REGION — Two of North County’s biggest cities, which also have the region’s highest homeless populations, are continuing to fine-tune and fund new efforts to get more people off the streets and into permanent housing.
Staff members from Escondido and Oceanside presented updates on their cities’ efforts to address homelessness to their respective city councils on Sept. 2.
Escondido
In Escondido, Police Chief Ken Plunkett described positive trends and some improvement, though homelessness remains a challenge.
According to the 2026 Point-in-Time Count, Escondido’s unsheltered homeless population dropped from 307 in 2025 to 271 this year, an 11.7% decrease. Volunteers use the count to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness in each city during the early morning hours at the beginning of each year. The North Inland region’s count declined by 10% overall.
Plunkett, who was sworn in last year, formed the Escondido Police Department’s Community Enhancement Bureau, which consolidates teams focused on homelessness, narcotics, gang violence, school safety and traffic under unified leadership. The bureau includes the Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving unit, known as COPPS, with three sector officers, four crime suppression team officers and a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team with one officer and one clinician.
Plunkett said the bureau conducted its first crime suppression detail in June, targeting criminal activity among the homeless population. During the operation, police made 73 contacts with homeless individuals, issued 18 citations, made 16 arrests, conducted 22 field interviews and removed several encampments and debris.
Despite the positive trends, Plunkett cautioned that the city still faces challenges, including the lack of a sobering facility, diminished homeless outreach services and evolving legal challenges that could make it difficult to address homelessness.
As part of the staff presentation, the Escondido City Council approved issuing a request for proposals to open a temporary sobering facility and provide homeless outreach services.
“Given the current state of homelessness, and effort to enhance community safety, I believe the addition of sobering services will greatly enhance the city’s ability to meet stated priorities,” Plunkett said.
In 2025 alone, Escondido received 693 encampment-related service requests, removed 3,127 cubic yards of debris, incurred $293,000 in abatement costs and stored property for 84 individuals.
According to acting Escondido Fire Chief Tyler Battson, about 1,560 of the 19,200 calls for service the city received last year involved homelessness.
The city also expects to direct more money toward addressing homelessness over the next few years as it continues to collect Measure I sales tax revenue.
Staff originally anticipated a gap in services after Interfaith Community Services said it would not have funding to conduct its own homeless outreach in the city. However, Plunkett received word from Interfaith on the day of the council meeting that the organization had secured funding. He indicated city staff would meet with Interfaith.
Staff also anticipates returning to City Council at the end of this month to consider a modification to Interfaith’s conditional use permit for the Turk Center at 555 N. Center City Parkway. The proposed change would allow 18 currently vacant beds to be used for bridge housing.
Deputy Mayor Joe Garcia said that as improvements continue, the city’s next step is temporary housing.
“That discussion needs to happen,” Garcia said.
Oceanside
Unlike Escondido, Oceanside saw a 13.8% increase in its unsheltered homeless population this year, with 362 individuals counted in January compared with 318 in 2025, according to the annual Point-in-Time Count.
Oceanside is North County’s most populous city, followed by Escondido.
Despite the apparent increase in its homeless population, Oceanside continues to refine its approach to homelessness and hopes recent changes will make a difference.
Earlier this year, the city adopted its new Homeless Evaluation Assistance and Resource Team program, known as HEART. The program created an in-house homeless outreach coordinator position to oversee a team of social workers contracted through Interfaith to conduct outreach throughout the city.
Previously, the Oceanside Police Department conducted homeless outreach through its Homeless Outreach Team, known as HOT, which used police officers and two contracted social workers to connect people experiencing homelessness with services and resources. The city replaced HOT with HEART earlier this year.
The city also increased shelter beds at the Oceanside Navigation Center from 50 to 75 over the summer.
Additionally, the city’s safe parking program is doubling its capacity from 25 to 50 vehicles. The nonprofit Dreams for Change operates the program at the North County LGBTQ Resource Center daily from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Measure X, the city’s half-cent sales tax, has provided substantial support for efforts to address homelessness over the past several years. Nearly 14% of its annual budget goes to homeless services.
The city manager’s office has also created a by-name list to track individuals and their cases.
According to Homeless Services Manager Tameka Tates, the city has 526 unduplicated individuals on the list, of whom 324 have been served through outreach, 190 at the navigation center and 130 in the safe parking program. Of those people, 159 were served by more than one city program, and nine used all three services.
To help prevent homelessness, the city also has a $29.65 million annual budget for its 1,380 housing choice vouchers, which provide housing for people at risk. Of voucher recipients, 44% are seniors older than 62, and 48% live with a disability.
Oceanside staff is also eager to complete four developments that will add 545 affordable housing units to the city’s inventory. Of those units, 56 are for seniors, 309 for families, 179 for singles and couples, and 26 for homeless veterans. The city invested at least $10.25 million in the units, according to staff.
The city’s “flagship” project to address homelessness, according to Homeless Program Manager Salvador Roman, is cleaning up homeless encampments along the state Route 78 corridor.
In 2024, the state awarded Oceanside and Carlsbad $11.4 million through the California Interagency Council on Homelessness’ Encampment Resolution Fund to address encampments along a 3.6-mile stretch beginning near the Buena Vista Lagoon and extending along the cities’ border.
The effort has permanently housed 80 people so far, with a goal of housing 197 people by next June.
“Without the leadership of our mayor and our council, participation by a number of different resources… we could not be accomplishing what we are able to do,” said Housing and Neighborhood Services Director Leilani Hines.
