Driving on the 5 freeway, through the downtown S curve, it’s easy to see what everyone else says they see up on an overpass or two.
Tents and makeshift tents strewn from one side of the freeway to the other. And if you drive through the East Village, and other parts of downtown, you see them too.
So while recently taking that drive, through those areas, a question came up wondering why there are still so any of the homeless tents around, Didn’t the Mayor and other city leaders say they were banning them from sidewalks and streets in San Diego?
When told that laws about having to have shelter beds available before people who are homeless can be forced to remove the tents and makeshift shelters, the questioner wasn’t satisfied and expressed doubt that the homeless situation will ever be solved. And that’s a growing concern with the trend we are seeing.
As the Voice of San Diego reports, it has been 13 months now since the San Diego region had a month during which the number of people falling into homelessness was smaller than the number of homeless people who find housing. The numbers from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness show that in April, more than 11-hundred people became homeless while only 700 moved into a place to live.
In other words, the problem continues to worsen. And answers to reducing the problem have been as hard to find as finding homes for the homeless.
(Photo reporting partner 10Newws)