Homelessness Solutions

Homelessness remains a challenge across the nation, but Victorville is making measurable progress.

Nationally, the 2024 Point-in-Time Count recorded 771,480 people experiencing homelessness—the highest number ever reported. In California, which accounts for nearly 30% of the nation’s homeless population and half of the nation’s unsheltered population, the statewide crisis continues to grow.

In San Bernardino County, however, the 2025 Homeless Count identified 3,821 individuals, representing a 10.2% decrease from 2024. This marks the first countywide decline since 2018 and reflects expanded outreach, new shelter capacity, and stronger partnerships.

For Victorville, the results are especially encouraging: the City recorded 448 individuals in 2025, a 27% reduction from 2024. This progress highlights the impact of local initiatives such as the Victorville Wellness Center, expanded rapid rehousing programs, and the City’s partnerships with regional service providers.

Homelessness can impact anyone facing a sudden crisis such as job loss, illness, or family breakdown. Families with children are particularly vulnerable. In fact, the 2024 AHAR reported a 39% national increase in family homelessness, showing how rising rents and inflation are straining households.

In Victorville, the City and its partners are responding with family-centered services, connecting parents and children to stable housing, health care, and support programs designed to restore stability and independence.

The rise of homelessness is related to multiple factors with the most obvious being the lack of affordable and permanent supportive housing inventory. However, pathways to homelessness are complicated and sometimes involve more than one origin such as a lack of financial means, substance abuse, mental illness, loss of family, domestic violence, prisoner re-entry (refers to individuals released from jail back into society) or chronic health conditions that negatively impact a person’s self-care ability.

Chronic homelessness refers to individuals who have been homeless for at least a year or repeatedly over three years while living with a disabling condition. Nationwide, one in three homeless adults in 2024 (152,585 people) fell into this category, the highest on record.

In San Bernardino County, chronic homelessness remains significant, but Victorville’s Wellness Center model is providing new hope. By combining interim housing with wraparound behavioral health, medical respite, and employment services, the City is building a pathway out of chronic homelessness.

Historically, the political landscape pushed cities to address homelessness largely on their own, often without adequate funding or resources. Under the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s Martin v. Boise ruling, cities were limited in their ability to enforce anti-camping ordinances unless they could demonstrate sufficient, low-barrier shelter capacity for those experiencing homelessness.

More recently, the political climate has shifted. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson decision gave cities broader authority to enforce anti-camping ordinances, overturning Martin v. Boise. Building on that, Governor Newsom issued a 2025 executive order and model ordinance urging California cities to address encampments with “urgency and dignity,” supported by significant new state investments in housing and mental health treatment.

At the federal level, President Trump’s July 2025 executive order directed a nationwide crackdown on encampments, emphasizing enforcement and institutional placements over voluntary, housing-first solutions.

Together, these shifts highlight the ongoing tension between enforcement-driven strategies and service-based, housing-focused approaches, placing cities like Victorville at the forefront of balancing compassion with compliance.

• Over 300 individuals were sheltered in Victorville during the 2025 count, thanks to expanded shelter capacity and rapid rehousing efforts.
• Countywide homelessness declined for the first time in seven years, down 10.2% between 2024 and 2025.
• Eight cities, including Victorville, account for more than 80% of the County’s homeless population—underscoring Victorville’s role as a central partner in regional solutions.
• Victorville Wellness Center continues to serve as a model of innovative care, combining housing with medical and behavioral health support.
• Victorville’s homeless population decreased 27% between 2024 and 2025, reflecting new local resources and services.
• Victorville’s unsheltered population decreased over 50% between 2024 and 2025, reflecting a model that is working.
• Renters in San Bernardino County now need to earn $37.17 per hour, approximately 2.3 times the state minimum wage, to afford the average monthly rent of $1,933. 
• As of 2024, 58,846 low-income renter households in San Bernardino County do not have access to an affordable home.

The City has hired a Homelessness Solutions Coordinator and Manager to serve as the City’s points of contact to provide guidance on homeless-related matters and to assist in the development and oversight of the City’s Homelessness Solutions Strategic Action Plan. The Homelessness Solutions Staff also helps to optimize collaboration among community stakeholders, centralize homeless-related services, and identify funding sources that support homeless programs and outreach services.

The City of Victorville is taking a comprehensive and strategic approach to address homelessness, utilizing a combination of proactive services and community partnerships to meet the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness. This multi-faceted approach includes providing enhanced outreach/street medicine to the unhoused, as well as responding to requests for assistance from individuals at risk of becoming homeless. The City’s primary goal is not only to ensure that individuals remain housed but also to link clients to the most appropriate services available, fostering long-term housing stability.

For those who are literally homeless, as defined by HUD, the City offers interim housing and emergency services. The Wellness Center serves as a key resource, where individuals receive wraparound services that address their immediate needs and provide comprehensive care, facilitating their transition to stable housing. These services include access to healthcare, case management, and referrals to additional community resources.

Additionally, Victorville works in collaboration with local agencies and organizations to secure permanent housing solutions for those who need them. Through these partnerships, the City is able to connect individuals to long-term housing options, including affordable and subsidized housing, and provides ongoing aftercare services to ensure that once housed, individuals remain stable in their homes and do not return to homelessness.

To further support this initiative, the City is streamlining its permitting processes to encourage and expedite the development of affordable and subsidized housing options. By removing hurdles, the City is enabling housing developers to build more low- and very low-income housing units, addressing the increasing demand for affordable housing in the community. These efforts, alongside ongoing collaboration with service providers, aim to create a robust system of care that helps individuals move from homelessness to long-term housing stability.

The U.S. Supreme Court (Supreme Court) issued its opinion in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (Grants Pass) on June 28, 2024. The case addresses the following legal question related to a local government’s homelessness response: Do local ordinances imposing criminal penalties on acts like public sleeping or camping violate the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment prohibition if they apply to unhoused persons who lack shelter options?

The Supreme Court’s opinion reverses the District Court’s decision and overturns Martin.

The opinion holds that localities do not violate the Eighth Amendment by enacting and enforcing ordinances imposing commonly used criminal penalties (like fines and jail time) for public sleeping and camping offenses. The opinion addresses both the legal and practical aspects of these local ordinances in reaching its conclusion.