San Diego leaders respond to 'promising' and 'troubling' report showing a continued rise in homelessness

SAN DIEGO — Local and federal officials expressed cautious optimism Wednesday about new statistics showing only a small rise in homelessness throughout San Diego County.

The annual point-in-time count found more than 10,600 homeless people in January, a 3% increase from last year. The previous tally recorded a 22% jump.

Yet budget deficits are forcing leaders to make tough choices over how to fully reverse a crisis that has grown every month for two-plus years.

"The results show that there are still too many of our San Diego neighbors who are unsheltered," U.S. Democratic Rep. Scott Peters said in a statement. "The silver lining is that the increase was smaller than it was last year, which at least shows a small bend in the curve and, I hope, with every level of government working together, that downward trend will continue."

The city of San Diego is currently wrestling with a $167 million deficit and some council members have expressed hesitation about creating new shelters when some existing housing and homelessness programs may be at risk.

Mayor Todd Gloria has pushed back to say San Diego nonetheless needs to convert a vacant warehouse near Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street into a 1,000-bed facility and use an empty lot by the airport as a place for people to sleep in cars.

The new statistics signal the city "is turning the tide on this crisis," Gloria said in a statement. "While this trend is promising, it is further proof that now is not the time to retreat."

The region also relies on funding from the state Legislature, which is facing its own multibillion-dollar deficit, and leaders around California are concerned about how that could affect local programs.

A bipartisan group of 10 mayors, including Gloria, Karen Bass in Los Angeles and San Francisco's London Breed, spoke Wednesday at a virtual press conference to warn against cutting the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, known as HHAP.

The governor's budget proposes slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from that initiative.

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