Last week’s clearing of a homeless encampment near the Torrey Pines glider port in La Jolla is the most recent and stark example of the city of San Diego’s biggest challenge: what to do about homelessness.
The city needed a helicopter last Thursday to remove several tons of stuff from this one abandoned encampment overlooking near the ocean.
This news comes not too long after the news about the rising number of fires that have been started in or adjacent to homeless encampments in the city, dozens and dozens of them, some leading to evacuations of neighborhoods nearby.
And many of them are near freeway on ramps and off ramps that Cal Trans has to deal with.
And while there is a ban on homeless encampments in the city, how is the San Diego Police Department, already short of the number of police officers the city’s police chief wants, expected to be able to spend much time enforcing bans on encampments?
And anyone who lives or works downtown sees the homelessness right in front of them.
But at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be an effective solution to making real progress in solving San Diego’s biggest public health and safety problem.
(Photo Getty Images)