What to do about the problem of homelessness in San Diego?
Visitors to the Gaslamp and downtown residents are complaining about it every day. Shop and restaurant owners worry about the impact on their business. Public health officials are concerned about a growing public health problem. Public officials talk about what to do about it.
And later this week, that’s what San Diego City Council members will be doing, talking about and debating a proposed ordinance to ban homeless encampments. And if they do what it means and will it work. There are those who think it’s a good idea and those who don’t.
This week, a group of students from San Diego State and U-C San Diego were in front of City Hall to protest banning homeless encampments, chanting, “Housing, not handcuffs.”
Also this week, a reporter for the Voice of San Diego did a series of interviews with people who are homeless and said most of the people she talked with said they refused to enter city shelters for various reasons and preferred to wait for housing on the street and in the encampments where they have built a community.
And the people who lead the organizations in San Diego that provide shelters for the homeless and try to find temporary housing for them are more frustrated than ever about the lack of progress in reducing homelessness.
So what happens at this week’s City Council’s meeting about banning homeless encampments is important and could determine what lies ahead.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: AFP via Getty Images