They were repeatedly ticketed because of their homelessness. What did it change? — An Ocean Beach story

by Marisa Kendall, Aaron Schrank and Lisa Halverstadt / Cal-Matters / June 27, 2025

It’s been 12 months since a groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court decision rewrote the playbook on homelessness, allowing cities in California and beyond to make homeless encampments illegal, even when no shelter is available.

Before the justices ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson, Los Angeles and other cities generally had to offer someone a shelter bed before punishing them for sleeping on the street. But that went out the window when the justices upheld an ordinance by the Oregon city of Grants Pass that banned camping on all public property.

Since the ruling, camping-related citations and arrests have soared in cities throughout California — everywhere from Sacramento to Los Angeles to San Diego and beyond.

In each of those three cities, police are citing many of the same people again and again. And while some have managed to move indoors, many others are still camping in the same places, racking up citations that ultimately make it more difficult to find housing.

We tracked down a few of those people. Here are their stories:  [For other California homeless stories, go here]

San Diego: Moving into a swamp 

Micah Huff for a time lost touch with a San Diego case manager who was trying to help him move to a city-backed homeless campsite as he sought to avoid police and encampment clean-ups.

Huff, 45, moved to a boggy area near Ocean Beach bordered by brush, mud and city streets because it’s harder for the authorities to find him there. He had to hike in and out and said he’s already moved his belongings across the wetland once. Earlier this month, he said he expected to move again soon, as he’s done every couple weeks since the city stepped up enforcement.

Since May 2024, records show police cited Huff seven times for offenses tied to his unsheltered status and arrested him twice.

Police data obtained by Voice of San Diego shows arrests and citations for violations tied to homelessness more than doubled in the six months after the Grants Pass ruling. Rather than the ruling, police attribute the increase to the new police chief assigning more officers to engage with community members and enforce crimes tied to homelessness.

A year before the Grants Pass decision, the San Diego City Council approved a camping ban that police began enforcing in summer 2023, while also continuing to enforce older ordinances, such as those that prohibit encroaching on the public right of way.

Micah Huff, a client of PATH case manager Dawn Contreras, in Ocean Beach on June 17, 2025. Photo by Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego
The city’s street homeless population fell last year, and Mayor Todd Gloria credits that reduction to approaches such as the camping ban, continued enforcement of existing laws and increased shelter offerings and more outreach.

Arrests can be traumatic: One of Huff’s arrests, which police records suggest may have occurred last September, has made a lasting impression on him.

Huff was meeting a friend he hadn’t seen in a while at a dog beach in Ocean Beach. The two fell asleep near a public restroom, Huff said, and were startled awake by police. Police arrested Huff for encroachment and possession of drug paraphernalia, though Huff says the supplies weren’t his.

Huff said his heart raced during his encounter with police. He heard an officer talk about a backpack with drug supplies. Huff’s blood pressure surged, a reaction that Huff said put him at risk of a heart attack or stroke due to a blood pressure condition.

Then he passed out.

Huff said police took him to Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest. Huff estimates the officers waited six or seven hours before finally giving up on booking him and leaving.

He left the hospital with medications that were stolen within a few days of his return outdoors.

Superior Court records show that Huff has yet to be charged for these offenses or other alleged homelessness-related violations over the past couple years.

The outcome of the city crackdowns, according to Huff, has simply been that he’s been pushed “further and further away” into remote areas — currently a literal swamp — to avoid enforcement or clean-ups.

But increasing enforcement in recent weeks and months at nearby Ocean Beach hasn’t convinced 38-year-old Ryan Taylor to move elsewhere. Taylor, who has been cited nine times and arrested five times for offenses tied to homelessness, continues to set up an umbrella and blankets at the beach.

One recent arrest came on Memorial Day, when Taylor was picked up on a warrant for failing to appear in court to address homelessness-related charges. He was relieved to find most of his belongings still at the beach when he returned the next morning.

More recently, Taylor’s case manager has been helping him work on addressing his criminal cases in court. He is set to appear at a July 24 hearing to start the process.

Taylor hasn’t left the Ocean Beach area he’s settled in for most of the four years he’s been homeless in San Diego despite the repeated arrests and citations, he said, because he’s “just accepted that’s the way that it is.”

Taylor also said he’s repeatedly accepted offers of shelter when police show up next to him at the beach, but said shelter has never been available when he agreed to it.

“To me, it seems like the people that need help or whatever don’t have money, giving them more tickets doesn’t help them, propel them to get them financially out of the hole or help them,” Taylor said.

First: Empty bottles in a shopping cart in Ocean Beach on June 17, 2025. Last: Micah Huff, a client of PATH case manager Dawn Contreras, in Ocean Beach on June 17, 2025. Photos by Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego

San Diego police Capt. Steve Shebloski, who oversees the division focused on homelessness-related enforcement, and Denny Knox, executive director of business group OB MainStreet Association, argue that increased enforcement is having a positive effect, though both also said there’s more work to do.

Shebloski noted recent homeless census results showing a 4% drop in unsheltered homelessness in the city and less visible homelessness in communities including San Diego’s downtown.

But Dawn Contreras, a case manager for nonprofit PATH working with both Huff and Taylor, said the increased enforcement only makes homeless service workers’ jobs more difficult.

One day this spring, Contreras said she was picking up an unsheltered client for a required webinar to obtain housing when a beat officer — not assigned to the Neighborhood Policing Division that Shebloski oversees — ordered her client to clear his camp. Contreras said she implored the officer to allow the man to clean the camp later so he could head to his meeting.

“You’re not willing to bend for just one hour?” Contreras said.

The officer refused. With Contreras’ help, the unsheltered man later signed onto his meeting a few minutes late. Rescheduling it would have added another logistical hurdle for both Contreras and her client as they prepared to move him off the street.