Category: Homelessness

Phoenix and Salt Lake City have ended chronic homelessness among veterans. Why can’t San Diego follow their example?

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

Phoenix has become the first city to end homelessness among veterans. The Obama administration had set a goal of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015, but Phoenix reached that mark a year early. After housing the last 56 veterans a week before Christmas, Phoenix announced that it had eradicated chronic homelessness among veterans in that city.

Phoenix and Salt Lake City had been involved in a frierndly competition to see which city could end chronic homelessness among veterans first. Phoenix won, but Salt Lake was not far behind.

By Matt Pearce / LA Times / December 11, 2013

Although the jobless rate is at its lowest level in five years and the stock market has surpassed its pre-recession high, the economic gains have not reached many poor urban residents, and 2014 could be even worse, a new survey said Wednesday.

Homelessness and hunger have increased and are expected to keep rising in many cities next year, according to the latest U.S. Conference of Mayors survey of 25 large and midsized metro areas.

Last year’s national poverty rate of 15% is still near the Great Recession’s high of 15.1%, according to U.S. Census figures.

By Doug Porter

The Regional Task Force on the Homeless is seeking over one thousand volunteers to assist in counting homeless individuals in San Diego on January 24, 2014.

The Point In Time Count (PITC) is an annual census effort encompassing both sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals. Data about locations and demographics is collected, enabling agencies in the San Diego region to better understand the scope, impact and potential solutions to homelessness.

The PITC is also crucial in that it supplies information essential to applications for funding to address homeless issues. Based on San Diego’s 2013 census, approximately 8,900 individuals, families and unaccompanied children experience homelessness annually in San Diego County.

The following is based on remarks I made at a press conference earlier this week on Tuesday, Dec. 2, to announce the dismissal of felony vandalism charges against Vince Adame by the DA’s office. I did represent Mr. Adame in the final phase of the case.

By Frank Gormlie

The main editorial at the U-T San Diego today – Dec. 2nd – spoke of how San Diego has avoided another black eye what with the District Attorney’s dismissal of felony charges against Vince Adame, the hedge trimmer. The first black eye was the prosecution by the City Attorney’s office of the chalk drawer. So yes, San Diego has avoided another black eye.

This is all well and good, but what about Vince Adame’s black eye.

By Matthew Wood

The nightmare that has been Vince Adame’s long shrubbery saga is finally over.

He has been battling a citation over his trimming of some bushes across the alley from his house that somehow turned into a felony vandalism charge. When the district attorney’s office finally dropped the charges Monday night, the longtime Ocean Beach resident was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

A press conference …

Ocean Beach Needs to Draw Lessons From Ruling

Six years ago the well-known city of Flagstaff, Arizona, began enforcing a state law that made it a criminal offense to panhandle or beg for money or food.

Flagstaff is, of course, close to the national treasure the Grand Canyon, is often awash with tourists and transients alike. Merchants and some residents were getting tired of what they perceived as overly-aggressive panhandling by the transients on the town’s streets – especially in the commercial area. So pressure was applied and the city council ordered police to arrest anyone who panhandled.

During one year, Flagstaff police arrested an estimated 135 people – all on suspicion of loitering to beg. They would be arrested early in the day – in order to avoid the tourists probably. Some were jailed. A local attorney said, “Many of the people arrested under the begging law simply needed a little assistance — not a jail cell.”

By Tom Hunter

I spent five years living in vehicles at the beach in San Diego.

I knew the cops, I knew the dealers and I knew the homeless.

I was upper class, because I managed to hang onto a vehicle. I made gas money by driving a hooker to her johns. I was elated when the courts told the SDPD to stop ticketing people for being on the streets. (The police have decided in practice that court order no longer applies).

Here’s how it goes down. The homeless get a ticket. They don’t go to court. They have a warrant issued. They are arrested and jailed. They learn from their fellow inmates how to steal, how to use stolen credit cards, and how to get along in jail. It would be much cheaper to send them to San Diego State, but that’s not going to happen.

Editor: Jack Hamlin wrote this a year ago. Jack led efforts back in 2009 and 2010 to bring all sides together in a series of community forums about homelessness. Now we repost it as the attitudes he focused on have arisen once again in the seaside village.

By Jack Hamlin

It is happening again. Three years ago we were able to come together as a community to try and begin to resolve the issues surrounding homelessness and the poor in Ocean Beach. I am not so naïve as to look back on that time as “Halcyon Days of Kumbaya,” in O.B. Rather it was a time during which we began to look for solutions, instead of blame and division. But we all have become complacent and are returning to the awful time of “Please Don’t Feed Our Bums.”

By Giovanni Ingolia

Beside the turmoil that has been happening at city hall (A subject I would much prefer to discuss as its implications are much greater), Ocean Beach has a controversy of its own- the marshmallow fight after the fireworks.

I want to remind everyone this is not an event sponsored by the OB Town Council, OB Planning Board, OB CDC, OB Historic Society or OB Main Street Association. I personally sit as a board member on two of the groups and follow every one of them. They all do great jobs. (Remember this is my opinion and not that of the boards I sit on.)

The marshmallow fight event has its supporters and its detractors. Both sides make good points that are hard to disagree with. One thing all groups have in common is this event shouldn’t be harmful to others and the mess should be cleaned up immediately due to the problems it creates to the environment. We need to all work together.

Problems with a Ban

When I first started to see calls for the ban of the marshmallow fight there were also calls to end the fireworks.

Banning the 4th of July fireworks, a tradition that honors our country’s birth, should never be stopped in OB.

The OB Rag has heard from two independent sources that an Ocean Beach gang attacked several homeless men Sunday night, July 14th, causing at least one serious injury, and then also attacked some locals. This occurred at approximately 2 a.m. on OB’s main street, Newport Avenue.

A group calling itself “OB Rats” assaulted and beat a couple of homeless guys, with one of the victims having his nose seriously injured from a kick in the face. He reportedly had his backpack stolen by the gang of young males that contained food for his dog. This attack occurred in the 4900 block of Newport Avenue.

The attackers then tipped over a trash container on the sidewalk along Newport Avenue. A local – a young man – who was sitting near the OB International Hostel, yelled at them to stop and have respect for OB.

The group then crossed the street and began assaulting him and at least one other male in front of the hostel. One of the attackers was thrown on the ground, and his buddies picked him up and left.

City Council to Take Up Faulconer’s Ordinance on July 8th

By JEC

The City of San Diego is about to ban a host of vehicles from parking on city streets. This coming Monday, July 8th, the City Council will consider a new ordinance sponsored by 2nd District Council member Kevin Faulconer that prohibits city residents from parking oversized, non-motorized or recreational vehicles on any street within the city limits.

There are exceptions, of course. Vehicles performing service to the property or loading/unloading; government or public utility vehicles; buses used to transport youths or the disabled (party buses get no free pass); and, any vehicle displaying a valid permit.

To issue permits involves creating a new bureaucracy.

A permit will be good for only 24 hours

By Michelle Hope

I am a California Native and lived many years in Ocean Beach – my People’s card starts with a 1 4. My family owns property on West Point Loma and I still have family here.

For 7 years I traveled the country on my motorcycle working at Rallies to support myself and living in a tent. I dig the nomadic lifestyle and you could read some of my work on the internet of adventure stories of living gypsy. I came home last year and decided to stay to complete a dream of being a Holistic Health Practitioner at a school. So I enrolled and got myself an RV to live in while I am here in school. It is my pursuit of happiness. Everything I owned fit on my motorcycle for 7 years – always close, I am accustomed to it.