FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alexa Lewis-Rosenfeld, San Diego River Park Foundation, alexa@sandiegoriver.org, 619-307-0268
In the early dawn hours of January 29, 2026, over 80 community members came together from Santee to the ocean along the San Diego River as part of San Diego County’s Annual Point-in-Time Count. This annual census is organized by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. The San Diego River Park Foundation (SDRPF) has organized the Count in the San Diego Riverbed since 2013.
This year’s riverbed results were striking: 148 people were counted living unhoused in the San Diego Riverbed, compared to 294 people counted in September 2025. This is nearly a 50% reduction in just 4 months – a powerful indicator that coordinated, data-driven partnerships are leading to real change.
The riverbed count was conducted by staff and volunteers from the San Diego River Park Foundation in partnership with PATH San Diego, the City of San Diego Park Rangers, and representatives from local elected officials’ offices, who surveyed 19 sections of the riverbed covering more than 1000 acres. This major effort was designed to document the number of people experiencing homelessness in this uniquely vulnerable and often hard to reach environment.
While the River Park Foundation is a non-traditional partner in homelessness work, the organization has taken on a prominent role by ensuring that people living in the riverbed—often hidden from view—are counted.
Sarah Hutmacher, SDRPF’s Chief Operating Officer, reflects “We have been partnering with the Regional Task Force on Homelessness with these census events for 14 years, and if I have learned anything, it is that each person living unhoused in our region faces different challenges and has different needs to end their cycle of homelessness. In the riverbed, some of these challenges are even more urgent with winter storms and flooding.”
River Park Foundation encampment data was critical in securing a $17M State grant in 2023 to launch an unprecedented, data-driven coordinated outreach effort combined with housing support. The results of the most recent Count demonstrates the approach is working.
“A nearly 50 percent reduction in the number of people living along the San Diego River shows that focused outreach, strong partnerships, and persistence can deliver results you can see,” says San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. “This progress is possible because of the state’s Encampment Resolution Funding grant program, which supports the coordinated work of the San Diego River Park Foundation, the City’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department, and outreach providers connecting people to safer options and services. We are committed to continuing this work for the people still living near the river and building on what is working to reduce homelessness citywide.”
Beyond hosting Point In Time Count events, SDRPF also mobilizes volunteers for Fall and Spring Census surveys, and its River Assessment Field Team adds focused surveys twice a week as a way see if new people have moved into the riverbed or been displaced to other areas – essential information for outreach workers.
Despite this incredible success, there are still too many people living in the riverbed. Hutmacher says, “This nearly 50% decrease in the number of people living unsheltered in the riverbed is huge. But there are still 148 people living in areas not fit for habitation due to flooding and other risks. We have more to do. But the partnerships with PATH San Diego, City of San Diego, City of Santee, the County, and others have laid an important pathway to ending homelessness in the riverbed.”
SDRPF celebrates and rejoices in the many people who have been helped into housing and pledges to continue working with its invaluable civic, homeless outreach, and nonprofit partners until everyone living unhoused in the riverbed has a safe and better place to call home.
The River Park Foundation extends its sincere thanks to staff from Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer’s office and Councilmember Jennifer Campbell’s office for joining the 2026 census effort. SDRPF extends a heartfelt thanks to County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe’s office for its generous grant support for field surveys and flood warnings for people living in the riverbed.
The SDRPF invites community members to join the effort to end homelessness in the riverbed by volunteering or donating to sustain this work. Learn more and get involved at sandiegoriver.org/discover/homelessness.
Together, data, compassion, and collaboration are making the San Diego Riverbed safer—for both people and the river itself.
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About the San Diego River Park Foundation: SDRPF’s mission is to engage and inspire people to reimagine the San Diego River as a natural, cultural and recreational treasure where nature thrives and everyone can enjoy a nature connection. The River Park Foundation is a non-profit, community-based organization founded in 2001.