The latest San Diego Homeless Count shows homelessness has increased by 10% countywide since 2020. The count also documented an increase in street homelessness in cities such as San Diego, Oceanside and National City.

This year’s one-time count, carried out at the end of February, offers a snapshot of the humanitarian crisis. The census overseen by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness represents what the organization’s CEO describes as a “minimum” number of homeless residents rather than an overview of the region’s homeless population.

The 2022 findings come months after volunteers counted people they encountered living on the streets, in vehicles or in canyons while the task force inquired with programs serving the homeless. shelter to find out how many homeless residents were staying indoors.

It was the first year since 2020 that the task force conducted its homeless count. And this count suggests that the situation in each sub-region is not following the same trajectory.

San Diego’s overall homeless population, including both protected and unprotected residents, has increased 10% since 2020 — the last time the task force counted the region’s protected and unprotected populations. However, the evolution of the unhoused population did not follow the same trajectory in each sub-region.

Click here to see the homeless population by region in another tab.

The North County coastal area saw the largest percentage increase in its unsheltered population, albeit from a considerably lower starting point than the city of San Diego.

Nonetheless, its unsheltered population is now the second-largest in the county, at least as of late February when the task force conducted its census, surpassing both the North Interior County and East County areas. since the last homeless count, just before the pandemic in 2020. .

What stands out most, however, is how much the increase in County unprotected population is only an increase in the from the city unprotected population.

Countywide, the number of homeless people counted in the point-in-time count this year increased by 135 from 2020.

In the city alone, that number increased by 211 people.

That means the number of unprotected San Diegans outside the city of San Diego has actually gone down since 2020, according to the latest point-in-time count, while it’s up 9% in the city.