Vista council hears progress report on homelessness strategic plan, presses county for accountability

City staff gave a detailed update on implementation of Vista's Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness at a Jan. 29 council workshop, citing program outcomes, contract spending and requests for additional reporting.

Housing and Homelessness Services Division Manager Jonathan Lung told the council the plan — adopted in March 2020 — has ‘‘appropriated over $28 million, spending nearly $14 million of those appropriations’’ through Dec. 31, 2025. He said staff measure homelessness with an annual point‑in‑time count and a by‑name list maintained by the San Diego Rescue Mission; the 2025 point‑in‑time unsheltered count in Vista was 144 (a 15% decrease from 2024), and the by‑name list recorded 378 people engaged with outreach in the 90 days before Dec. 31, 2025.

The presentation reviewed multiple strategies and contracts that support shelter, outreach and housing: agreements with San Diego Rescue Mission to form the Vista HOT outreach team (which served 815 unduplicated clients and generated thousands of service interactions), a shared‑housing pilot (VHIP) that placed clients into master leases and individual units, a safe‑parking program operated by Jewish Family Service, and the Buena Creek Navigation Center (BCNC), which served 315 unduplicated…