Despite a small decrease in the overall number of homeless people in the region, Santa Barbara County is still struggling to help transition them from county services into stable housing.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to receive a report on the number of homeless people in the county and the status of its homeless services.  

The Community Services Department shared the results of its annual Point in Time Count, which tracks how many people were unhoused in 2025. The count was conducted in January.

Joseph Dzvonik, assistant director of Housing and Community Development, shared trends that his office has seen in the past year, including the fact that overall homelessness has dropped by 6% since 2023.

He also reported that 4,531 people experiencing homelessness were entered into the Homeless Management Information System. The HMIS is a database that tracks clients, the services they used and their housing status.

The number of people using county homeless services for the first time also has dropped, by 31% since 2023. The county entered 1,527 new people into the database in 2025.

Dzvonik said the distribution of homelessness throughout the county has remained stable since last year.

The county also has continued efforts to address encampments throughout the region. Dzvonik said that more than 1,300 encampments have been removed. Of that number, 686 were on county land. The county recorded more than 900 individuals across those encampments and transitioned 330 of them into permanent housing.

Despite some gains, Dzvonik also shared some concerning trends with the supervisors.

The amount of time that people have remained unhoused has increased by 41% since 2023. The average amount of time people remain homeless is now 190 days compared with 134 days in 2023.

Dzvonik said that despite helping 1,417 people transition out of homelessness, the total number of transitions has decreased compared with previous years.

“While it’s still fantastic news that just over 1,400 people have transitioned out of homelessness and into permanent housing during the past calendar year, which is a number that actually represents a slight increase when compared to last year, it is a 7% decrease when compared to 2023,” Dzvonik said.

The report also discussed changes in the homeless population and who is being most impacted.

The fastest-growing population in the homeless community is young people between ages 18 and 24. That population grew by 22% between 2023 and 2025.

Jett Black-Maertz, homeless assistance programs manager, explained that youths exiting foster systems or from unstable households are hitting the local housing market and falling into instability.

“Traditionally, adult services aren’t built for them,” Black-Maertz said, “and this spike underscores the urgent need for more pre-housing youth-specific models and supportive services, as well as prevention … at local schools.”

Black-Maertz also warned of a “silver tsunami” of seniors on fixed incomes who cannot keep up with the price of housing. She explained that because of medical and mobility needs, many seniors are hard to place and remain in the system longer.

“Santa Barbara County needs low-income elder care facilities, of which there are currently none,” she said.

Black-Maertz added that the homeless veteran population has remained stable since 2023 and has not changed. She attributed the lack of growth to dedicated funding at the local and federal levels and a one-team approach.

The Point in Time Count also found that the number of people living in vehicles has grown from 675 in 2022 to 962 in 2025.

Despite living in vehicles, Black-Maertz said that 44% of that population have jobs and contribute to the economy. The most common jobs for that segment of the homeless population are in hospitality, domestic work or gig labor.

Second District Supervisor Laura Capps asked whether the Community Services Department will address how it assists this population.

Black-Maertz called the situation tricky and said one of the issues is that many people living in vehicles have chosen to do so because of the cost of rent and the fact that wages have not kept up.

“They’ve decided that the math of living indoors does not make sense, and they can live a fuller life if they forgo paying rent by living in their vehicle,” she said, “and our department is not equipped to deal with that.”

A county staff report stated that the average monthly income for people surveyed is $2,000.

The Community Services Department said its goal moving forward is to reach “functional zero.” The goal is to have an average wait time in the system of 45 days or fewer.

The backlog of people in the system also would be reduced to make the process more efficient.

Black-Maertz told the board that the goal of functional zero is not to eliminate homelessness but to make the experience “rare, brief and non-recurring.”

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino praised the team for their work, primarily in regard to homeless encampments.

“It’s been a big issue in Santa Maria, and this team has really done amazing work, and really just turned everything around where it’s actually hard now to go out and find an encampment somewhere,” Lavagnino said. “It’s great for the community. It’s great for those suffering from this, and you guys do amazing work.”