While homelessness dropped 14% countywide this year, the city of San Bernardino’s overall number of unhoused residents went up 8%, Interim City Manager Gill Gallardo reported.
The city now has just over 40% of the county’s homeless population, according to a presentation by Gallardo to the City Council on May 21.
The county’s 2025 homeless count, which took place on Jan. 23, reported overall 1,535 people were experiencing homelessness in the city of San Bernardino, with 981 living on streets, in encampments or other unsheltered circumstances.
Overall homelessness in the county totaled 3,821 people this year, compared with 4,255 in 2024.
Gallardo attributed the city’s increase to a court injunction that stopped city crews from clearing encampments in parks and public areas. The injunction was in effect for nearly all of 2024 during a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union that challenged the city’s methods for conducting encampment cleanups.
The judge dismissed the suit in October after the city and ACLU reached an agreement on updated encampment cleanup procedures.
Despite the increase in overall homelessness, the number of unsheltered city residents at was basically flat compared with the 977 people counted in 2024, Gallardo reported. He attributed most of this year’s increase to a 25% rise in sheltered homelessness, people living in shelters or transitional housing facilities. In 2024, 1,417 people were experiencing sheltered homelessness.
More information on the county’s homeless point-in-time counts is online at sbchp.sbcounty.gov/community-projects/point-in-time-count.
