Housing

Homelessness & Housing Insecurity

3-in-4 of the County’s Homeless Population Live Unsheltered

Rising rent or mortgage costs, foreclosure, loss of a job, or simply not having enough money to afford the high upfront costs of renting or buying are challenges that can force many families into living conditions they would not choose otherwise. Living doubled- or tripled-up due to economic constraints can place stress on personal relationships, housing stock, public services, and infrastructure. When shared housing is not an option, the result can be homelessness. This indicator measures housing security in San Bernardino County by tracking the demand for rental assistance and public housing, the number of public school students who are homeless or have insecure housing arrangements, and the point-in-time homeless count.

How is San Bernardino County Doing?

TREND

Approximately 1-in-14 school age students have insecure housing. In the 2019/20 school year, 30,270 San Bernardino County K-12 students were identified as homeless or lacking secure housing, representing 7.0% of total enrollment.1 This constitutes a decline of 26% since the 10-year high of 38,082 homeless students in 2015/16. Among homeless and housing insecure students, 91% are living doubled- or tripled-up in a home due to economic hardship, 4% live in motels, 2% live in shelters, and 2% live unsheltered in cars, parks, or campgrounds.

NUMBER OF HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS INCREASED BY 7% SINCE 2020

Number of Individuals Who Are Homeless by Sheltered and Unsheltered Status in San Bernardino County, 2020 and 2022

Note: No count was conducted in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: San Bernardino County Homeless County and Subpopulation Survey Final Report 2020 and 2022; *Data not available for 2021 due to pandemic-related impacts.

Due to high demand and low supply, most residents seeking a rent subsidy from their local Housing Authority will wait many years before the opportunity arises. In 2020, there were nearly 57,141 households waiting for a rental assistance voucher.2 A monthly point-in-time estimate of 9,466 households currently receive a rental assistance voucher.3 In addition to voucher rental assistance, a point-in-time estimate of 150 families receive public housing assistance, with 1,654 on the waitlist.4

OVER 88,000 APPLICANTS ON WAITING LISTS FOR HOUSING ASSISTANCE

Number of Housing Vouchers and Number of Applicants on Waiting List for Various Housing Assistance in San Bernardino County, 2020-2022

Sources: Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Annual Reports. Households served includes those served through rental assistance voucher programs or public housing units. Data does not include counts from the Needles Housing Authority, and, as a result, should not be compared to prior years.

The San Bernardino County Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey is an annual census of the number of people experiencing homelessness in a 24-hour period in January.5 The 2019 count revealed that 3,125 people were homeless, an increase of 20% compared to the 2,607 homeless counted in January 2019 and 48% more than the 2,118 homeless counted in January 2018. Fully 76.5% of the homeless counted in 2020 were unsheltered. The remainder were sheltered in some type of housing for the homeless.

NUMBER OF HOMELESS INDIVIDUALS IS INCREASING OVER TIME

Number of Individuals Who Are Homeless by Sheltered and Unsheltered Status in San Bernardino County, 2018-2020

Source: 2019 and 2020 San Bernardino County Homeless County and Subpopulation Survey Final Report
CHARACTERISTICS OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY’S UNSHELTERED HOMELESS POPULATION
173
Seniors 65+
29%
Chronically Homeless
72%
Male
20%
Substance Abuse and/or Mental Health Disorder

Source: 2020 San Bernardino County Homeless County and Subpopulation Survey Final Report

RACE/ETHNICITY DETAIL

Most unsheltered individuals (70%) identified their ethnicity as Non-Latino, while 30% identified as Latino. The majority of individuals (57%) identified their race as White. Twenty-one percent identified their race as Black and 18% as an “Other” racial category.6

MOST UNSHELTERED INDIVIDUALS IDENTIFY AS WHITE AND/OR NON-LATINO

Percent of Unsheltered Individuals in San Bernardino by Race and Ethnicity, 2020

Note: Race data and ethnicity data were reported separately by the data source.

Source: 2020 San Bernardino County Homeless County and Subpopulation Survey Final Report

1The federal law that governs the identification of homeless and housing insecure school-age students (McKinney-Vento) includes those who are living unsheltered as well as those housed in shelters, motels or hotels, or living doubled- or tripled-up due to economic hardship. Totals may not add to 100% due to rounding. 2Rental assistance in the form of Housing Choice Vouchers, or a similar program, enables recipients to seek housing in the private market from landlords who will accept the vouchers. The voucher subsidizes the recipient’s rent. Rental assistance may also take the form of Section 8 project-based vouchers which provide vouchers for recipients to use in properties awarded a project-based voucher contract with the housing authority or public housing authority units that have been converted through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Households may apply for any of these options and be on multiple waitlists. A total of 82,813 applications for tenant based, RAD, and non RAD voucher-based assistance were on the waitlist as of September 30, 2020. 3This number includes 9,477 individuals with a leased-up voucher through the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino as of September 30, 2020, and 19 households with a leased-up voucher through Needles Housing Authority as of December 31, 2020. 4Public housing can take the form of apartment complexes or houses that are owned by a Public Housing Authority and rented at an affordable rate to income-eligible recipients. Most public housing units in San Bernardino County have been converted to project-based voucher assistance through the HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. 5The point-in-time estimates of homelessness are based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definition of homelessness, which only counts individuals living in homeless shelters or living unsheltered in a place not intended for human habitation. 6Race data and ethnicity data were reported separately by the data source.