SAN DIEGO — There's growing concern the county's upcoming ‘Point in Time’ count will show more seniors experiencing homelessness.
The 2023 count found 29% of people experiencing homelessness are 55 and older, up from 25% the year before.
"The trend has been upward. Anecdotally, just from the number of people coming in for our services, we continue to see an upswing," said Serving Seniors President and CEO, Paul Downey.
Downey attributes that upswing to the higher cost of living, as well as a lack of shelter beds and housing.
"In San Diego, now for every 10 people that are housed 16 become unhoused. A year ago, it was 10 housed, 13 unhoused," said Downey.
During Monday’s lunch service at Serving Seniors, the cafeteria was packed with seniors in need, many of whom slept outside waiting for the doors to open because they have nowhere else to go.
"I have seniors who tell me the story, they will get up at five o'clock in the morning, from wherever they're sleeping, go to one of the shelters and wait to try to get in until usually nine or 10 o'clock in the morning, and often be told there are no beds available," said Downey.
On January 25th, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness will hold its annual 'Point in Time’ count to determine how many people are experiencing homelessness across the county.
It helps to secure funding and understand what the needs are.
Organizers are looking for additional volunteers.
Downey is taking part and believes aside from finding more seniors, they'll also discover an uptick of people living elsewhere such as river beds and unincorporated areas because this year's count will be the first one since the city of San Diego enacted its encampment ban.
"They're trying to find shelter. And with the encampment ban, they're just being reshuffled to other parts of San Diego County," said Downey.
"They don't know what to do. They don't know where to go," said Gary Brown.
65-year-old Brown was homeless up until this past July, when he was able to secure housing.
He's one of the lucky ones, saying the list of those in need is long.
"Some people get put onto a list for two or three years and they can't get low income housing," said Brown.
Brown's advice - accept help when its offered.
But, Downey says it goes beyond that, adding while millions of dollars are being invested into solving the homeless crisis, there needs to be more urgency and action in doing so.
"We need more than platitudes that we're on it. We're working on it. We need shelter beds, we need more affordable housing. And we need to do whatever we can to expedite that as quickly as possible," said Downey.
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