2019 Homeless Count for the County of San Luis Obispo, California

All photos are copyright 2019 Tim Waag and taken during the January 28, 2019 SLO Point in Time survey.

All charts and text graphics are from the SLO County Homeless Census & Survey - Comprehensive Report 2019. A PDF of this report is available at: 

https://www.slocounty.ca.gov/getattachment/f1b2caef-10c6-4415-b0ad-1396eeb97a0b/2019-Homeless-Census-Survey-Report.aspx 

I highly recommend that you download it and read it - though at 56 pages long, it is quite a tedious read - part of the reason I am breaking it down for you here. 

Click on any images to enlarge and read. Start by clicking on this one, which provides some critical information on the survey's tendency to "undercount".

INTRODUCTION: Every 2 years, every county in America counts their homeless population, in a sweeping action known as the "Homeless Blitz Count"! In SLO County, that took place on January 28, 2019, from roughly 6am to 10am.

I was again a participant in the 2019 count. I was teamed up with 2 homeless people and 1 other homeless advocate like myself. Together, our team covered one of the most challenging and dangerous areas for counting the homeless. This area includes a popular homeless haunt known as "The Circle", plus the bottom of San Luis Obispo Creek in an overgrown jungle-like area between Prado Road and Los Osos Valley Road along Higuera and west to the Freeway. This survey area also included the Sewer Treatment Plant, the Strawberry Fields, the Catholic Cemetery, the San Luis Cemetery and the Elks Lodge.

A photo of our "high performance" team is shown below (GREAT job, guys - truly an honor to be part of our team):

In August 2019, a report on the so-called Point-In-Time (PIT) count came out, with a link to the entire 56-page report (above). This post summarizes some of the more important data points in the report, from my perspective as a long time homeless advocate. As necessary, I'll include snippets from the report that support a disturbing trend or statistics.

THE YOUNG AND THE OLD: The observations and data points of the report have been divided into a homeless "youth" population (age 25 and below), contrasted with plain old homeless "adults" (over 25 years of age). It was reported that these 2 groups seldom overlap in location or interaction, so they were counted using different methodologies for purposes of this census. You can read the details in the "PIT Report".

FOLLOW-UP SURVEY: Following the all-in-one-day PIT count, which identified about 1,500 homeless people in SLO County (an increase of 32% from 2 years ago), there was a separate "in-depth" post-census survey of 481 homeless people on the street, to extract details about the nature of homelessness in SLO County.

FOUR SUBCATEGORIES: Four homeless subdivisions were given special attention in the report: 

(1) Chronically Homeless; 

(2) Homeless Military Veterans; 

(3) Homeless Families with Children; 

(4) Homeless "Youth" (age 25 and under). 

Separate statistics and data points are given for these 4 subcategories. Since my interest is focused primarily (though not exclusively) on the Chronically Homeless, I will leave it to you to read the report if you are interested in the other 3 groups.

CONFUSION FACTOR: One aspect of the report's structure initially confused me, as it distinguishes between "Government Assistance" (GA) - also known as "benefits" - and "Services Currently Accessing" (SCA). Upon further scrutiny, it became clear that GA consists of Food Stamps, Medical / Medicare, General Assistance / Relief (whatever that is), SSI / SSDI Disability, etc., whereas SCA are provided by the community generally through nonprofits (often funded in whole or part by the government), and consist of homeless support services provided by nonprofits such as ECHO, Food Bank, Shower the People, People's Kitchen, Prado Day Center, T-MHA, etc.

DEFINITE UNDERCOUNT: The PIT Report underscores what we all intuitively know: by definition, the survey undercounted the homeless. By its very nature, the PIT count is only an estimate, and given the hidden nature of the homeless population, an undercount almost certainly occurred.

From here on out, I'll give my "play-by-play" on the report, noting unusual, surprising or illuminating results, citing the page number in the report so you can access it for additional information.

Page 8 "Sexual Orientation": 22% of respondents identified their Sexual Orientation as being "not straight" (bisexual, gay, lesbian or "other"), leaving 78% self-identifying as "straight". This number is far higher than the population at large. This is a concerning though not unexpected statistic, and should be considered in efforts to prevent those at risk from becoming homeless. I will be taking that number into account when I interact with the homeless in the future.

Page 8 "Employment": Also on page 8 were employment statistics, but I found them to be misleading and / or confusing (I'm not sure which! - stay tuned for clarification from the "powers that be"). There are really 3 categories when understanding homeless employment numbers: 

(1) Employed; 

(2) Unemployed but looking for work; 

(3) Not looking for work, which could be due to being UNABLE to work. 

I COULD BE WRONG, but these 3 categories should add up to 100%.

Based on the report, here are the numbers that may be correct (note: I will be looking for clarification from the report writers on this point):

(1) 3% Full-time employment

(2) 29% Unemployed but looking for work

(3) 70% Either not looking for work or unable to work

Yes, this does not add up to 100%! Additionally, the report says that 9% were part-time or seasonably employed - not sure where this 9% category should reside, either. Let's just say I'm confused. I'm pretty confident in stating that 3% of the homeless surveyed work full time, which is a lower number than I expected. However, when you add back in the 9%, you get to 12% employed full or part-time.

Not surprisingly, while living on the streets, creek beds, or at the homeless shelter, it is difficult to hold a job of any kind, or pursue higher education, for a variety of obvious reasons. Given this fact, 12% is a higher employment rate than I would expect.

Page 12: There are 2 major shelters in SLO County: "40 Prado" in San Luis Obispo, and "ECHO" in Atascadero. In those 2 areas, a large percentage of homeless are in shelters, which is better than living out in the open. In the other areas, the majority are living on the street, as shown in this graphic. Clearly, PASO ROBLES IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF AN EMERGENCY SHELTER.

Page 13 "Homeless by Sleeping Accommodation": For those interested, these statistics related to "where the homeless rest their heads at night". No surprises here, except for how well spread out the homeless are, hiding "in plain sight" all over the place. They live in every nook and cranny of space available to them, from vehicles to overpasses to abandoned buildings.

I was surprised to see such a high percentage of homeless sleeping in their vehicles. I've observed that the homeless struggle keep their motor vehicles operational, plus coming up with the cash to maintain their registration and insurance. Getting ticket repeatedly by law enforcement does not help this "Car / Van / RV" group (isn't a Van a Car?) preserve their mobile shelters in full compliance with the law.

OUTREACH NOTE: In doing homeless outreach, approaching a vehicle that appears to be occupied by a homeless person is one of the riskiest activities that I take. When approaching any vehicle, I am always hesitant to wave or knock on the window, knowing that the occupant may not be homeless or may resent the intrusion. However, given that 26% of our homeless live in their cars or RVs, I will focus more often on vehicles I suspect to be occupied by the homeless.

Page 15 "Age Demographics": Surprisingly, the percentage of the homeless population aged 30 years or younger doubled between the 2017 and the 2019 PIT Survey, from 17% to 34%. This is an alarming statistic and does not bode well for the "millennial" generation, and I would call this a statistically significant change in 2 years - and not a good sign at all.

Page 19 "SLO County Residents Become Homeless": This statistic represents the county of residence of the homeless person when they went from being "housed" to being "homeless". In 2017, 57% of the homeless lived in SLO County when this occurred, with this number shooting up to 74% in 2019. Many claim that we attract these "undesirable homeless bums" to our wonderful SLO County, due to our lovely weather and "abundant" homeless services.

This statistic shows that their dubious justification for turning away the homeless as not being "one of ours" is rapidly becoming hard to defend. I always find it ironic that adjacent counties of a similar demographic to those of SLO County, such as Monterey - Santa Barbara - Ventura - make similar complaints, yet we can't all be correct. As this number of SLO County residents becoming homeless goes up, the argument that we should not be "too nice" to the homeless goes away.

Personally, I've never cared about this statistic: if there is a person in need, then I want to help. However, in meetings and conversations over the years, it is clear that local law enforcement and politicians have cited the need to keep "homeless outsiders" from wanting to come here. Given the trend shown in the 2019 survey, we are attracting less outside homeless people, but instead, are "growing our own".

Page 22 "Obstacles to Housing": The homeless self-reported the reasons for not being able to obtain housing  as: "can't afford", "no job", "no money for moving expenses", "bad credit" and "no car". Duh.

Page 23 "Services Currently Accessing" (SCA): The numbers are self-explanatory. The most common government service received is Food Stamps at 55%.

Page 24 "Reasons for Not Receiving Assistance": In both the 2017 and 2019 PIT surveys, 40% of the homeless did not want government assistance. For the uninformed, that may seem extremely high, but that is most definitely my experience on the street. I find a very high percentage of the chronically homeless individuals I encounter to be fiercely independent, and want to take care of themselves, no matter how poor a job they appear to be doing. Many do not want government assistance, although most seem to be receiving food stamps.

Page 25 "Monthly Income": These numbers would be of great interest to me and to the general public, but for the fact that the numbers provided in the PIT report only apply to those either employed or seeking employment (33% of the homeless), and NOT to those who are not looking for work, or unable to work (70% of the homeless). THIS MAY BE INACCURATE, AND I AM SEEKING CLARIFICATION.

Page 26 "Health": Surprise! The homeless report the following types of health conditions in frequency far greater than that of the public at large: 
- Drug and Alcohol abuse
- Mental Health conditions
- PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Chronic Health problems
- Physical Disabilities
- Brain Injury
- HIV / AIDs
However, since a homeless person can have more than one of these conditions, its not clear how many homeless are free from any of these health conditions. In other words, how many are merely "homeless" without serious or recurring health conditions?

Page 28 "Incarceration": Our homeless have a high rate of incarceration, as illustrated by the percentage that have spent a night in jail in the previous 12 months.

Page 29 "Chronic Homelessness (CH)":  Now we get to my specialty - the chronically homeless. Besides CH, there are 3 other special subcategories identified in the 2019 PIT Survey Report, and I invite you to download a copy of the 2019 PIT Survey and dive into those other categories. I will be focusing here on the "Chronically Homeless", or CH.

Page 30 PLEASE READ: This extraordinarily meaningful section of the report below (its not very long, so go ahead and CLICK ON IT!). It smacks the nail on the head, and drives home the point of the effectiveness of the "Housing First" approach to reducing homelessness.

Page 31 "Shelter Status of the CH": Again, not surprisingly, the Chronically Homeless do not generally stay in Emergency Shelters, but instead, carve out a life on the street, as somewhat of a permanent, though undesirable condition. These are the people that claim that they "want to live this way", thus making my life much harder when I try to explain why this is actually not true. UNFORTUNATELY, THE MORE YEARS THE HOMELESS LIVE ON THE STREET, THE HARDER IT IS FOR THEM TO RE-ADAPT TO THE HOUSED LIFESTYLE. IF THEY STAY ON THE STREET FOR LONG, THEN THEY DIE YOUNG.

THE SHORT EXPLANATION: In most, if not many, cases, when the homeless utter such words ("I want to be homeless"), it is because they have gotten acclimated to the homeless lifestyle over the years, as the CH long ago gave up any hope of being housed. As abundantly adaptable humans, they adjusted to living in our relatively affluent American communities, rarely going without the "necessities" for too long. Their continued life on the hard streets is not good for them, and not good for our communities at large, their protestations to the contrary.

Page 33 "Health Conditions of the CH": Once again, the numbers speak for themselves. The CH self-report Drug or Alcohol Abuse at a 72% rate, with additional health conditions scoring remarkably high as well (see chart below). This helps explain why the CH continue to be unhoused. This also illustrates why it is such an uphill battle we are fighting, to get the CH into housing that many claim they do not want!

CONCLUSION: There are a select few areas of the report in which I have a desire to call "BS", but I shall not. Also, there may be a tiny error or 2 in the statistics, but it does not detract from the report as a whole, so they shall go un-flagged as well. For a homeless "blitz" census, these statistics are pretty much as good as it gets. Our homeless population continues to grow, and our leaders are hesitant to tackle it head on, so it continues to fester. 

The homeless population in SLO County is not going away, and appears to be growing. Failure to deal with it in a meaningful way is most likely to lead to greater suffering among the unhoused, growing conflicts between the housed and the unhoused, and greater costs for the taxpayers and the nonprofits that serve the homeless.

If you have read this far - well, that is an amazing thing and kudos to you. If you want to discuss any aspect of homelessness in SLO county with me, please feel free to contact me at:

timwaag@gmail.com

805-440-9144 cell phone

Thanks go out to those who know and love our local homeless people created by G*d, see them as the beautiful (if flawed) human beings they really are, and want to make a difference in their lives.

Peace and Blessings to you and yours.