The Riverside City Council on Tuesday approved nearly $1.96 million for additional dedicated shelter beds to address increasing homelessness in the city and county in recent years.
The nonprofit Path of Life Ministries, or POLM owns and operates a 24-hour, 90-bed community shelter at 2840 Hulen Place in Riverside that offers three meals a day, a secure environment and case management, according to a city staff report.
POLM and the city of Riverside first partnered in 2005 when the shelter moved into the campus on Hulen. The initial agreement called for 15 dedicated beds for Riverside residents provided free of charge, with the city responsible for providing case management for the 15 shelter residents.
But as Riverside County and city experience increasing homelessness during and since the coronavirus pandemic, the newly approved funding will increase dedicated shelter beds for Riverside residents to 45, along with eight beds reserved for “transitional aged youth” living unsheltered in the city, according to the report. The agreement is for fiscal year 2025-26 that runs July 1 to June 30.
“The city of Riverside, along with the entire county, is witnessing an increase in homelessness due to affordable housing shortages and other social constructs which compound homelessness,” the Riverside Housing and Human Services Department reported. Staff recommended approval of the funding “to meet the needs of our houseless neighbors in … Riverside by purchasing dedicated emergency shelter beds and assist POLM with their FY 2024/2025 Emergency Shelter Program operations funding gap.”
The funding is from state Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program and will serve at least 270 single adults and 48 transitional aged youth, based on an average 60-day length of stay with the possibility of an up to 90-day extension to accommodate move-in dates for permanent housing.
Path of Life operates the only emergency shelter in Riverside that serves single adults, officials said. The organization’s “specialized focus and expertise uniquely position them to meet this specific community need … to provide the city with dedicated shelter beds reserved specifically for Riverside residents.”
No other service provider controls “an appropriate facility within the city capable of housing emergency shelter beds for single adults,” city staff reported, adding that “failure to contract with Path of Life would result in a critical gap in emergency shelter services for single adults, increasing the risk of homelessness and related public safety concerns in the city. The lack of alternative providers would hinder the city’s ability to meet urgent housing needs.”
Riverside’s homeless population increased marginally in 2025, with 614 unsheltered individuals this year and 605 counted in 2023, according to the city.
Officials said the latest point-in-time count results show success toward slowing the increase of people living unhoused, as prior counts showed. The number of people living without shelter spiked to 605 in 2023 from 307 in 2022.
The point-in-time count in January 2020 found 587 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Riverside, a 34% increase from the previous year and more than a quarter of unsheltered homelessness countywide, city officials reported.
“These data clearly show that our efforts are having a real impact, and we’re moving in the right direction,” Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in a May statement. “In recent years, with every new homeless count, we saw significant increases, but this year’s numbers show that the population of unsheltered individuals in Riverside has stabilized.”
The mayor noted last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave cities greater legal standing to remove encampments along with “the passage of Proposition 36 expanding law enforcement’s ability to respond and the state’s investment in a new 100-bed psychiatric facility in Moreno Valley.”
Top causes of homelessness include the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, mental illness, substance abuse and unplanned events, such as an illness, death of a primary income earner, divorce or disability, officials said.
Homelessness in Riverside County increased 7% in the last two years, while the number of people without shelter totaled a smaller percentage compared with the last point-in-time count, according to data released in May.
The county’s 2025 survey counted 3,990 individuals experiencing homelessness, according to the Department of Housing and Workforce Solutions. Point-in-time counts take place every two years. The 2023 survey reported 3,725 people without a steady place to live.
Unsheltered homelessness declined 19% drop. In 2023, 2,441 people experienced unsheltered homelessness, compared with approximately 1,977 this year.
