ENCINITAS — As the Encinitas City Council reviewed the city’s homelessness efforts, elected officials pointed to measurable progress while directing staff to explore additional solutions and improve how program data is collected and shared with the public.
Crystal Pugh, the city’s homeless programs coordinator, presented Point-in-Time Count data and walked the council through several ongoing initiatives during a Feb. 11 special meeting on the Homeless Action Plan.
“A homeless action plan is a strategic roadmap developed by the city to address homelessness in a coordinated, measurable and sustainable way,” Pugh said. “It outlines goals, priorities and actions to prevent and reduce homelessness. It requires collaboration across departments, service providers and community stakeholders.”
The national Point-in-Time Count, a standardized snapshot of homelessness on a single night in a specific area, is one method of measuring homelessness nationwide and is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Regional Task Force on Homelessness coordinates the Point-in-Time Count for San Diego County. The organization held its 2026 count last month, but the data is not yet available.
Point-in-Time Count data from 2024 and 2025 in the San Diego region showed a 6% drop in unsheltered homelessness — including people sleeping on streets and in vehicles — and a 7% decrease in the total number of unhoused individuals, which includes both unsheltered people and those living in emergency shelters or temporary housing facilities, according to the city.
Encinitas, grouped with Solana Beach, San Dieguito and Del Mar as a combined count area, experienced a 26% decrease in unsheltered homelessness and a 12% decrease in the total number of unhoused individuals during the same period, according to city data.
“There was a notable decrease in homelessness from 2024 to 2025 both in Encinitas and across the San Diego region,” Pugh said.
HUD guidelines note that tracking homelessness during winter is intended to identify community members who are unable or unwilling to access emergency shelters. The guidelines also state that counting at known locations may bias the data and lead to undercounts within a region.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers said the Point-in-Time Count figures are “very rough estimates and probably undercounted,” adding that he would like to maintain a by-name list to establish a more accurate accounting of homelessness in Encinitas independent of neighboring municipalities.
The Homeless Outreach Program for Empowerment, known as the HOPE Team, is a collaboration among local service providers that offers outreach, mental health services, and housing navigation tools to unsheltered residents. In 2025, 37 individuals enrolled in the program, according to city documents.
The HOPE Team added two five-day-per-week staff members from the San Diego Rescue Mission in November 2025 — one outreach worker and one housing navigator — according to city documents. Between Nov. 24, 2025, and Jan. 21, 2026, the Rescue Mission added 98 unduplicated individuals to the By-Name List and facilitated 40 placements, including duplicates.
Paul Armstrong, chief of staff at the San Diego Rescue Mission, said Encinitas staff have “been an incredible partner” and have a “great working relationship with the sheriff’s department” to achieve those results within the first two months.
Councilmember Luke Shaffer called the progress over the past two months “nothing short of astonishing.”
“I just couldn’t be more ecstatic for where we’re going,” Shaffer said.
Under a shared agreement between Vista and Encinitas, the Buena Creek Navigation Center opened in March 2024 along South Santa Fe Avenue in Vista. The facility includes 24 rooms with a total capacity of 48 individuals, including 12 beds (25%) reserved for Encinitas residents (75% for Vista residents).
In 2025, the center served 72 individuals from Encinitas.
The results included two people permanently housed, 14 placed at the Buena Creek Navigation Center, five at South County Lighthouse, four at Mission Academy, and seven at the East County Transitional Living Center. Two individuals entered detox programs, and six were placed in other settings, including family reunification and shelters.
The Safe Parking Program at the Encinitas Community and Senior Center served 52 individuals in 47 households in 2025, according to the city. Of those households, 15 were from Encinitas, 15 from other parts of North County San Diego and 17 from outside the area.
The program, operated by Jewish Family Service, ended Dec. 31, 2025, after the nonprofit halted operations due to increased costs.
Theresa Beauchamp of Encinitas Action said during public comment that the current Homeless Action Plan had “a glaring hole” because it did not include a local safe parking program to replace the one that expired at the end of 2025.
“For six weeks, our unhoused neighbors have had no place to sleep,” Beauchamp said.
Shaffer said the city attempted to negotiate with Jewish Family Service to continue the program, but “we worked with them more than they worked with us.”
Shaffer added that he has friends who have moved out of the city because of the high cost of living and said regional safe parking programs operate similarly.
“If for some reason, this parking lot shuts down, there’s other places that you can go,” Shaffer said. “It’s not a right and a requirement to live in Encinitas. It’s a privilege and an honor.”
Deputy Mayor Jim O’Hara said advocates seeking to revive the Safe Parking Program should lobby other cities in the region, including Carlsbad, Solana Beach and San Marcos.
“I’m really proud of this council across the board here. We offered (JFS) more than anyone’s ever offered them,” O’Hara said. “JFS chose to not accept the money and didn’t want to work further on this contract.”
Councilmember Joy Lyndes proposed exploring a request-for-proposals process to assess the costs of reinstating the Safe Parking Program. Lyndes said a public process would allow the city to ask, “Is this what we want to spend our tax dollars on?”
Ehlers suggested exploring a broader range of options to allow people to safely sleep in their vehicles overnight, saying a model similar to the Buena Creek Navigation Center could offer greater flexibility while remaining fiscally responsible.
“We can think beyond just the parking lot,” Ehlers said. “There are other ways to — I think — better serve those same clients in a triage navigation center-type approach.”
Scott Campbell, a longtime Encinitas resident and member of the Encinitas Citizen Review Panel, said that he worried affordable housing would not significantly reduce homelessness because it’s a one-time solution.
“They get built and they get filled and then there’s no turnover,” Campbell said.
Lyndes said she also wants to review access to affordable housing and increase transparency in the process.
“I want to be a little more transparent so that people understand what our process is and that it’s a fair process,” Lyndes said. “How do we make sure the families that we anticipate are going to be eligible actually have a chance at getting these houses or being considered? There’s always more need than there are homes.”
Council members also called for more comprehensive data to better understand the impact of programs and initiatives.
Ehlers cited an axiom by management theorist Peter Drucker.
“You can’t manage that which you can’t measure,” the mayor said.
Ehlers added that more granular financial data and better assessment tools would help the city understand “the true success rate” of programs from initial contact through permanent housing.
Lyndes said improved data collection is critical to strengthening city programs and guiding future decisions.
“What is our most important data and why do we need the data?” she said. “I think data is not as useful if we don’t know why we need it.”
