Census Events

The San Diego River Park Foundation is dedicated to improving the health of the San Diego River and creating a better quality of life for our community. While we are primarily an environmental organization, we believe that the issue of homelessness and the subject of environmentalism are very intersectional. We also work to give those living in the riverbed resources they may need by partnering with organizations such as PATH.

Several times throughout the year, we conduct censuses of people living without shelter along the San Diego River. This vital count provides a snapshot of who is experiencing homelessness on a given night. This information can be used to plan local assistance systems, to tailor programs to meet needs, and to raise public awareness.

In order to gather this information, we call on volunteers to help us by working in small teams to walk or hike along the riverbed to count and interview unhoused individuals. Every team has a leader and each team will walk an assigned river segment (1-4 miles) somewhere between Ocean Beach and Lakeside. Most of these events are held early in the morning, around 6am - 9am.