"I can tell you that the system is broken. I've personally tried to help our clients navigate the system; it doesn't work."

More families. More first time homeless. More seniors. Encinitas, like other cities in the region, is grappling with a shifting population.

While the 2023 WeAllCount count showed a slight decrease in the number of unhoused people in Encinitas this year compared to last – from 76 to 73 – the agencies point to negatives.

"For every ten people we house in our system, 13 more are experiencing homelessness," said Tamera Kohler, chief executive officer of the San Diego Regional Task Force, one of the groups who reported on their work at a special meeting of the Encinitas City Council last week.

"Unfortunately it's been 16 months since we had a month where we housed more people than came into the system."

The federally funded task force doesn't provide direct services to the city, but helps fund them.

Throughout the region, homelessness increased at least 14 percent last year, according to the annual Point-in-Time Count released in June.

Every city faces a little bit different of a challenge, Kohler said, though goals and funding can be aligned to help reduce the "incredible increase" among the first-time homeless.

Starting in October, location data will be required on clients, which she said should help the city put together a list of people who are just experiencing homelessness.

"You're looking to house more families in Encinitas" than individuals. "That's an important characteristic. That is not the same in every city."

And seniors, 55 or 65 and older, are now almost half of the homeless population in Encinitas. Countywide, the senior population (55 and older) has increased 25 percent from last year; more than 2,000 seniors now live on the streets.

Different interventions are needed to help seniors, who may have health issues and are unlikely to increase their income, Kohler said. Those at risk of homelessness will go without medicines or utilities to hold on to their housing.

From February 21 to June 2023, the Jewish Family Services Safe Parking program served 131 households, including 14 children, two college students and eight veterans, but 72 clients were 55 and older, said spokesperson Nicole McKeown.

"The largest portion of our population is seniors."

Mirroring another trend, 89 clients had been homeless for less than one year, "Most of the Safe Parking participants across all sites are experiencing homelessness for the first time."

About a quarter of participants found housing over that period. Another category that has bumped up is chronic homelessness, which Kohler defined as having been homeless for a year with a disabling condition.

"That is usually a direct correlation to how hard it is to house people in your community."

The city's service providers are struggling to find units, she said. "And the longer it takes to house people, the more you are going to see chronic homelessness."

Dan Vaughn, an advocate with St. Andrews, which offers programs to assist the unhoused in Encinitas, said a third of their clients are living out of a car. The chronically unhoused are "the most hardcore homeless you'll see," he said.

"I can tell you that the system is broken. I've personally tried to help our clients navigate the system; it doesn't work."

There's a gap that people can't always bridge when trying to tap resources. The most basic service, 2‑1‑1, the free telephone number that provides access to local community services, can be anything but useful.

"I called 211 when the county issued the weather emergency, opening shelter beds for the hurricane. If you gave them an Encinitas zip code, you got told that it hasn't been activated. If you give them Rancho Santa Fe (the unincorporated county), you did get transferred to a service provider. I gave up after waiting for 15 minutes."

The county shelters more people than Encinitas, he added. Here it's less than 10 percent. "We need beds. We don't have beds in Encinitas."

He disagreed with the latest plan to possibly open a homeless navigation center in Vista, where services would be found under one roof.

"Shipping people off to Vista" is not the answer. We need to bring the resources to the community."

Mayor Tony Kranz said the city has spent billions of dollars on the subject "and we don't seem to be making any headway. In fact, things seem to be getting worse."

Several residents supported the plan to place services elsewhere, and asked that the city not provide resources to the newly homeless in Encinitas.