Volunteers Needed to Help in Yearly Count of People Experiencing Homelessness
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Your help is needed for the 2025 Point in Time Count. The annual snapshot of people experiencing homelessness around the county is on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025.
Volunteer opportunities for County employees are paid and on County time thanks to approval by the Board of Supervisors. Shifts are available on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Volunteers are asked to participate only in one of the available shifts.
Each year, the Point in Time Count begins our region’s effort to develop a snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night of the year. Volunteers speak with people to collect information about their circumstances and needs. Last year, volunteers counted 10,600 people experiencing homelessness in San Diego County with about 4,500 in shelters and the remainer unsheltered.
This count helps our region apply for federal and state funding to help serve this vulnerable population while also measuring on one day our region’s efforts to reduce homelessness.
Employees who receive approval to take part from their supervisors are encouraged to register as soon as possible because deployment sites fill up quickly. The deadline to sign up is 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 27.
Sign up in three steps:
Obtain approval from your supervisor via the supervisor approval form.
Once you get approval, please sign up here.
After you’ve signed up, you will receive an email receipt for this event. In the email there will be a link to a training for you to review from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, which is leading the local point-in-time effort with the WeALLCount campaign.
Morning volunteers will be asked to arrive at their deployment locations by 3:45 a.m. to give themselves time to become familiar with a mobile counting app and receive your count area map.
The 2025 count is directed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and will again use a survey-based approach. People on the streets will be surveyed as they are encountered, rather than just an observational count.
This will be the 11th year County employees have volunteered to take part in the count. Last year, around 170 County employees volunteered. Everyone who is interested is encouraged to take part in this important effort. Members of the public can also join the count. If you have family or friends who would like to participate, they too can sign in to sign up to volunteer.