HOT TOPIC
The issue:
On May 17, San Diego County released its latest Point In Time Count (PITC), reporting that countywide homelessness was down six percent from last year. But the count omitted people living in RVs, as well as at five agencies including the San Diego Rescue Mission. If included, hundreds more would have been added to the count, meaning homelessness would have actually increased. The county defended its census, stating that not all people living in RVs are homeless, and that the San Diego Rescue Mission failed to turn in its data on time. The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would take a closer look at the data before finalizing the count.
What people are saying:
“It was never about, ‘How do we get this to go down this much or that much?’ It was actually trying to figure out, where can we reach a place where we can stand behind all of the formulas, all of the methods.”
—Tamera Kohler, chief operations officer at San Diego, Regional Task Force on the Homeless via Voice of San Diego
“It’s amazing how much time and effort they put into figuring out how to exclude these homeless people from the count. If only they put that much effort into helping them resolve their homelessness, it wouldn’t be an issue moving forward.”
—Homeless advocate Michael McConnell, via Twitter
San Diego reduced its homeless population by changing the definition of ‘homeless.’”
—Jeff Ristine, via Twitter
Our take:
There’s a lot to unpack here. First, it’s important to note that other agencies have been left out of the count before, as the San Diego Rescue Mission was this year. For example, the East County Transitional Living Center was counted this year, whereas in the past two years it was not. We could argue that maybe, in a perfect world, this evens out the count. But this isn’t a perfect world and clearly, the PITC is an imperfect system. As for RVs, the Task Force had an entire year to create procedure to distinguish which RVs were actually being used by homeless people. So we don’t buy it that they couldn’t figure it out.
Aside from the lack of reliable methodology, the glaring issue here is transparency. Before the VOSD report, there was no mention of the San Diego Rescue Mission or RV residents being left out. The numbers were touted as a success, including by Mayor Faulconer. However, Faulconer and the Task Force Boards’ chair and vice chair said they were unaware that RVs were excluded from the final count. Overall, a systematic, uniform procedure needs to be implemented and communicated. Given the county’s record for homelessness issues, it’s near impossible to give them the benefit of the doubt that they gave their best effort on this one.
HAM OF THE WEEK
New documents show County Assessor Ernest Dronenburg (who may have been reelected by the time readers see this) may have reduced millions of dollars in property taxes for Qualcomm and Larry Mabee estates. Unsurprisingly, both Qualcomm and Larry Mabee estates are contributors to the Dronenburg campaign.
CUTE OF THE WEEK
The San Diego Zoo debuts two endangered Amur leopard cubs. In related news, we ded from cuteness. 😭 😭
NEWSY BITS
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