Riverside County Homeless Population Increases By 12% Over Past Year

Homelessness across Riverside County continues to rise.

According to the latest data from the annual Point-In-Time Count, the county saw 409 more people (or 12%) who are homeless over the past year.

While those numbers at face value may seem like it’s getting worse, the county says otherwise.

"Our growth rate is definitely slowing. For instance, like last year it was 15%," Riverside County Deputy Director for Housing and Workforce Solutions Greg Rodriguez explained. "You can’t solve this problem in just four or five years that’s taken 40 years to create. Is Riverside County on the right track? We believe so. We’re recognized in the state by the governor’s office, as well as HCD [Housing and Community Development], that we’re leading the efforts."

Compared to our nearby counties, they saw a bigger jump.

San Bernardino County saw an increase by 26% and Kern County saw a 22% increase.

According to our data, the county saw 23% more people unsheltered and a 4% decrease of the sheltered population.

But there’s a reason.

"We did Project Room Key where we housed individuals, homeless people over 65, in hotels and motels. That’s how our sheltered numbers went up last year because we counted those as sheltered. So this decrease is because Project Room Key is no longer funded so we can’t do that. We really do believe, too, that that’s a reason we saw an increase in the unsheltered as well because we didn’t have that program."

The exit to permanent housing rate was a huge success, landing at 66%.

And the county says, they are looking to bring a form of that program back.

But that’s not all.

"We have about 1,600 units [affordable housing] countywide in production right now and many of those will be online within the next year or two. Then we have 1,000s actually in the pipeline over the next couple of years," Rodriguez shared. "We’re looking forward to reinstating our Valor program, which addresses Veterans Housing. We saw an increase in that population. We work very closely with our Behavioral Health Department. That’s a key element in treatment and getting people stabilized. We really are confident, knock on wood, that our numbers will continue in this downward trend and ideally, hopefully, in a couple of years, we will see the actual reduction as well."

Due to inflation and the tight rental market, the county did see an increase in people experiencing homelessness for the first time by 21%.

On Wednesday, NBC Palm Springs will speak with local police departments on what they noticed over the past year and how they are continuing to help this population.