30-01-2025
Point-In-Time homeless count begins Thursday
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The annual Point-In-Time Count kicks off early Thursday as volunteers armed with gift bags of snacks and hygienic products for homeless people are gearing up to once again count as many unsheltered people as they can.
The 2024 Point-In-Time Count found 10,605 unsheltered people living on the streets of San Diego County, a three percent jump from 2023.
'We are counting every single person we can see which helps us secure funding,' said Melissa Peterman, the CEO of Townspeople, a low-income housing services organization.
Seventeen-hundred volunteers are joined by elected officials to walk the streets, and in many cases, wake up people who are sleeping to meet them and gather information on the circumstances that led to their homelessness.
'The reason why it happens in the middle of the night is because we are more likely to see folks,' Peterman said.
While an enormous amount of financial resources have been poured into fixing the homeless issue, with little successes to point to, just recently a new survey found homelessness ticked down for the first time in over a decade.
Peterman says some of the newest programs are showing signs of real improvement and there is guarded optimism that the Point-In-Time Count is helping government leaders start to get their arms around the problem.
'It's really helpful to get a sense as to what we're trying to solve on any given night. That helps us then create plans and direct resources more efficiently,' Peterman said.
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