July 19, 2021
Understanding San Diego’s Homelessness System: Data Dashboards Show Performance Based on National Best Practices
SDHC developed these new online resources to support the Community Action Plan on Homelessness for the City of San Diego
SAN DIEGO, CA — To support data-driven decisions and provide important information to the public as a variety of initiatives continue to address homelessness in the City of San Diego, new data dashboards will launch this summer on the San Diego Housing Commission’s (SDHC) website, www.sdhc.org
These dashboards support the Community Action Plan on Homelessness for the City of San Diego and will be previewed during a presentation to the San Diego City Council on July 20, 2021.
“Homelessness is San Diego’s most pressing issue, and it’s critically important for everyone to know how the City is doing in addressing it. These dashboards will enhance public transparency and help us end homelessness by guiding our decisions with reliable data going forward,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
As one of the lead agencies in the creation of the Community Action Plan, SDHC developed the performance data dashboards.
“Specific data about how shelters and services programs perform as a system and how they are serving the community is essential to a more complete understanding of the homelessness challenges visible each day in San Diego. These dashboards will be an important resource for decision makers and the public,” SDHC President & CEO Richard C. Gentry said.
The dashboards include extensive data collected from the Homeless Management Information System of the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless.
“Data helps us understand how our system is working, where there are gaps that need to be addressed and give us insight into specific populations,” said Tamera Kohler, CEO of the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless. “Presenting this data as a public-facing dashboard is a transparent way for the public to better understand the work that we are all doing to make sure that homelessness is a brief, non-recurring issue for people.”
The data dashboards support the guiding principle “Make Data-driven Decisions and Create Transparency” from the Community Action Plan on Homelessness.
They will provide details about how homeless shelters and services funded by the City of San Diego or SDHC are performing based on industry-standard, best-practice metrics. For example, the dashboards will provide information on the number of people who entered programs in a given 12-month period, as well as the number who exited to permanent housing in the same period. The number of individuals accessing and leaving shelter and where they exited to will also be reported on the dashboards.
The dashboards are among the activities that will be presented to the City Council in a mid-year update about the Community Action Plan on Homelessness.
The Community Action Plan on Homelessness is a comprehensive, 10-year plan that builds on recent progress, lays out short-term achievable goals and serves as a guide for long-term success in addressing homelessness. The City Council accepted the plan on October 14, 2019.
Comprehensive updates on actions taken to address the goals, principles and foundational strategies in the Community Action Plan are available in a “Progress at a Glance” dashboard on SDHC’s website at https://sdhc.org/homelessness-solutions/community-action-plan/
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Media Contact:
Scott Marshall
Vice President of Communications
San Diego Housing Commission
619-578-7138
