Why have I seen more people experiencing homelessness in Carlsbad in recent years?
The pandemic has impacted everyone in the community, especially people experiencing homelessness. Many shelters and nonprofit agencies have had to modify or suspend services. Meanwhile the economic consequences of the pandemic itself have put more Americans at risk of entering homelessness.

The city suspended its program to clean up encampments and help link those living in encampments to shelters and other services after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for the temporary halt of encampment cleanups as one important way to limit the spread of COVID-19. The pandemic restrictions have evolved in recent months, and the department has been resuming cleaning up encampments on a case-by-case basis. The department’s Homeless Outreach Team is in charge of this effort. You can contact its officers at 442-339-2249, policehot@carlsbadca.gov or by filling out a Homeless Outreach Team Service Request.

Is the city providing shelter for people experiencing homelessness in local hotels?
The city began operating a limited term emergency motel voucher program in November 2021, which has assisted 51 households as of November 2022, with 36 of those transitioned to short-term shelters or permanent housing. Under the program, the city can offer vouchers to someone experiencing homelessness, on a case-by-case basis.

Those who do participate will be connected with the Homeless Outreach Team and contracted social workers the following morning, to start the process of connecting them with services. The program helps the city enforce no camping laws and address public safety and quality-of-life concerns related to homelessness and public spaces. 

In December 2022, city staff presented the annual review for the motel voucher program and the City Council approved additional funding to continue operating the program through the end of the fiscal year. 

How will the homeless response program be funded?
The City Council approved $4.4 million in general funds and one-time reserve funds to support the homeless goal during fiscal year 2022-23.

Will Carlsbad’s program attract people from other areas?
The program targets people experiencing homelessness in Carlsbad. Studies and interactions have shown that people experiencing homelessness tend to remain in familiar locations and do not move around in search of benefits.

Are people experiencing homelessness the primary driver of crime in Carlsbad?
Police statistics show homelessness is not a major factor in crime in Carlsbad. Crimes are committed by many people who are not homeless. The homeless population is much like all other communities, some are law-abiding and some commit crimes.

Are crimes committed by people experiencing homelessness categorized and identified?
The Police Department tracks calls for service that are related to homelessness, but the crimes are not categorized differently.

How is the city protecting the community from potentially dangerous situations involving people experiencing homelessness? 
The Police Department and its Homeless Outreach Team are proactive in initiating contacts with people experiencing homelessness in the city. The officers enforce the laws with the homeless population while offering them services in frequent exchanges that result in the officers and members of the homeless population knowing one another. The department also regularly reviews crime data to include homelessness-related crimes and deploys officers based on the crime trends observed with a goal to prevent crime.

What percentage of police contacts is with homeless people monthly?
The Police Department has about 400-500 calls for service a month related to homelessness. The department averages about 9,100 total calls for service a month and 110,000 a year.

Between July 1, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2022, about 10% of the department’s calls for services were related to homelessness, according to police department statistics. Carlsbad Police went into the the field for 2,548 calls for service related to homelessness during that period. Of those, 1,023 were proactive department-initiated calls for service to help carry out city goals to enforce city codes.

Changes to the city's municipal code went into effect in November 2021, therefore officers have been more proactive to educate and enforce restrictions such as camping in public, trespassing, and drinking in public parks. 

What else is the city doing to reduce homelessness?
Homelessness has emerged as a top community concern in recent years, prompting the City Council to make reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness one of its top goals. The City Council approved a broad package of initiatives to meet this goal.

Initiatives include:

• Hiring a contractor specializing in helping people access disability and social security benefits, CalWORKS and CalFresh benefits, veteran benefits, stimulus checks, employment programs and other aid available.
• Leveraging county resources including the North County Homeless Pilot Program and a countywide homeless outreach program contract for additional outreach support.
• Enhancing clinical services at the La Posada Emergency Shelter in Carlsbad.
• Implement a 12-month pilot program that would enable the city to offer a one-night hotel voucher to someone experiencing homelessness, on a case-by-case basis. This approach will allow the city to enforce no camping laws for those who do not want to participate in the emergency hotel voucher program. Those who do participate will be connected to services the following morning, through the city’s Homeless Outreach Team and contracted social workers.
• Extending and expanding the Community Resource Center rapid rehousing program that provides short to medium term rental assistance to help households experiencing homelessness secure and maintain housing with appropriate resources.
• Along with increasing the amount of resources dedicated to reducing homelessness, the city has established a quarterly reporting process to better measure its progress in meeting the City Council’s goal.
• You can read the city’s work plan here.

What is Housing First and why is the city considering that approach?
Housing first is different from other approaches in that it doesn’t require people experiencing homelessness to address their health, addiction and employment issues before they can obtain housing. Evidence has shown that giving people such basics as food and a place to live provides them with the stable foundation they need so they can address other important life issues.

The City of Carlsbad, like other local governments, looks to the state and federal government for guidance on such issues. The federal government’s Interagency Council on Homelessness detailed the evidence supporting the housing first model in the report titled, “The Evidence Behind Approaches that Drive an End to Homelessness.”

The report says, “Housing First approaches help ensure that people experiencing homelessness are connected to permanent housing swiftly with as few obstacles as possible. This approach requires eliminating or reducing the use of treatment preconditions, behavioral contingencies, and other barriers or requirements prior to housing or as a condition for continued tenancy in housing.

These approaches are based on a substantial and growing body of evidence that people experiencing homelessness can achieve stability in permanent housing when they are provided the appropriate level of tailored services and supports. These approaches are both cost effective and create stronger outcomes.”

The report noted that under the Housing First approach, and with appropriate supportive services, people with serious mental illness and substance use issues have been found to be successful in staying in housing at a higher rate compared to those who were placed in traditional housing programs, which may require sobriety or other lifestyle changes as prerequisites to entry.

It also noted that dozens of studies have shown the costs of delivering supportive housing are offset in large part by lower use of crisis services, including shelters, jails, ambulances and hospitals.

Housing programs using a Housing First approach have been generally shown to have housing retention rates between 75-85% for single adults and between 80-90% for families.

The State of California made the housing first model mandatory for all agencies and departments administering state programs. The state law that that established the model as state policy notes, “A chronically homeless Californian moving into ‘supportive housing’ is able to reduce costs he or she incurs by almost 80 percent. Moving an individual or family experiencing chronic homelessness to housing stability costs less than the resulting savings in public expenditures.”

The law, passed as Senate Bill 1380, also states, “Housing First is an evidence-based model of ending all types of homelessness and is the most effective approach to ending chronic homelessness. The federal government recognizes that Housing First yields high-housing retention rates, low returns to homelessness, and significant reductions in crisis or institutional care. The federal government also recognizes the value of time-limited housing to address the needs of unaccompanied homeless youth and persons fleeing domestic violence.”

For more information, see the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s brief, Housing First in Permanent Supportive Housing.

What shelters are available in and around Carlsbad?
The number of homeless individuals in the city far outpaces the number of existing shelter beds, transitional housing, or permanent supportive housing units available.

In 2022, the Point-in-Time count data showed 1,251 men, women, and children were homeless in the North County (762 of whom were unsheltered), yet there were only 144 year-round emergency shelter beds available.

There are three permanent emergency shelters in the North County:

• La Posada de Guadalupe Shelter in Carlsbad - Accepts single men
• Haven House in Escondido - Accepts single men and single women
• Operation HOPE in Vista - Accepts single women and families

An emergency shelter is designed to provide a transitional, temporary place to sleep or live. The three emergency shelters in the North County are open year-round. All eight cities in the region contribute funding that is equally distributed to these shelters. 

La Posada de Guadalupe has a special emphasis on migrant farm workers throughout San Diego County. It is not exclusive to people experiencing homelessness in the City of Carlsbad.

What other programs are currently in place to assist people experiencing homelessness?
The county operates all of the county behavioral health and substance use programs for the region for Medi-Cal recipients. They provide same-day medication clinics, outpatient and inpatient behavioral health clinics, crisis houses, hotlines and mobile psychiatric response teams, detoxes, and substance use treatment facilities.

The county also offers specialty programs for individuals experiencing homelessness with serious mental illness, substance use disorders or mental health disorders, and pays for the mental health care providers and substance abuse services in the region.

The San Diego Department of Health and Human Services benefit workers who comes to Carlsbad once a week to enroll people experiencing homelessness with available county resources such as MediCal, CalFresh and General Relief.

Veterans experiencing homelessness might also find transitional or permanent housing resources, recuperative care facilities, rental assistance programs, physical, behavioral, and substance use resources and other assistance from the federal Veterans Administration.

How many people are currently experiencing homelessness in Carlsbad?
According to the 2022 Point-in-Time data, a count of the homeless conducted across the county and in Carlsbad, there was a 20% decrease in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in the City of Carlsbad between 2020 and 2022.

2019: 161 individuals - 59 sheltered, 102 unsheltered

2020: 148 individuals - 54 sheltered; 94 unsheltered

2022: 118 individuals - 43 sheltered; 75 unsheltered

These numbers were officially released by the Regional Task Force on the Homeless in May 2022. There was no 2021 count because of the pandemic. However, on a county level, relief agencies report that they helped more people who were experiencing homelessness for the first time in 2020 than was the case in previous years.

The count is not without its limitations. As communities like the City of Carlsbad improve on their homeless data collection, we are able to get a more accurate picture of people experiencing homelessness in our community.

Here is the complete Point-in-Time report 2022 report for Carlsbad, and the report for all of San Diego County.

Who are the people experiencing homelessness?
According to the Regional Task Force on the Homelessness:
58% of San Diego’s homeless population reported having a disability
32% have a chronic health condition
37% have a mental illness
31% have substance use disorder
34% are in poor physical health

Here in Carlsbad, we know based on contacts with people experiencing homelessness that:
91% lived in San Diego County before becoming homeless
55% are 44 years or older
72% are men and 28% are women
8% are veterans
47% have some college education or higher
19% are working

What are the causes of homelessness?
Homelessness is on the rise nationwide, and the reasons range.

Lack of affordable housing, loss of a job, and family issues are commonly recognized causes of homelessness. People can also be made homeless as a result of mental health and substance use disorders or involvement with the criminal justice system, or by disabilities, exposure to trauma and violence, particularly domestic violence, sudden serious illness or the death of a partner.

What will the city do about people who don’t want help?
People experiencing homelessness cannot be forced into a shelter, it would violate their constitutional rights, and it is not against the law to be homeless. The city’s Homeless Outreach Team and clinical social workers on the contract with the city work to build relationships based on trust with people experiencing homelessness they encounter in an effort to overcome their reluctance to seek help. This includes making them aware of the range of services that might be available and helping them access the benefits to which they are entitled. Research has shown that this persistent offer of help tends gradually overcome the resistance to accepting it. At the same time, the Police Department will continue its work to prevent homeless people and all segments of the community from violating the laws.

What can be done about people experiencing mental illnesses, using drugs or both?
Carlsbad Police enforce the laws related to drug use and public intoxication.

When it comes to mental illness, a police officer or trained clinician may hospitalize those who pose an immediate threat to their safety or the safety of others or who are gravely disabled. Once taken to the hospital, a person must meet “medical necessity” to remain hospitalized. Once that immediate threat passes, they can no longer be held against their will. Individuals can be placed on conservatorship, but that decision must be made by a judge.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness in the U.S. reports one out of five Americans experience mental illness and one in 25 have a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar or psychosis. There has been an increase in mental health resources for individuals who are a history of homelessness.

Is homelessness impacting tourism?
City staff are working to determine if homelessness has had any measurable impact on tourism. The city has no data indicating that it has. It should be noted that the pandemic’s impact on tourism makes comparisons to previous years problematic. 

Is the City of Carlsbad applying for grant funds through the State’s Project Homekey Program?
Yes, the City Council gave staff direction on Sept. 28, 2021, to explore how to utilize new state funding through Project Homekey to purchase and rehabilitate housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings and other buildings, and convert them into interim or permanent housing.

What is a recuperative care center?
A recuperative care center is a 30-90 day program that provides more medical care than a shelter, but not as much as a skilled nursing facility. Generally, such a facility provides a person experiencing homelessness with an additional safety net of security and stability as they recuperate from an inpatient hospitalization like a surgery, serious medical diagnosis, or psychiatric hospitalization. These programs provide a transitional place for a person to heal, receive “in-home” services like physical or occupational therapy, wound care, attend follow-up appointments, and stabilize on medication. People experiencing homelessness need to be referred to such a center by medical professionals.

How is that different from an adult day care center?
A day care center offers non-medical supportive services, and clients can come and go as they choose.

Is homelessness concentrated in certain areas of the city?
Homelessness can be found throughout the city. Some of the population is visible and others are not. Staff has identified the highest census tracts from the Point-in-Time Count are located in downtown Carlsbad and along state Route 78.

What is the best way to report issues related to homelessness?
Please contact the Homeless Outreach Team at 442-339-2249 or policehot@carlsbadca.gov. You can also submit a Homeless Outreach Team service request online.

What can I do?
Community input is always encouraged. If you’d like to discuss the city’s homeless response efforts, please contact our Homeless Services Manager Chris Shilling.