The unsheltered population is down in San Diego — but coastal areas are seeing an uptick in people seeking services.
But that drop noted in San Diego’s annual Point-in-Time count isn’t necessarily reflected in the day-to-day reality of shelters and services, said Caryn Blanton, executive director of Shoreline Community Services, which operates The Compass Station, an unsheltered drop-in resource center at 1004 Chalcedony Street in Pacific Beach.
In the central beach areas of La Jolla and Pacific and Mission beaches, she said that the situation actually seems to be getting worse.
“At the end of 2022, half a year after starting in June, we had a total of 3,372 guest visits,” she said. “Last year in 2025, that number was 13,430. That’s just in three years. And those are people actually looking for help.”
The Point-in-Time Count is conducted annually by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness at more than 50 sites throughout San Diego County.
This year’s count found that while the number of people sleeping on the streets, in shelters and cars found homelessness stayed almost level in 2026 — with the total only falling by 1% after a 7% drop in 2025 — unsheltered homelessness has dropped, with a 12% increase in people finding shelter in the city’s central areas, where there has been a 7% drop in people living unsheltered.
But despite two consecutive years of the PIT count reporting reductions in unsheltered people living on the street, Pacific Beach’s Compass Center continues to see increasing demand for its services.
“Just to bring it close to our community, in that same month, January 2026, we had 1,253 guest visits at The Compass Station — an increase of 205 people from January 2025,” Blanton said.
She conceded that the annual PIT homeless count is intended as a “marker in time,” which she noted done at the same time year after year does constitute a good baseline measure, adding that comparing numbers at The Compass Station when it first opened four years ago to more recent years can paint a much clearer portrait of the true number of unsheltered people served in beach areas.
Blanton attributed rising beach area homelessness, in part, to the fact that coastal areas are intrinsically more popular.
“Unsheltered people choose to be here for the same reasons as everyone else — it’s less chaotic with a calmer feel and less crowded,” she said, adding that in her experience dealing with beach area homeless since 2016, “the problem is so much worse.”
But there are some brighter, encouraging spots in the homelessness situation in beach areas too.
“Some things have been good,” said Blanton pointing out PIT numbers for transition-age youth, ages 18 to 24, “fell 26% while veteran homelessness fell 14% and family homelessness decreased 3%. These are all areas where major investments on decreasing homelessness have focused.
“So, it worked. Where they focused the money — it paid off.”
This year, however, the homeless numbers were particularly bad for one specific demographic group. “The number of homeless adults age 55 and over went up from 2025, and now that age group makes up a third of the total unsheltered population,” Blanton said. “And half of those people said they were experiencing homelessness for the first time due to a lack of income or a lack of healthcare being accessible.”
What needs to be done to effectively combat homelessness?
“We need to shut the pipeline down, stop the flow,” said Blanton. “The big focus should be to keep seniors in their homes. We need to care for — and protect — those who are most vulnerable in the population.”
“The ray of hope here is that there’s been a light shone on this increasing senior homeless population,” she added. “There’s going to be some attention paid there, and there is some good work being done regarding helping those who are mentally ill, and looking into policy changes that I think are going to help.”
