Volunteers walking the San Diego Riverbed last week say they saw something they have not seen in a long time: far fewer tents and makeshift camps.
During the annual Point in Time census last Thursday, volunteers with the San Diego River Park Foundation counted 148 people living along the river corridor, roughly a 50 percent drop from the 294 people the group recorded during its September 2025 fall survey. The one-night count spanned 19 sections of riverbed, covering more than 1,000 acres from Santee toward the ocean.
According to a San Diego River Park Foundation press release, staff and more than 80 volunteers moved through the corridor to reach the 148 figure, which the foundation called "a nearly 50 percent reduction" in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the riverbed. The group noted that data from earlier counts helped secure funding, and it pointed to placements into permanent housing as a key driver of the decline. At the same time, the foundation warned that dozens of people are still living in stretches of the riverbed that are unsafe and prone to flooding.
"When I first got the numbers, I wanted to do the Irish jig," Ketra Carter, program manager for the City of San Diego’s Homelessness Strategies & Solutions Department, told ABC 10News San Diego. She credited temporary lodging, supportive services, and permanent housing placements as major reasons for the drop. Sarah Hutmacher, the foundation's chief operating officer, told the station that volunteers had been seeing a visible decline in encampments for months leading up to the count. ABC 10News San Diego also noted that the countywide Point in Time results are not expected until this spring.
How the counting works
The Point in Time count is a one-night snapshot of homelessness organized under the WeAllCount banner by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness and relies on trained volunteers using the Counting Us mobile app to collect data. The Regional Task Force on Homelessness describes the effort as a minimum estimate meant to guide planning, not a full accounting of everyone experiencing homelessness, and notes that it does not capture short-term moves or seasonal shifts.
To help track those seasonal changes, volunteers and partner agencies also run targeted surveys throughout the year. The City of Santee’s listing for its City of Santee Fall Riverbed Homeless Census is one example of the recurring counts that supplement the single-night snapshot.
Funding and outreach partners
State Encampment Resolution Fund grants, combined with local coordination, have paid for much of the riverbed outreach in recent years. In 2023, a county-led application brought in nearly 17 million dollars to address encampments along San Diego area riverbeds. Coverage of that grant and how it is being distributed has been documented by KPBS. Outreach partners cited in public reporting include PATH San Diego and city outreach teams, which have worked to connect people in the riverbed with shelter, services, and housing.
Advocates and local officials say that a combination of targeted funding and steady casework is exactly what they want to maintain if the recent reductions along the San Diego River are going to last.
What to watch next
Nonprofit leaders and city staff are welcoming the sharp drop in riverbed encampments, but they are just as quick to stress that the work is not finished. The focus now, they say, is on keeping services in place so that people are actually rehoused rather than simply pushed into other neighborhoods.
For more context on last year’s riverbed cleanups and housing placements, see River 'Island' Encampment Wiped Clean. The San Diego River Park Foundation, which has been central to the latest count, is continuing to recruit volunteers for upcoming riverbed censuses and outreach events, and its volunteer pages list registration information and sign-up details for those who want to get involved.
