Category: Homelessness

Voice of San Diego / May 27, 2026

Tonight, Wednesday the 27th, the San Diego City Council will hold a public hearing on this year’s proposed budget, which seeks to close a $118 million deficit. Tonight’s public hearing will be held in Council Chambers starting at 6:30 p.m.

The meeting is the latest deliberation following Mayor Todd Gloria’s May revision. He restored some library and recreation center hours after Councilmembers pushed back, saying those cuts pose a threat to public safety.

But there are still some tense conversations ahead.

Here’s three media reports on the candidates for District 2, including on the last candidate debate / forum, held May 14th at Paradise Point Resort & Spa. We have reports from Times of San Diego, the Union-Tribune and Axios San Diego.

Here’s Dave Schwab of Times of San Diego‘s account:

District 2 candidates Richard Bailey, Josh Coyne, Nicole Crosby, Mandy Havlik, Jacob Mitchell, Mike Rickey and Paul Suppa answered curated questions from a panel of community leaders on far-ranging issues from the city’s budget to people living out of their vehicles, homelessness, housing density, public safety and quality of life.

The Ocean Beach Community Foundation along with the Pacific Beach and Mission Beach town councils joined forces to host the event ahead of the June 2 primary election. It is the last public candidate forum before the primary, which will send the top two vote getters to a November runoff election to replace termed-out incumbent Jennifer Campbell.

From Governing / May 12, 2026

It’s a warm April day, bordering on hot, with the midday sun overhead. Still, Savannah Flores stays beneath a black tarp she has fashioned into a tent. If she tries to climb out, she says, it might collapse. So she agrees to talk through a small hole in the plastic.

Two or three days a week, she says, city crews sweep through this half-block stretch of 17th Street. The roughly two dozen people who usually camp there get 24 hours’ notice to pack up. Flores, 35, has been homeless for about a year. Whenever police come to clear out the area, she goes around the corner and returns later.

“They come and they treat us pretty much like we’re part of the trash,” she says. “They tell us to disappear somewhere, to be invisible.”

By Jillian Butler

On April 27, 2026, more than 200 residents gathered at the Liberty Station Conference Center, shared with Point Loma Nazarene University, for a wide-ranging forum featuring candidates vying to represent San Diego’s District 2. Hosted by the League of Women Voters, the event gave Peninsula residents a chance to hear directly from those hoping to replace termed-out Councilmember Jennifer Campbell.

OBceans and Point Loma residents hope that the next councilperson will take the concerns of Peninsula residents seriously. Currently, there are six individuals vying for Ms. Campbell’s position.

Mr. Josh Coyne is a former Campbell aide who has a professional background in Student Affairs at the University of San Diego. He has a robust background in providing aid to LBGTQ+ youth. Ms. Nicole Crosby is a former City Attorney and a mother. She is extremely involved with Parent-Teacher Association meetings, and her experience as a devoted parent drives her desire to better her community.

Ms. Mandy Havlik is the wife of a disabled veteran– a group of Point Loma voters that is often overlooked. Mr. Jacob Mitchell is a younger man with no political background who is hoping to make this region more affordable. Mr. Paul Suppa is an attorney and fellow alumni of the University of San Diego. Finally, Mr. Richard Bailey the former mayor of Coronado is throwing his hat in the ring for a District Two seat.

Evan Anderson, who was the driver that struck and killed Tracy Condon, a woman experiencing homelessness while she sat on a curb in Ocean Beach has pleaded guilty to hit and run and possession of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas.

Anderson on November 4, 2025, was doing some kind of parking maneuver around 5 pm with his Toyota Tundra pick-up on Santa Monica Avenue, when he hit Condon on the curb next to her wheel chair. Anderson fled, leaving his truck at the scene, but returned a few hours later and was arrested.

On Friday, March 27, the prosecutor said that Anderson will receive a sentence of two years’ probation, “with custody to be decided at sentencing.”

The maximum sentence is four years and six months in state prison, though San Diego Superior Court Judge Marian Gaston announced the defendant would likely receive probation. A year in jail is also possible. The Deputy District Attorney said he did not sign the plea agreement, which sometimes occurs if the prosecutor doesn’t agree with the terms.

by Mariana Martínez Barba / Voice of San Diego / March 24, 2026

Four years ago, researchers found that if the city opened a safe parking lot for 24 hours every day, it would be easier to connect individuals who live in their vehicles to services.

Those findings encouraged city officials to make a safe parking lot in Mission Valley available 24 hours a day. That meant people staying at the lot didn’t have to leave during the day and could access services with more flexibility.

Other city safe parking lots have curfews, which means people staying there need to leave during the day and return at night. That’s the case at a safe lot near the airport, known as H Barracks. The city is currently in a legal battle with homeless individuals over the lot’s accessibility.

One of the researchers involved in the previous study of city safe lots still believes it’s more effective to open lots for 24 hours every day. City officials maintain that H Barracks is working as is and are not considering changing its operation hours. Homeless advocates say extended hours could help, but San Diegans living in their cars aren’t sure.

Earlier this week, an opinion piece appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, written by occasional Rag writer Jillian Butler, with the headline, “Why Ocean Beach needs ‘broken windows’ policing.” It decried the sad state of OB and complained of the graffiti, drug use and fights visible in public. Butler stated:

The 5000 block of Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach was once a cultural and business haven. Now, it is commonplace to stroll through the area on any day and witness individuals using heroin, openly selling drugs, defecating or masturbating. … However, as any business owner of an establishment on Newport can tell you, stabbings, druggings and brawls are no longer uncommon occurrences.

Butler states that non-violent offenses no longer are dealt with by San Diego police, OB needs what’s called “broken windows’ policing.” This is a community-based system of policing and caring for a community; repair the windows, cover up the graffiti to show that residents care about the neighborhood.

But drug use, graffiti and fights have been common in OB for decades. Yet, Butler raises the issue: has it worsened? Is Ocean Beach really getting this bad?

What’s your view?

Here’s Butler’s piece:

Why Ocean Beach needs ‘broken windows’ policing

By Jillian Butler

On the wall beside the CVS parking lot in Ocean Beach, a graffiti tag appeared months ago. Since then, more tags have followed. Drug use and fights in the parking lot are no longer unusual, and the sense that no one is responsible for maintaining order has become increasingly difficult to ignore.

Criminologists call this the “broken windows” theory: Visible signs of disorder signal that lawlessness will be tolerated, inviting more serious crime to follow. Though critics dubbed this theory inequitable, my coastal San Diego neighborhood of Ocean Beach has become a case study in what happens when small crimes and public disorder are allowed to persist.

“My Brother Had a Name: Ryan Richard Taylor”

by Rachael Taylor / Voice of San Diego / March 17, 2026

When people hear that my younger brother died while experiencing homelessness, I can tell they want the story to stop there.

They want something tidy, contained and easier to process.

But my brother was not just another tragic ending on the street to be squeezed inside a statistic.

My brother had a name: Ryan Richard Taylor.

Last year, Voice of San Diego featured him in a story about people who received tickets over and over again because they were homeless. Authorities claimed their crackdown was reducing street homelessness. But Ryan continued to stay in Ocean Beach, where he felt most comfortable and at home, even after five arrests and nine citations for offenses related to homelessness.

He died in Ocean Beach on December 6, 2025.

By Jillian Butler

Within the Peninsula Community and San Diego as a whole, homelessness continues to be a pervasive topic brought up in social media discourse, political campaigns, and community meetings.

It is equally divisive as it is pervasive. Some argue for strict crackdowns while others worry about over-policing. Regardless of individual feelings, the homelessness crisis of San Diego is a problem that requires concrete solutions. Ocean Beach has always prided itself on compassion. But compassion alone hasn’t resolved the growing tension around homelessness in 92107.

The San Diego Regional Homeless Task Force estimated that there were no less than 9,905 homeless residing within San Diego County in 2025. At least 221 of those individuals are in the 92107 area code. The average age of those experiencing homelessness is 43 years old. The gender demographics are closely split with 51% being female and 49% being male. Racially, Black people of color make up 48% of the homeless population. Both senior (age 55+) and youth (age 12-24) homeless rates are consistently increasing.

By Pam Kragen / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 14 -15, 2026

Stan Levin, a Korean War veteran who spent the later years of his life as a passionate anti-war activist and helping San Diego’s homeless population, passed away Jan. 8 at a local hospital. He was 96.

The longtime San Diegan worked as an acrobat, in airplane manufacturing, as a schoolteacher and in the real estate industry. But he became best known for his volunteer work with San Diego Veterans for Peace, a vocation that began around his 80th birthday in 2010. He participated in demonstrations, protested at the Miramar air shows, spoke at public events and wrote many essays and letters to the editor that were published in this and other local newspapers and on news sites.

Levin’s daughter Annie Revel said her father loved talking to people on virtually any topic, but over the past 20 years he increasingly became an outspoken anti-war activist.

“He was opinionated and very engaged in life,” Revel said. “He always had a twinkle in his eye and he had a great sense of fun. He was very curious and inquisitive and always learning.”

Hundreds of people were forced to flee a homeless shelter near downtown San Diego as floodwaters rushed through the front door just recently, leaving many with few belongings.

Officials evacuated Alpha Project’s Bridge Shelter, a massive gray tent near 16th Street and Newton Avenue on the edge of Barrio Logan, early New Year’s Day. About 325 men and women are now sleeping in the Municipal Gym in Balboa Park.

More than 2 inches of rain fell on San Diego County on New Year’s, breaking local records and causing multiple water rescues. The shelter was one of the first casualties.

Now Alpha Project is calling on San Diegans to donate items — and they’re asking people to deliver them to the Recital Hall in Balboa Park.

by Calista Stocker / Times of San Diego / Dec. 16, 2025

In 2017, the Metropolitan Transit System spent $1.4 million upgrading bus stop benches throughout the county. In addition to improved water drainage and material updates, the new benches came with dividers, which their contractor refers to as “vagrant bars.”

That was a year after the city of San Diego raced to install jagged rocks downtown under Interstate 5 in time for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Petco Park, and five years before the Downtown Partnership built a controversial bike rack/bench designed to deter lying down.

These are all examples of what urban designers call “hostile architecture.” Commonly referred to as “anti-homeless architecture” or “defensive design,” the concept is used to describe public infrastructure design intended to subtly (or not so subtly) change behavior.

San Diego-based urban designer Howard Blackson argues that hostile architecture reflects the hostility of human nature.