Homeless Cracheads

Survey: Nearly half of Riverside County homeless substance abusers

10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, September 20, 2007

By DOUG HABERMAN and DOUG QUAN
The Press-Enterprise

More than half of Riverside County's homeless population have been homeless for one year or more, 47.5 percent said they are substance abusers and almost one-third reported symptoms of mental illness, a new survey found.

A census conducted in January counted 4,508 homeless people in the county, compared with 4,785 in 2005.

The county Department of Public Social Services then conducted interviews with 630 homeless people from March through May.

The interviews revealed that 85 percent had a monthly income of $1,000 or less, 92 percent were born in the United States and 22.5 percent of the men and 2 percent of the women were armed forces veterans.

The survey results will help the county and its contractors who serve the homeless determine where to direct their resources in meeting the population's needs, county homeless programs manager Ron Stewart said Thursday.

The Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County will present the findings of its 2007 homeless count and survey to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors next week.

The findings will show a 39 percent increase in San Bernardino County from the last count in 2002, which found 5,270 homeless people, according to a recent news release and the county's report on the 2002 count.

Pastor Wade Kyle with Path of Life Ministries, which runs two homeless shelters in Riverside and another at March Air Reserve Base, said these kinds of surveys are useful to service providers.

"It helps us to tailor our approaches and how we use resources," he said. "We do look at the data."

One of the trends he is seeing that may not be so evident in the surveys is a major upswing in families left homeless after their houses went into foreclosure, Kyle said.

"This is new," he said.

In February 2006, Riverside County's Department of Public Social Services began working with cities and homeless service providers to draft a 10-year plan to end homelessness.

A plan should go to the Board of Supervisors in mid-October.

Among other things, the draft plan calls for an increase in emergency shelter beds, temporary housing units and low-income housing. It also calls for better homeless prevention strategies, including the expansion of street outreach teams.

In July, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments adopted its own three-year plan to address homelessness. It focuses on the creation of one-stop service centers with access to mental health, job, transportation and education assistance.

One center would be built in the western Coachella Valley, another in the eastern part of the valley.

Reach Doug Haberman at 951-368-9644 or dhaberman@PE.com.