Category: Homelessness

By Blake Nelson / San Diego Union-Tribune / June 16, 2024

Early one morning in 2022, Christy Gillette was woken by sheriff’s deputies.

The officers told her to move or face arrest. Gillette, who’s now 51, had been sleeping outside near the Santee Drive-In and responded that she couldn’t leave without her walker. The deputies instead threw the walker away, along with the cremated ashes of her husband and son.

Dear Council members:

You have conducted three closed-session meetings on the Kettner and Vine mega shelter that have been preceded by several hours of public comment prior to each closed session.  Throughout each public comment period, there have been speakers from all communities of our city, from all walks of life, from all professions, and some who have had the ‘lived experience’ of being homeless so your flipped remark of Nimby-ism is a false flag to defend this upside-down project. 

In another campaign swing this morning, Thursday, June 6, Mayor Todd Gloria held a news conference at the site of the now-demolished H-Barracks on Harbor Drive. The subject of his message at this “conference” was budgeting to address the homeless crisis in our city.

Gloria is holding a series of these events, called news conferences, but they’re not really. There’s no press — and no public attending. They’re his staged platforms to spout the latest PR on his key campaign issues.

Four years ago, in 2020, two guys who were homeless would get up every morning at 4 am — and clean the streets and sidewalks of Ocean Beach. Dave Hendon and Marc Gervais became somewhat famous after a TV reporter’s story about them went viral.

People stepped up, bought the guys a van for them and their dog, Pico, and enough donations were raised for them to live in an apartment.

Tragically, the two were involved in a deadly car crash on Memorial Day and Dave succumbed to his injuries. Marc is now at Scripps Mercy fighting for his life.

By Colleen O’Connor

More resistance to the Mayor’s mega plans for neighborhoods is afoot.  Not just North Park’s frustration over the high-rise, no parking, increased bicycle lanes and tone deaf  “push on” responses from the Council and Mayor, but repeats in Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Mission Hills, Clairemont, etc.

Always the rush. The closed session meetings, the insistence on a major development will “improve” the obvious problems.

The latest “solution” to homelessness is a proposed 1,000 bed facility on Kettner & Vine.  This in addition to the Tent City dwellings along near Balboa Park on Pershing Drive, the Barracks near the airport and now this.

The San Diego City Council recently approved a nearly $3.2 million settlement in a federal lawsuit case, Michael Bloom, et al. v. City of San Diego, which challenged the existing Vehicle Habitation Ordinance. The settlement set new rules for how the City is allowed to enforce its ordinances against unhoused people who sleep in their vehicles or RVs during a three-year period.

VEHICLE HABITATION ORDINANCE

City Municipal Code Section 86.0137 prohibits the use of streets for storage, service, or sale of vehicles or for habitation stating: It is unlawful for any person to use a vehicle for human habitation on any street or public property, unless specifically authorized for such use by the city manager:

By Ryan Fonseca / Los Angeles Times / April 24, 2024

‘Managing mode, not solutions mode’

San Diego’s mayor created a department in 2021 to find solutions to the homelessness crisis, signaling a new direction. It hasn’t made things better. The city’s homelessness count increased 35% from 2022 to 2023. Nearly half of the unsheltered people counted were considered chronically homeless.

Homeless deaths increased about 135% over five years, up to at least 624 last year, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office. For every 10 people who find housing in San Diego, 13 people become homeless for the first time, says a 2022 report by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

by Marisa Kendall / Cal-Matters /April 18, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear the biggest case about homelessness in decades, and it seems like everyone in California has an opinion. At issue: whether and under what conditions cities can fine or arrest people for camping in public spaces. The ruling will have nationwide implications for how local leaders manage homeless encampments.

By Lisa Mortensen / April 7, 2024

Dear Councilmembers:

In a few weeks’ time, you will be thrown a political football and it’s called Vine and Kettner.  Now, I know the local news media and the current city hall lobbyists will refer to us as NIMBYs but I hope you will see through the smoke and mirrors and make an educated decision on this fast-moving project before giving it a dutiful approval to satisfy Todd Gloria’s political intentions.

I will provide below a summary of bullet points that should be your guide to this very complicated project. 

by Marisa Kendall/ Calmatters / April 11, 2024

Politicians pushing to make homeless encampments illegal across wide swaths of California point to one city as proof it will work.

“San Diego gets it,” Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones said during a recent press conference. “They are having great success so far with their ordinance, and we hope we can take that success across the state.” Jones’ proposal, Senate Bill 1011, is modeled after a controversial new San Diego ordinance that bans encampments near schools, shelters and transit hubs, in parks, and even, if shelter beds are available, on all public sidewalks.

But how well is San Diego’s “Unsafe Camping Ordinance” really working?

On Thursday, April 4, Mayor Todd Gloria announced that he is seeking to turn a large warehouse on Kettner Blvd into a 65,000 square foot homeless shelter. The building — at 3570 Kettner — is at the corner with Vine Street, just next to the I-5 freeway and near Pacific Highway. Gloria says it will be space for 1,000 people, showers, a kitchen, recreational facilities and counseling services.

If his proposal passes the city council, then he plans to turn the controversial H Barracks site into a parking lot for roughly 200 spaces of designated parking to accommodate people living in vehicles.