The Hopes and Myths of San Diego's Homeless Problem

A recent report on the homelessness problem in San Diego is raising some new hope and tearing apart some old myths.

The Downtown San Diego Partnership said their latest survey of people who are homeless in the downtown area dropped to a level at the end of 2023 it hasn’t been at for two years.

They say was down to about 12-hundred about 1,000 fewer than six months before.

The decrease was attributed to the city’s new ban on homeless encampments on sidewalks, in parks and other public places. While cops have not been arresting people who are homeless, it appears the threat itself has been helpful in getting more to go to temporary shelters.

So this recent report brings hope that the problem of homelessness will become less of one.

But the problem with that is that the Downtown Partnership also did a report that showed about a third of the homeless people downtown were born and raised in San Diego while three-quarters said their last steady home had been in San Diego.

And that would seem to bust the long-standing myth that hundreds of homeless people are coming to San Diego from elsewhere because of the weather.

So in other words, our homeless problem is a problem for local governments and the local community to solve.

(Photo Getty Images)