Category: Homelessness

by Michael Smolens / San Diego Union-Tribune / Feb. 11, 2024

Ambitious proposals to address homelessness and mental health issues are moving forward in San Diego and statewide.

The plans come with considerable promise of improving the quality of life for people without shelter and those with mental and brain illnesses, including substance use disorders.

But history has shown there’s reason to temper expectations heading down this path. For one thing, they may not receive necessary approval, whether from the public or elected officials.

by Lynn La / Cal-Matters / February 6, 2024

Describing California’s homelessness crisis as “inhumane” and “unhealthy,” Senate GOP leader Brian Jones of San Diego and Democratic Sen. Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas today announced a bipartisan bill to ban homeless encampments near “sensitive community areas” statewide.

Modeled after San Diego’s “Unsafe Camping Ordinance,” Senate Bill 1011 prohibits encampments within 500 feet of schools, open spaces and major transit stops. It also bans camping on sidewalks if shelter space is available; requires cities or counties to give an unhoused person 72-hour notice before clearing an encampment; and mandates “enforcement personnel” to provide information about homeless shelters in the area.

Here’s two takes by Rag readers on Monday night’s meeting on H-Barracks.

By Keith Fink / January 29, 2024

As publicized, the Point Loma Association hosted a “Community Conversation” on H-Barracks at the PLNU Conference Center at Liberty Station on the evening of January 29.

Before even entering the venue, it appeared clear that a majority of attendees were not there to hear what the speakers had to say. …

By Gregg Robinson / January 30, 2024

I was at the meeting on H-Barracks last night — Monday — and I have never seen so many angry white people in one place without Trump being at the podium. The only non-white person I could see was the representative from Councilwoman Jen Campbell’s office. …

By Derek Falconer / OpEd – San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 18, 2024

[Please go to  original for any links.]

When proponents of a proposal spend more time criticizing the motives of its detractors than defending the merits of the proposal itself, it often indicates the idea itself is a bad one. This is the case with the city’s proposed Barracks H homeless encampment. The proposed site will house up to 1,000 homeless and at-risk individuals right at the doorstep of San Diego International Airport and Harbor Island, near Liberty Station, and within a 20-minute walk of nine schools.

While the need to address the homeless crisis is undeniable, we must critically assess whether this waterfront location is the right choice for an unprecedentedly large encampment.

By George Mullen and Bill Walton / Times of San Diego / January 10, 2024

San Diego is currently living a homeless humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. The time is now to consider deploying what we call the Sunbreak Ranch Emergency Parachute.

The tragic numbers are staggering. According to our own local government’s Regional Task Force On Homelessness, in the San Diego region there were over 4,751 new unsheltered homeless people in 2023.

By Blake Nelson / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 14, 202

The number of encampments along the San Diego River has risen repeatedly since officials set new limits on where tents are tolerated in the city, complicating efforts to reduce how many people sleep outside. There were 122 active camp sites at the end of last month, according to surveys by the San Diego River Park Foundation. Five months ago, before San Diego’s camping ban took effect, there were 95.

An encampment can include a single tent or several hand-built structures throughout a 25 meter area, meaning multiple people often live at each location.

In Mayor Gloria’s State of the City Address last night, Wed., Jan. 10, he used a reference to “H-Barracks”as one of  his sites for people suffering from homelessness. Here’s his reference:

Over the past three years, our City-funded outreach, shelter and family reunification programs, have successfully placed more than 3,600 people into permanent housing. This year, consistent with our comprehensive shelter strategy, we will build on this progress and bring forward the largest homeless services proposals this City has ever pursued.

The first is a plan to add another 1,000 beds to our homeless shelter system by this time next year at new sites, like H Barracks, near the San Diego International Airport.

Rightly or wrongly, this remark shows that Gloria has doubled down on using H-Barracks as part of his plans for a homeless shelter system.

The City of San Diego has doubled down on using “H-Barracks” as a site for a homeless shelter of some kind. A recent article in the U-T by Blake Nelson recounts why that appears to be so.

Apart from Mayor Gloria’s director of community engagement, Kohta Zaiser, making public pronouncements about the positive attributes of the idea, work crews are clearing asbestos and lead from H-Barracks’ eight two-story buildings, shaped like giant “H’s.” When finished with the planned demolition, only a concrete slab will remain.

The prime real estate property has been promised to San Diego’s multibillion-dollar Pure Water recycling system, but which doesn’t need it for another five years, leaving the city with around seven empty acres.

By Jennifer Ludden / NPR / December 15, 2023

Homelessness in America spiked last year, reaching a record high, according to an annual count that provides a snapshot of one night in January. The report, released Dec. 15 by the department of Housing and Urban development, found more than 650,000 people were living in shelters or outside in tents or cars. That’s up a whopping 12% from the year before.

To advocates, it hardly comes as a surprise.

By Scott Lewis/ Voice of San Diego / Dec. 9, 2034

This week, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer endorsed Sunbreak Ranch, the plan to move all homeless San Diegans into a camp somewhere out in the desert. It would be a vast campus of shelters and services. It is Pedro from Napolean Dynamite: Vote for Sunbreak Ranch and all your wildest dreams will come true.

“The successful implementation of Sunbreak Ranch will save hundreds of thousands of lives, alleviate widespread suffering, unlock unfathomable human potential, and clean up America’s cities for all of us,” wrote George Mullen, who came up with the idea, and basketball legend Bill Walton.