For the first time in nearly three years, more San Diegans found housing than became homeless in November, marking a small but significant milestone in addressing the region’s homelessness crisis, officials announced Friday.
In November, 894 people fell into homelessness and entered the system for the first time compared to 950 people who exited the system and were placed into housing, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. The last time the number of people becoming homeless was less than those entering housing was in March 2022.
Task force CEO Tamara Kohler offered caution optimism, but said the problem wasn’t yet solved and more work was needed.
“The demand is still there, that hasn’t changed,” she said. “But we are housing more people and that’s encouraging for a lot of reasons but mostly because we know housing solves homelessness.
“We obviously want to see these trend lines continue in 2025, but I’ll say this again: we need more housing across the board, and we need a dedicated funding source to help our most vulnerable friends, neighbors, seniors, veterans and families.”