Count of RivCo homeless shows an increase in sheltered families
The annual Homeless Point in Time Count in Riverside County shows a total of 3316 people, an increase of 15%, according to a presentation at the Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning.
"Our challenge here is to remember that behind every single one of these numbers, There are real lives and people who still are relying on us to help create a path out of homelessness," said Director of Housing and Workforce Solutions Heidi Marshall. "Our work is not done," she said,"but I do believe that based on these statistics that we are heading in the right direction, The count does show that we're getting folks off the streets and into care."
Indio and Palm Springs are two of the four cities with the highest number of unsheltered individuals.
Top 4 Unsheltered Cities
| Riverside | 514 |
| Palm Springs | 222 |
| Corona | 110 |
| Indio | 105 |
Those cities were noted for making efforts to address homelessness. "They made their own investments and leverage those of the counties they have built their own infrastructure, invested in sheltering models, and truly are taking a leadership role in working with our system of care to get people off the street."
Riverside County spokesperson Brooke Federico shared a statement reading in part, "The unsheltered count decreased 8 percent and is the result of steep housing investments made with $196 million in COVID-19 relief funding that helped 26,665 households remain housed during the pandemic. The count identified a total of 3,316 sheltered and unsheltered homeless adults and children throughout the county, which is 15 percent higher than the count in 2020, which was 2,884."
The count of unsheltered and sheltered individuals year to year in each city in District 4 is shown in the table below.
When considering the number of people experiencing homelessness who are in the shelter system, the count shows an increase of over 83% from 2021. "This is the number that we want to increase because it means that we are getting folks out of the streets and into a shelter system," Marshall told the board members.
Nearly half of the people contacted during this year's count asked to receive follow-up services.
For more information on the 2022 Homeless Point In Time Count, click here.
Marshall says this report shows an optimistic look at the efforts to address homelessness in Riverside County.
"What is truly remarkable, remarkable from these figures, is that we didn't see a dramatic increase in the number of people who are unsheltered given our current state of the economy, considering historic inflation numbers, record-breaking rent increases and the lowest vacancy rates that I've seen in the last 20 years. It all points to a high-performing system."
Director of Housing and Workforce Solutions Heidi MarshalL
News Channel 3 is looking further into the report and will provide an in-depth update tonight on News Channel 3 at 5:00.
