Category: Homelessness

By Blake Nelson / The San Diego Union-Tribune / August 26, 2025 

Several residents of San Diego’s designated camping areas for homeless people are suing to overhaul the program, alleging that both lots are dirty, lack quality food and remain unequipped to aid those with disabilities.

The safe sleeping sites hold hundreds of two-person tents near Balboa Park. Each location is “rodent infested” and a “fire hazard,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court. They are also host to “excessive and dangerous heat” during part of the year as well as “cold and flooding in the winter,” weather that often leaves belongings “saturated with mold.”

All in all, “living conditions in the Camps” are “untenable, seriously threatening and aggravating mental and physical health,” the filing says.

The lawsuit asks a court to force reforms on the effort.

By Steven Mihailovich / Point Loma-OB Monthly SDU-T / August 20, 2025 

The Ocean Beach Community Foundation is trying to take on the homelessness problem with the formation of an Unsheltered Subcommittee, and it’s seeking support from the community.

In announcing the new committee at OBCF’s public meeting Aug. 14, board member Phil Cenedella categorized homelessness as three types of conditions — mental illness, circumstantial and criminal — and said the committee’s goal is to assist with all three, including incarceration for the latter.

“The elephant in the room in OB has been the unsheltered, security and mental illness issues,” Cenedella said. “That’s why we’re taking it seriously as a board and try to address it. … We know what’s going on. Now we need to find solutions. … We don’t want kids and their moms scared walking to school. That’s unacceptable.”

Tamara Kohler, chief executive of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, was on hand to offer the support of her nonprofit organization.

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / July 23, 2025

He’s been called a godsend for distributing food from San Diego Food Bank weekly to the homeless, poor and needy in Ocean Beach and Midway District.

He is Glyn Franks and, for more than a quarter-century, he has operated Second Chances-Bread of Life, Inc.

“We are a tiny little faith-based nonprofit,” said Franks. “We distribute food at The Orchard Senior Living Apartments on Channel Way in Midway District on Fridays at noon, and to the homeless in OB on Saturday mornings.

“I am not ordained and am only an unpaid volunteer coordinator and servant,” noted Franks, a transplant from Yuma, Ariz. A devout Christian, he draws inspiration for serving the poor from biblical passages suggesting people, through faith, are offered forgiveness and new beginnings.

Franks has made it his mission to practice what he preaches. He accomplishes that by regularly distributing free food to those who need it. He stressed that his self-chosen mission is not about him. Rather, he emphasized the impact and importance of the volunteers who help him.

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.

Deficits and a coming demolition threaten to shutter the Rosecrans facility that offers mental health services.

By Blake Nelson / San Diego Union-Tribune / May 26, 2025

The city of San Diego has nowhere near enough shelter for everybody asking. Yet an ongoing dispute between city and county officials has reduced the number of available beds even more.

The Rosecrans homeless shelter, a large tent in the Midway district that helps residents with mental health issues, has stopped accepting new people, leaving 14 spots open as of Wednesday, according to Alpha Project CEO Bob McElroy. The San Diego Housing Commission has also halted intakes at 8 other programs in anticipation of Rosecrans’ possible closure at the end of June, and two staffers at the tent recently quit to take other jobs.

By Dan Walters / Calmatters / May 20, 2025

One of Gavin Newsom’s political ploys is to depict political rivals as bullies and himself as someone who stands up to them.

Last September, for example, he devoted an entire segment of his podcast, “Politickin’,” to denouncing Donald Trump, saying he is “a bully. But here’s the thing about bullies — they’re weak.”

That was before Trump was elected and before Newsom had to play nice in hopes of securing billions of dollars in federal relief aid for fire-damaged Los Angeles County. After initially saying he would provide such aid during a visit to L.A., Trump began hinting on imposing conditions on California, such as tightening up voting requirements and loosening up on water deliveries to farmers.

Newsom then reverted to his previous role as a leader of resistance to Trump.

Yes, Trump does use bullying tactics to get his way. He uses aggressive policies — such as tariffs on imports — as a negotiating tactic. So does Newsom.

From KPBS – City News Service

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday, April 22nd, approved a contract with nonprofit Jewish Family Service of San Diego to continue running the city’s Safe Parking Program, including the new H Barracks site.

The barracks site, near San Diego International Airport, is intended to have 190 spaces for people using the program. Tuesday’s approval by the council is a one-year contract with Jewish Family Service.

By Steven Mihailovich / Point Loma – OB Monthly SDU-T / March 6, 2025

A growing preponderance of recreational vehicles being parked at Robb Field, leading to a scarcity of parking spaces for the increasing number of visitors as the weather begins to warm and softball season gets underway, was a subject of discontent at the Ocean Beach Community Foundation’s February meeting.

San Diego Police Department Community Relations Officer James Harris said he had received dozens of emails about the situation and said he visited the parking lot three weeks before the Feb. 26 meeting. He counted 105 RVs, he said, most of which he suspected were being used as housing for their occupants.

“But they’re taking up two spots and now we’ve got 210 spots gone and that’s a real problem,” Harris said. “Plus, you don’t feel safe potentially parking next to that. I get all these complaints and I feel those complaints.”

By a Concerned OBcean Finding His Voice:

I used to (and still do) consider myself a fairly progressive left-wing liberal, however given that I can no longer recognize or sit with the politics occurring at the national level, I have promised myself to dive more deeply into local policy and activism to help protect the town that I love and preserve it for my 10 month-old son. Given that I have no idea how to actually do that yet, let this rant to the editor of a grass roots and independent local newsletter be my first step.

Stream of consciously and in no particular order:

While I am, on principle, a believer in higher taxes (especially for the wealthy) and deeply appreciate the services they bring, I wish that local governments do better with the tax money we the citizens already generate (which is among the highest nationally) and not make the function of our city dependent on a tax bill to make it even higher.

By Chris Jennewein / Times of San Diego / Feb. 7, 2025

Mayor Todd Gloria on Friday, Feb. 7, dropped plans for the controversial, giant homeless shelter at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street near the San Diego International Airport.

“After a year of negotiations and multiple hearings, we have come to the conclusion that the proposed homeless shelter campus at Kettner and Vine can no longer advance,” Gloria said. “As a result, we will present alternative solutions to the City Council on Feb. 10.”

He said three new options are:

In an Op-ed on January 1, Scott Lewis — the CEO and main editor of the online Voice of San Diego — warned his fellow San Diegans that in 2025, we have to deal with all the screaming.Scott, who lives in the OB-Point Loma area — was talking about how we need to face up to the plight and screaming of all the homeless people, now that the city is in, what Scott calls –“the eighth year of the homeless crisis.” We must all heed his warning.

By Scott Lewis / Voice of San Diego / January 1, 2025

A few weeks ago, a man in the alley behind our house began screaming. Screaming is not unusual around us, unfortunately. But usually it comes and goes – less frequent than the airplanes, more frequent than the helicopters.

One man walks around screaming all the time. Long beard, bike. Sometimes he begs on the corner. Sometimes he disappears for weeks. But he’s always back and almost always screaming.

This wasn’t him. We know him. This was deeper, closer and more disturbed. And it wasn’t going away. It scared my daughter. I went back there with the flashlight and found the man. He was ensconced in a combination of blankets and garbage. He was ranting incoherently, unaware of me even as I tried to get his attention.

I finally yelled “Hey!” He turned and looked right at me. “You’re freaking people out.”

By Lisa Mortensen

Good morning Council members:

I am really shocked that you are wasting more time and resources on the failed Kettner and Vine Mega Shelter that you will discuss in ‘closed-door’ session on Monday December 16th.  Why the ‘closed-door’ meeting?  Why are you continuing to ignore the public and allow yourselves to be arm-twisted by the mayor?

Have you not been listening to all the cogent public testimony statements at prior meetings this year from those who have lived experience of homelessness as well as mental health professionals, and individuals who have dedicated their lives representing homeless advocate non-profits?

What part of this public record are you missing?