Santee’s Homeless Count Falls to 18, Says Latest Census

Also read: City Council Strikes Down Most Staff Ideas for Dealing With Homeless in Santee

An annual one-day survey of the Santee homeless population found 18 people living unsheltered or in their cars in January- a large drop compared to the 26 tallied last year and 58 in 2011.

When the 2011 count was released the City Council argued that the number of homeless counted in Santee was too high. The matter came to a head at a council meeting when the Executive Director of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, the group that organizes the count, butted heads with the council.

Since then the council, and especially Mayor Randy Voepel, have been more even-handed with the homeless issue. Voepel even took part in last year's count to make sure Santee's numbers were accurate.

Recently the homeless issue reared it's head again. The main event at the March 13 Santee City Council meeting was a discussion amongst council, city staff and the public about the rise of panhandling and homeless loitering in Santee. Councilmembers stood their ground and decided to vote against city staff suggestions for curbing homeless problems that would infringe on the freedoms of law abiding citizens.

A decline also was noted countywide as the Regional Task Force on the Homeless released its annual census Thursday at Veterans Village of San Diego.

San Diego County found 8,900 people in shelters, in vehicles or on the street—a 7.7 percent drop from the previous year of 9,638, according to a U-T San Diego report.

But Dolores Diaz, executive director of the group, said the number of homeless people countywide still is 4.5 percent higher than it was in 2010.

“It’s not an exact number,” Diaz was quoted as saying. “We will never know the exact number of homeless in San Diego.”

The 2013 survey found 8,900 people homeless—5,747 in the city of San Diego, 1,042 in inland North County, 747 in coastal North County, 715 in South County and 649 in East County.

Some 900 volunteers canvassed the county on Jan. 25, a rainy day—about 150 more people doing the count than in 2012, said the task force.

The count leads to about $15 million in federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for San Diego County homeless services, the group said.

Nearly 4,600 were living in the streets, a drop of 13.2 percent, while the more than 4,300 in shelters was down 1 percent.

In a survey of nearly 700 homeless adults, the percentage of homeless who are also military veterans dropped to 15 percent, from 18 percent last year. Also down, was the portion considered high level substance abusers, from 35 percent to 34 percent.

However, the portion of those homeless more than one year climbed five points from 2012 to 69 percent, and 51 percent were listed as chronically homeless, a hike of 4 percent over the past year.

Additionally, 54 percent made a hospital emergency room visit in the past year, up from half in the prior count. Reducing the amount of costly ER visits is one of the goals of agencies that deal with the homeless.

—City News Service contributed to this report

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