San Bernardino County and the San Bernardino City and County Continuum of Care (CoC) will receive $10 million in the sixth round of Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development to expand permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness and strengthen efforts to prevent homelessness.
The funding will support converting underutilized buildings and existing interim housing into permanent housing. It will also fund services such as street outreach, intensive case management, housing navigation, harm reduction services, rental assistance, security deposits and more.
“This funding is an important investment in our comprehensive approach to addressing homelessness,” said Board of Supervisors Vice Chair and Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca, Jr., chair of the Continuum of Care Board. “It will expand permanent housing for people who need it most while also strengthening prevention efforts so fewer people fall into homelessness. Ultimately, these resources will help San Bernardino County and its partners better support individuals and families on the path to stable housing.”
San Bernardino County and the San Bernardino City and County CoC, comprised of city, county, and nonprofit representatives, submitted a joint application to secure the funds.
“We are grateful to our city and community partners for joining us in this effort,” said the county’s Office of Homeless Services Chief Marcus Dillard. “This partnership allows us to make a real difference in providing housing and support to San Bernardino County’s most vulnerable residents.”
San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran, whose office participated in community meetings that helped shape the grant application, emphasized the importance of collaboration.
“These funds will directly improve lives across our community and help more families achieve stability,” said Tran. “The city of San Bernardino is proud to be a partner with the county and local organizations on this effort.”
CoC Vice Chair Shanikqua “Shaq” Freeman, executive director of Knowledge and Education for Your Success, noted the impact this funding will have on local residents in need.
“This award is a result of strong collaboration between the county, city partners and local organizations,” said Freeman. “These resources will help residents get the support they need and make meaningful progress toward independence.”
Program Manager Za Zette Scott of Family Assistance Program, who also participated in community meetings in support of the grant application, said the collaboration reflects the shared commitment of the county, city partners and nonprofits to tackle homelessness.
“This collaborative effort demonstrates how the county, city partners and nonprofits can work together to address complex community challenges,” said Scott. “By working together, we can create opportunities that help people rebuild their lives and strengthen our community as a whole.”
According to the 2025 Point-in-Time Count, homelessness in the county decreased by 10.2 percent compared to the previous year. County leaders attribute the decrease to expanded outreach efforts and increased state and federal funding aimed at combating homelessness. Continued support through grants such as HHAP help sustain this progress. For more information on the county and the CoC’s efforts to address homelessness, please visit https://sbchp.sbcounty.gov/.
In 2013, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were the City of San Bernardino with 908; Victorville with 292; Upland 158; Ontario 136; Loma Linda 119; Fontana 117 and Rancho Cucamonga 91.
The records relating to the homeless count carried in San Bernardino County are not publicly available.
In 2015, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino with 767 destitute; Victorville with 261 homeless; Upland had 166 ; Yucca Valley 161; Ontario 146; Fontana 135; and Redlands 90.
In 2016, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino at 564; Victorville 264; Upland 164; Redlands, 148; Ontario 133; Fontana 87; and Barstow 80
In 2017, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino, tallying 491; Redlands 164; Victorville 157; Upland 127; Ontario 91; Rialto 91 and Fontana at 79.
In 2018, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino with 646; Victorville: 263; Redlands: 143; Upland: 125; Barstow: 93; Ontario: 90; Fontana: 72;
In 2019, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino with 890; Victorville 333; followed by Redlands with 183, Rialto with 133, Ontario with 128; Fontana with 94; and Highland with 72.
In 2020, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino with 1,056; Victorville 451; Redlands 186; Colton 136; Fontana 116; Rialto 115 and Barstow hosting 108.
In 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, at the bchest of which cities and counties throughout the county carry out aan annual count of their homeless in January or February, citing concerns over the potential of the spreading of the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus to a vulnerable population, called off the counting of the homeless population tallies.
In 2022, the seven highest counts of homeless in the county were the 1,350 in San Bernardino, 455 in Victorville, 199 in Colton, 193 in Ontario, 184 in Rancho Cucamonga, 156 in Fontana and 103 in Barstow.
In 2023 the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino, Victorville, Redlands, Fontana, Colton, Ontario, and Barstow, with 1,502, 607, 324, 240, 212, 187, and 154, respectively.
In 2024, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were the City of San Bernardino, where there were 1,417 total homeless; Victorville, with 611 with no roof over their heads; Colton with 348 dispossessed;; Fontana with 301 indigent; Ontario with 197 denizens of the streets; Barstow with 113 seeping under the stars and Yucca Valley, host to 97 who were destitute.
In 2025, the seven county cities with the highest homeless totals were San Bernardino with 1,535; Victorville 448; Fontana 364; Colton 348; Ontario 297; Redlands 146; and Rancho Cucamonga with a count of 120.
In San Bernardino County going back for more than an decade there has been tremendous tension within the general community about what should be done with the burgeoning homeless population.
A contributing factor to the homelessness problem has been the rising cost of housing. The vast majority of those who function within the society have dealt with the same financial issues and have managed to house their families and themselves, either by purchasing a home or continuing to rent, making their mortgage payments or monthly payments to their landlords. They adhere to the principle of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, and may of them, while perhaps somewhat empathetic toward those who are not able to compete within the increasingly brutal economy to the point that they end up on the street or living out of their vehicles, are still unwilling to support a social welfare system that will simply pay for providing living quarters for those who are not able to compete, as this seems out of keeping with the traditional American work ethic.
Since there is not a consensus that those who can’t make it in California’s dog-eat-dog economy among those who must themselves run the rat race everyday, an attitude that holds the down-and-out should be dealt with harshly prevails among a large contingent of than Bernardino County’s population. In many cases, the political leadership in the county has adopted this same attitude. An outgrowth of this is a strategy which calls for simply attempting to convince the homeless to leave San Bernardino County.
One manifestation of this is the manner in which law enforcement officers throughout San Bernardino County – in its 22 cities, its two incorporated towns and its 86 unincorporated communities – have been given essential license to deal very harshly with the homeless in many throughout much of San Bernardino County, .
This involves law enforcement officers characterizing the possessions of the homeless as trash or debris, and demanding that they dispose of it immediately. This quite often results in the homeless having to part with their sleeping bags, tents, ground cover, mats, air-inflated mattress and other types of insulation they use to separate themselves from the ground while they are sleeping. Thus, those unhoused people who argue with police officers or sheriff’s deputies by insisting that their bedding is not trash are then subject to being physically assaulted by the officers or deputies, whereupon their bedding is seized from them and discarded.
If the homeless resist or fight back, they are then arrested, whereupon the district attorney’s office will prosecute them for a California Penal Code 148(a)(1) violation, pertaining to willfully resisting, delaying, or obstructing a peace officer.
Another tactic utilized to redress San Bernardino County’s homeless problem consists of offering those who do not have an official residence a ride to a location outside San Bernardino County – such as deep into Los Angeles County or Orange County with the understanding that they will set up an encampment there and abandon whatever encampment they have been residing at in San Bernardino County. Some officials have admitted that in come cases, police officers have agreed to transport homeless individuals to other locations within San Bernardino County, for example from San Bernardino to Rancho Cucamonga, as long as those being transported choose a place well away from the city they are are currently camped down in, and offer an assurance they will not return.
Efforts to alleviate the homeless problem in the past have in some measure failed because the programs have not created places of permanent residence for those who have no place to live.
A few San Bernardino County cities, such as San Bernardino, Redlands and Fontana, have converted hotels or motels into domiciles for the homeless and Victorville has constructed a homeless center from scratch. .The $10 million in the sixth round of Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development being provided to the county, the City of San Bernardino and County Continuum of Care will, perhaps in this case, be utilized to construct or expand permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness and make actual inroads on getting those who have no place to live into some sort of permanent living arrangement that will get them off the street.
A often-heard complaint is that the State of California has invested something approaching $37 million programs for the homeless since 2018, but failed to actually create places of residence for the indigent, such that the numbers of homeless in that timeframe have not decreased but rather increased significantly..
It is not clear who will be entrusted with the expenditure of the sixth round of Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funding and whom they will be answerable to.