but are all too familiar. Most of these folks are from here and many of them just fell on hard times. They lost a job or missed a rent payment. They need a helping hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Raul Campillo said: \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be walking past homeless individuals and ignoring them. Look them in the eye and ask them how they\u2019re doing. Say \u2018Good morning.\u2019 Say \u2018Good evening.\u2019 Have that conversation with them and you will realize that the policies we\u2019re trying to pass at the city and county levels are trying to help people get into housing, and a lot of people who push back on those ideas \u2013 I think they will realize the humanity of the people that many of us talked to this morning deserve to recognized\u2026 We\u2019re trying to get people the help they deserve because housing solves homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
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More than 1,600 volunteers across the county took part in this year\u2019s Point in Time Count,\u00a0counting and interviewing unsheltered residents throughout the region from 4-8 a.m. on Jan. 26. The annual Point in Time Count is led by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness (RTFH) as part of a federal funding mandate. It also helps […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1496,"featured_media":304524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11551","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"More than 1,600 volunteers across the county took part in this year\u2019s Point in Time Count,\u00a0counting and interviewing unsheltered residents throughout the region from 4-8 a.m. on Jan. 26.\u00a0","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551],"tags":[12560,13190,13191,12776],"class_list":["post-319324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-city-of-san-diego","tag-point-in-time-count","tag-regional-task-force-on-homelessness","tag-san-diego-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}