SLO County wants to cut homelessness by half in coming years. How is it doing so far?
Almost two years ago, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to reduce homelessness by half in five years. So is the county on track to meet those goals?
It depends on who you ask.
On Tuesday, county staff presented an update on progress for the Five Year Plan to the board.
“2023 saw incredible progress,” County Homeless Services Division deputy director Linda Belch said. “There is no doubt that homelessness is a deeply complex issue. However, I believe we can handle complexities with compassion and flexibility to adapt to the changing needs in order to make strides toward reducing homelessness.”
When the plan was passed in 2022, an estimated 1,448 people were experiencing homelessness in SLO County.
According to the most recent 2024 Point in Time Count, 1,172 people were experiencing homelessness in the county, which is a 19% decrease from 2022, according to county homeless management information system manager Kari Howell.
The plan also calls for the county to specifically reduce unsheltered homelessness by half in five years.
In 2022, 1,158 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, according to that year’s PIT count. In 2024, the count observed 797 people were living unsheltered — a 31% decrease.
“We’ve seen meaningful progress since the plan was adopted,” said Scott Collins, the executive director of the nonprofit Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo. “It’s made a huge difference. More shelter beds have been built, there’s better regional coordination, there’s more permanent supportive housing units.”
Is county on track to meet housing goals?
The Five Year Plan directs the county to build more housing, expand support services, improve data management and identify more sources of funding as efforts to reduce homelessness by half.
When it comes to specific housing goals, the plan calls for the development of 300 interim housing units, 500 permanent supportive housing units and 1,667 low-income housing units by 2027.
In 2023, the county gained 50 interim shelter beds and 72 permanent supportive housing beds, according to county administrative services manager George Solis.
Meanwhile, the county lost 288 rapid rehousing beds from 2022 to 2023 when Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding dried up.
The report did note that 76 affordable housing units were built in the county last year. That includes 36 units at a People’s Self-Help Housing’s apartment complex in Templeton and 40 units at the People’s Self Help Housing’s apartment complex on Broad Street in San Luis Obispo.
The Home Safe program also housed 70 older adults or adults with disabilities, while the Medically Fragile program served 10 families and four older adults, the staff report said.
Meanwhile, 527 affordable housing units are planned to be completed in 2024, with another 545 units planned for 2025 to 2027.
SLO County gets new data management system to help five year plan
In March, the county launched “Clarity,” a new data management system that providers use to coordinate services for their clients and measure progress in addressing homelessness locally, according to Howell.
“More than 120 users across more than 11 agencies in the county are active in Clarity right now and are coordinating care at a level not previously experienced within our system of care,” Howell said.
Unlike the previous data management program, Clarity allows case managers to message each other directly about their clients, and they can check a database for real time information about what services or housing their client is receiving, she said.
In 2023, the county had 913 new enrollments in the data management system, according to Howell.
“Investing in dignified services and housing resources is worthwhile and worth doing,” she said. “Too often we hear the myth that there is no solution to homelessness, yet we have proven in 2023 progress alone, with data captured in HMIS and the 2024 PIT count, that indeed homelessness in our community is solvable.”
What happens next?
On Tuesday, the board voted unanimously to make a variety of recommendations to staff to continue progress on reducing homelessness.
The board asked the Homeless Services Oversight Council’s Executive Committee to develop guidelines for dividing funding between new and existing projects, along with guidelines for how performance metrics and the cost of services will be considered when making funding decisions.
Additionally, the board also directed the Homeless Services Division to provide a full homeless services update and presentation every two years to align with the Point in Time Count, along with a brief update on opposite years.
