A prominent real estate developer wants a Superior Court judge to halt the city’s plan to open a large safe parking lot for homeless people living in vehicles this spring.  

McMillin-NTC, which transformed the former Naval Training Center now known as Liberty Station into a bustling shopping and entertainment district, recently asked Superior Court Judge Gregory W. Pollack to grant an injunction while its legal fight over the project near the airport continues. Pollack is set to hear arguments from the city and McMillin on April 30. 

The request follows failed settlement talks in the months before and after McMillin’s September lawsuit against the city and the California Coastal Commission.  

McMillin’s lawsuit argues that the city’s move to convert a former public safety training hub near the airport into a 190-space lot for homeless San Diegans violates a 25-year-old agreement between the city and the federal government that barred homeless services on the site. The developer’s suit also alleges that the city failed to get a proper use permit and failed to comply with the state’s premier environmental law in its pursuit of the safe parking lot, and that the coastal agency’s decision to grant a coastal development permit for the project violated the state Coastal Act. 

Mayor Todd Gloria argues otherwise and is adamant the city will prevail in court. He claims McMillin has been unreasonable. 

“It is unconscionable that McMillin — a company that has derived considerable financial benefit from nearby public land — is attempting to block our efforts to deploy this city-owned land to help people and improve our community,” Gloria wrote in a statement. 

McMillin Chairman Scott McMillin argues that his company tried to work with the city before it took legal action.  

“They’re just bullying their way through this,” McMillin said. 

McMillin also maintains his company isn’t trying to stop the safe parking project altogether but to find a way to ensure the best outcome for investors, hotel visitors and others with a stake in the area that surrounds H Barracks. 

… 

The possibility of homeless services at H Barracks, a five-acre site next to the San Diego International Airport and across the Esplanade Canal from Liberty Station, first publicly emerged in June 2023.  

The city released a shelter strategy  that identified H Barracks as a site that could potentially accommodate 300 to 700 people in multiple large tent shelters and perhaps a safe campsite or a parking lot for people living in vehicles. Gloria’s office expected H Barracks could be in operation for as long as five years before the city proceeded with a Pure Water processing site there. Point Loma residents soon mobilized against that plan.  

As Gloria’s office continued discussing the H Barracks plan, McMillin decided his company needed to speak up – at least behind the scenes. He hired Aimee Faucett, former mayor Kevin Faulconer’s chief of staff, to help and she requested a meeting with Gloria.  

The McMillin team wanted to go over the longtime Naval Training Center reuse and planning documents they understood to ban homeless services in the area. Those 25-year-old plans assumed McMillin would finance what turned out to be a more expensive than predicted redevelopment of Liberty Station in exchange for what the Union-Tribune editorial board later described as some land “for almost no direct cost.”  

As the city worked out those plans, it opted to pay homeless service providers $7.5 million rather than house homeless residents at the Liberty Station site. 

As part of the Liberty Station redevelopment that proceeded, McMillin envisioned three hotels, including two that have already been built.  

Early last year, McMillin wanted to brief Gloria’s team on how the initial two hotels were already being impacted by homelessness in the area and fears about how the planned third hotel near H Barracks could fare. 

McMillin and his team met with Gloria and his team in January 2024.  

After the meeting, an email obtained by Voice of San Diego shows Faucett emailed a mayoral staffer proposing that the city pledge to shut down shelter operations at H Barracks by early 2029, allow McMillin to provide input on operational plans for the site and “establish a range of acceptable response times” for police calls in the area. 

Faucett also proposed that Gloria’s office seek City Council approval to extend hotel ground leases in the area. The leases are now set to expire at the end of 2068 and Faucett urged Gloria’s team to extend them to each cover 66 years of operation to “allow the hotels to recoup the losses caused by the H Barracks shelter, at no cost to the city” and to address previous delays in opening the hotels. 

McMillin and Faucett said they didn’t hear back from Gloria’s office on their pitch.  

Then, in April 2024, Gloria sent a letter to McMillin stating that a new proposed shelter site in Middletown would allow the city to focus solely on safe parking at H Barracks. Yet Gloria noted in the letter obtained by Voice that his team would be including a large tent shelter in its application for a coastal permit for the site “should the city wish to pursue that shelter model in the future.” 

Gloria’s office has publicly said the city is unlikely to pursue a shelter there – even after the Middletown shelter plan collapsed. McMillin said Gloria has privately said the same. 

But McMillin said the inclusion of the large tent shelter in the permit application rattled investors and lenders tied to the planned third hotel. For a time, he feared a lender would bail on the project, a concern that ultimately didn’t play out.  

The Coastal Commission ultimately approved the permit last July despite protests from McMillin. Frustrated, the developer filed suit in September. 

Emails obtained by Voice show attorneys for the city and McMillin were trying to work out a settlement by this January.  

Senior Deputy City Attorney Jana Mickova Will wrote in an email that the city might be willing to state in an agreement that it doesn’t “in good faith anticipate” installing large tent shelters at H Barracks and to amend its Coastal Commission permit to reflect that. But she wrote that that the city couldn’t “bind council’s future discretion as you seek because that would be unlawful.” 

And Will added: “Regarding police response, no public agency can anticipate or guarantee police response times, but McMillin obtained several prior assurances from the mayor and the third hotel was able to secure financing as a result.” 

Mark Zebrowski, an attorney representing McMillin, argued that the City Council doesn’t have discretion over the H Barracks site due to the past agreement with the federal government. He contended a settlement would allow the city to deviate from that prior decision and use H Barracks for safe parking for “an agreed time period.” 

Zebrowski also noted that McMillin would no longer seek the lease extensions it had proposed months ago – and that if McMillin prevailed on any of its claims, the court could decide the city can’t serve homeless residents at H Barracks. 

A few hours later, Will shut down negotiations.  

“Hi Mark, we disagree with your legal conclusions and are going in circles,” Will wrote. “I recognize we will not resolve this by settlement.” 

Almost two months later, McMillin sought an injunction to stop the project – at least temporarily. 

“This case is not a challenge to the city’s exercise of its discretion; it is a challenge to the city’s disregard of controlling federal, state, and its own municipal law,” McMillin attorney Anders Aannestad wrote in a March 24 court filing. “Finally, no equity will be served for the city, its taxpayers, or homeless individuals if the city spends the money to maintain and temporarily operate the site only to have it shut down when the court issues a judgment in this case.” 

Gloria isn’t backing down. 

“The city does not consider McMillin’s legal position on this matter to be correct,” Gloria wrote. “Nevertheless, we engaged with the company and their hotel investment partners to assuage their concerns and reassure them that the operation of a temporary safe parking lot would in fact benefit the local community, which is currently experiencing impacts of street homelessness.” 

The mayor argued that McMillin’s past settlement requests were unreasonable, especially the once-proposed lease extension. 

“McMillin sought to exploit the city’s need to provide temporary emergency safe parking to hundreds of San Diegans living in their vehicles in order to extort a sweetheart deal on two hotel site leases,” Gloria wrote. “Secure in our legal position regarding use of the site to temporarily serve people experiencing homelessness, the city declined to give up substantial land value in order to avert their threat of a legal challenge.” 

McMillin and Faucett pushed back in statements sent to Voice, noting that police responses to issues tied to homelessness have often been delayed and that the company’s engagement with the city has been well intended. 

Faucett wrote that McMillin requested market-rate lease extensions to “help offset anticipated depreciation in investment value” it expected due to H Barracks. She argued the goal was to avoid significant financial burdens on the city while also addressing concerns McMillin and its investors had. 

“Our request to the city was not for special treatment or a ‘sweetheart deal,’ but simply to work together to ensure the site is safely managed and compatible with the surrounding community,” Scott McMillin wrote. “It is disappointing that the mayor would characterize our good-faith efforts to raise legal and operational concerns as anything other than what they are: an attempt to be a responsible, long-term partner in this community.” 

That dispute is now set to play out in Superior Court later this month. Both sides say they are ready for the fight – and expect to prevail. 

“Right now, there are hundreds of people living in their vehicles within a few miles of the H Barracks site, and opening this lot is an opportunity to return those spaces to the public while providing the people living in their vehicles a safe place to park and support to help them end their homelessness,” Gloria wrote. 

At Gloria’s direction, the city has continued preparations to open the H Barracks site amid the threat of an injunction. 

The city reports that it has addressed grading issues with the lot, laid asphalt and painted on striping and markings. It has also installed lighting and electrical service, new fencing, gates and other amenities to support the project. It expects to wrap up construction this month – and it’s now proposing a contract with nonprofit Jewish Family Service of San Diego, which runs the city’s other safe parking lots, to operate the lot from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. seven days a week. The proposed contract will be heard by the City Council’s land use committee on Thursday. 

The post Liberty Station Developer Asks Judge to Halt H Barracks Safe Parking appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Since the city’s homeless camping ban took effect in 2023, camps in Balboa Park and other city parks have been the focal point of police crackdowns using the new city law. 

From August 2023 through this February, a Voice of San Diego analysis of police data shows two-thirds of the 260 camping ban citations and arrests happened in city parks – and 40 percent were in Balboa Park. 

Police and city officials including Mayor Todd Gloria say they are trying to address public safety concerns and complaints in areas including parks and encourage homeless residents to accept shelter, though they often can’t supply open beds.  

Balboa Park stakeholders credit the camping ban for reducing the number of homeless camps in the park though they emphasize that they still regularly deal with challenges with unsheltered residents. 

Meanwhile, homeless San Diegans and service providers trying to help them say the crackdown in Balboa Park and elsewhere in the city has led unsheltered people to disperse to try to avoid police and stymied efforts to move them off the street.  

Police say their enforcement focus on parks shouldn’t be surprising. The city’s camping ban allows officers to cite people staying in makeshift structures in so-called sensitive areas such as parks and within two blocks of schools – even when there isn’t shelter available. Police initially prioritized those areas in 2023 and say they have found the camping ban to be a useful enforcement tool in parks. 

Officers have also continued enforcing other city laws aiming to address homelessness too. The city’s encroachment law, which essentially bars blocking a sidewalk, continues to be their foremost tool. During the past 19 months, police wrote 1,735 citations and made 216 arrests for encroachment. That volume is more than seven times the number of campaign ban violations. 

San Diego police Capt. Steve Shebloski, who leads the police division focused on homelessness and quality-of-life issues, said those statistics reflect the department using the camping ban as a tool in specific areas where the city has decided homeless camps present public health and safety concerns, including parks with camping ban signage. He also said police follow a progressive enforcement model, offering shelter at each encounter and warning violators before issuing citations.  

“What we’re trying to do is have the right-sized shoe on the right foot,” Shebloski said. “We don’t want to use unsafe camping as a catch-all when encroachment is more appropriate.” 

Indeed, Shebloski said he briefed Neighborhood Policing Division officers earlier this year on using the encroachment law to target tents on downtown sidewalks and the camping ban for those in sensitive areas like parks that the city has marked with camping ban signs.  

Shebloski and Central Division police Lt. Geoff DeCesari said Balboa Park has also been a hot spot for camping ban enforcement in part due the dedicated team of officers that patrol there.  

DeCesari said the park has a sergeant and four officers who often focus on encampments due to complaints and more recent concerns about fires. 

Shebloski and DeCesari both acknowledged enforcement – and the threat of it – can lead homeless residents to relocate elsewhere to avoid police, including more under-the-radar areas like canyons. 

“I think displacement is gonna be a natural consequence of more enforcement,” Shebloski said. “It’s gonna happen.” 

Jayna Lee, associate director of outreach at city-contracted provider PATH, said that dispersal has made the nonprofit’s case manager assigned to Balboa Park for the past few years less productive. She is enrolling fewer unsheltered residents into services and PATH has considered having her spend more time elsewhere so she can help more homeless residents. 

Lee said people sleeping in the park often move to hillsides, canyons or under-the-radar areas with lots of brush to avoid police. This makes it challenging for their case manager to find them – and PATH has decided some of those areas aren’t safe for its case manager to traverse.  

“Clients are really putting themselves in harm’s way just to be out of sight of (the police department) in the Balboa Park area,” Lee said. 

For example, Lee said, one unsheltered client moved to a hillside where he fell and broke his hip. After a hospital visit and a stay in a skilled nursing facility, Lee said he moved back to the same remote area of Balboa Park to try to stay off police officers’ radar. 

Craig Thomas, outreach supervisor at nonprofit Alpha Project, said his organization’s outreach workers have faced similar challenges tracking down clients in parks and elsewhere in the city. 

“They’re finding it very difficult to maintain contact with their regular clients in the park and canyon areas because they’re being shooed along so often,” he said. 

In at least a dozen instances, Thomas said Alpha outreach workers have been unable to find clients who previously requested shelter after a bed opened up. He suspects increased enforcement has in some cases made some clients more interested in shelter. 

Several homeless residents told Voice that increased police enforcement has left them feeling forced to constantly be on the move or under the radar. Some have moved into city-backed homeless campsites on the edges of the park – or were there for a time. Others say the campsite and city shelters don’t meet their needs. 

“No matter what you do or where you go, you’re going to be in trouble for it,” said 50-year-old Michael Johnson, who often stays in the Balboa Park area. 

John Vigilante, 43, said he was recently arrested for a camping ban violation in the park after he took refuge from the rain under a Morley Field structure. Vigilante said he was arrested the next morning when it wasn’t raining anymore and spent about six hours in jail. He was previously ticketed for the same violation at another park in North Park in November. 

Vigilante said the increased enforcement makes him anxious and put him out of touch with medical outreach provider Healthcare in Action, which had previously connected with him in the area. 

“I can’t get anything done,” Vigilante said. “I can’t focus on anything.” 

Vigilante remains in Balboa Park much of the time, he said, because it often still feels safer than other options. 

Shebloski said more constant enforcement in Balboa Park and elsewhere in the city is meant to make public spaces feel safer for all residents and to encourage homeless residents to move off the street. 

“There is a place at the table for some level of enforcement to encourage people to accept those services,” Shebloski said. 

Most homeless service experts argue otherwise. 

Ann Oliva, lead author of the city’s 2019 homelessness plan and now CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, warned in 2023 that the camping ban clashed with the city’s homelessness strategy. 

“Without safe and affordable housing and services, people will continue to perish on the streets, no matter how many times they are arrested or ticketed,” Oliva wrote in a statement at the time. 

For Balboa Park leaders, camping ban enforcement in the park has meant a reduction in the homeless camps that once dotted areas of the park more visible to visitors. 

Before the camping ban took effect, Museum of Us CEO Micah Parzen said museum staffers were often confronted with uncomfortable encounters, needles and trash. Those situations are still everyday occurrences but aren’t as frequent as they once were. 

“It is not an issue that’s gone away but has I think gotten markedly better,” Parzen said.  
“Of course, I’m not sure where those folks are going and if they’re going to places that are safer for them and if there are resources for them, which I think is just as important a question.” 

Peter Comiskey of the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, which represents park institutions including Parzen’s, said his group appreciates the decrease in encampments throughout Balboa Park as well as the city’s investments in homeless services in the area, including the two safe campsites. He encouraged continued enforcement in Balboa Park. 

“While your analysis has shown a majority of citations and arrests have occurred in Balboa Park, the members of the Cultural Partnership continue to report substantial activity that remains to be addressed including graffiti, fires and other related incidents,” Comiskey wrote in a statement. 

The post Balboa Park Is Ground Zero for Homeless Camping Ban appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

More than two years ago, Mayor Todd Gloria and other local leaders stood outside a downtown motel and cheered the opening of the city’s first-ever dedicated shelter for homeless seniors. 

Two years later, that shelter is closed.

The city and provider Serving Seniors quietly ramped down the shelter recently after the city decided needed building repairs made the program too costly to sustain. Now the 34-room motel is vacant, and the city will spend about $77,000 a month on rent until its lease ends on June 30. 

Both the city and Serving Seniors CEO Paul Downey, who has long rallied for senior-focused homeless services as the number of unsheltered seniors has spiked, say they are disappointed to end what both described as a successful partnership. 

The Seniors Landing program, which unlike other city-funded shelters focused on temporarily housing only homeless residents who had a housing voucher or subsidy when they moved in, served as a bridge to permanent housing for most who stayed there the past two years. 

Serving Seniors reports that at least 82 percent of the 217 homeless seniors who exited the Little Italy hotel moved into permanent homes and 14 of the 16 who had been in the program when it ramped down moved into housing or temporarily into other shelters. Downey said two seniors recently opted to return to the street despite the offer of other options. 

Those largely successful outcomes – which outperform other shelters in the region – came despite a series of building issues. Among them: circuits that blew if more than one senior tried to use a microwave at the same time and leaking pipes under the building’s foundation that took multiple units offline for weeks at a time on multiple instances. 

On Jan. 31, after another leak forced Serving Seniors to close off multiple motel rooms, leaders of the nonprofit and the city’s homelessness department met. Downey expected they’d be discussing Serving Seniors’ proposed remediation plans. Instead, Downey said, city officials said they were shutting down the program and wouldn’t renew the motel lease when it ended in June. In late February, the city formally notified Serving Seniors that it would end its city shelter contract in 30 days.   

In a statement, city spokesperson Matt Hoffman said the city and Serving Seniors mutually decided to end the program early out of concern for “the wellbeing of program participants and additional costs.” 

“The city and our providers understand the disruptive impact continual repairs and mitigation efforts can have on individuals as they work to end their homelessness,” Hoffman wrote. 

Asked if the city should have more deeply vetted the motel to avoid this outcome, Hoffman said the city followed “standard protocols” to evaluate the property before opening the shelter in 2022 and noted the city only pursued a year-to-year lease for the property.  

“While this process helps assess conditions and identify necessary improvements, as with any property, unforeseen issues can still arise despite thorough review,” Hoffman wrote. “Over time, Serving Seniors and the city incurred unforeseen maintenance issues and continuous costs for repairs.” 

Hotel Investment Group CEO Darshan Patel, whose company portfolio includes the Little Italy motel and who signed the 2022 city lease, did not immediately return messages from Voice of San Diego this week. 

Now that Serving Seniors is moving out, Hoffman said the city will reassign security workers to keep the vacant property safe without additional costs. 

The city says it has reallocated funds it expected to spend on the Seniors Landing lease and its contract with Serving Seniors to support a new Catholic Charities shelter for women and children downtown, including single women over 55. 

The Housing Commission has also said it expects to dedicate at least 30 beds in the apartments at its new shelter at Veterans Village of San Diego for seniors. 

Downey said Serving Seniors didn’t fight the city’s decision to close its shelter but said he wishes there were more dedicated options for homeless seniors, including at Seniors Landing. He noted that the Serving Seniors shelter accommodated older San Diegans who often needed mobility assistance and other supportive services that aren’t provided at other shelters. Those needs can make the most vulnerable homeless seniors ill suited – and even ineligible – to move into other shelters. Seniors Landing was the region’s only shelter solely focused on seniors. 

“It’s hard to quibble with the decision [to close Seniors Landing] from the standpoint of the ongoing maintenance cost but it was a successful program, and in my view, needs to be continued somewhere,” Downey said. 

Julie Porter, 67, who spent years on the street and living in an RV before moving into housing in 2017, agrees. 

Porter, now a vocal advocate for homeless seniors, said non-congregate shelters focused solely on people over 55 provide the environment, services and support that seniors need. 

“I believe it’s absolutely necessary,” Porter said. “We deserve it.” 

Downey said Serving Seniors is already on the hunt for motel properties where it could apply the bridge housing model that helped transition homeless seniors directly from the street. 

Hoffman said the city also “continues to explore all opportunities” to open new shelters and “looks forward to potential opportunities” to work with Serving Seniors again in the future. 

For now, Downey can’t help but reflect on the now-vacant motel rooms and what could have been. 

“We have a model that works,” Downey said. “The people I’m concerned about are the seniors that ideally would be sleeping there tonight that are not.” 

The post San Diego Is on the Hook for Monthly $77,000 Payments of Shuttered Senior Shelter appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Anita Fisher thought CARE Court would be different when she sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview almost two years ago.  

The longtime Spring Valley mental health advocate thought the initiative would provide a new tool for families like hers – families who have felt powerless as their loved ones with serious psychotic disorders repeatedly cycle between jails, hospitals and the street. 

The state law Anita described as a potential lifeline in her interview created a new court system that allows families to petition courts to order treatment. Anita hoped she wouldn’t need to submit a petition for her son, Pharoh Degree, but told a reporter she’d do it if she needed to. 

“I have no hesitation,” Anita told the “60 Minutes” crew in May 2023. “It is trauma for the family to keep going through that with their loved one.” 

Months later, Anita didn’t hesitate to reach for that lifeline when her son seemed to be spiraling.   

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2023, Anita rushed to a downtown courthouse to deliver a petition for her then 45-year-old son who was on the brink of an eviction and once again struggling with schizophrenia and addiction. 

And yet, more than a year into her son’s journey with CARE Court, her family’s trauma hasn’t subsided.  

In the months since a judge deemed Pharoh eligible for CARE Court, he has spent two weeks-long stints in jail and went missing for a time after walking away from a treatment program. 

Anita thought CARE Court would prevent those nightmare scenarios. She expected the program to pursue more intensive involuntary treatment through a temporary hold or even a conservatorship if her son’s condition deteriorated further. That didn’t happen. 

Pharoh, now out of jail and staying in a North County independent living facility he accessed through the CARE program, has seen CARE Court as a lifeline. It’s a voluntary program tailored to his preferences that hasn’t given up on him.  

“I get a second chance and a third chance,” he said. 

This is Anita and Pharoh’s story. 

… 

From a young age, Pharoh has been known for his kindness. As Anita would later tell the national news crew, teachers often noted in his report cards that it was a joy to have him in their class. 

As a young man, Pharoh joined the U.S. Army. He passed basic and advanced training and was stationed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a medical specialist. Then a doctor diagnosed him with schizophrenia.  

As Pharoh would later tell it in a video sponsored by a county mental health campaign, he spent the next 11 years “in and out of jails, prisons, institutions and homeless.” 

Anita’s experience trying to help her son – and lessons she learned along the way – propelled her to leave her banking career in 2007 to work at the National Alliance on Mental Illness San Diego. There, Anita spent a dozen years educating and supporting other families trying to navigate the mental health system before retirement. She has continued that work as a volunteer. For a time, Pharoh also worked at NAMI as a peer helpline specialist, helping others navigate the challenges he had. That’s when he was featured in the county-sponsored video. 

But Pharoh’s struggles weren’t behind him.  

Over the past decade, Pharoh has sometimes voluntarily accessed care but also experienced bouts of homelessness and served time in state prison after a 2012 assault conviction. 

For years, Anita felt she had little recourse to ensure her son got the care and treatment she believed he needed to thrive. 

She was excited in 2022 when she learned about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court proposal. Anita learned that the new system would give families and other stakeholders a chance to make the case for court-ordered care and set the stage for a conservatorship if the program decided an enrollee needed more support. 

Anita and other families latched onto declarations by state officials that the legislation would represent a “paradigm shift.”  

In May 2022, Anita and several other family members of people with serious mental illnesses met with Newsom to discuss their experiences and the CARE Act bill that was starting to make its way through the state legislature. Anita recalls telling Newsom that CARE Court could help families avoid heartache and telling others after the meeting that she felt he understood those families’ agony.   

“He was clearly on our side, and he was very well versed,” Anita said. 

About a year later, a “60 Minutes” crew interviewed Anita at her Spring Valley home. At the time, Pharoh was in an Oceanside recovery program following another criminal conviction and the state was preparing to implement the new law. Anita was cautiously optimistic about what might come next – and hopeful she wouldn’t need CARE Court.  

San Diego County rolled out its CARE Act program in October 2023.  

Around the same time, Anita helped Pharoh move into a Little Italy studio. Both mother and son were excited. Pharoh was eager to restart his life. 

Almost a month in, Anita said apartment management told her that her son was behaving in unsettling ways in common areas and the situation was worsening by the week. They were starting the eviction process. 

Anita immediately assumed Pharoh had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication. Pharoh recalls relapsing and not being “100 percent ready” for recovery from his drug addictions.  

After a handful of mental health crisis calls, Anita submitted a CARE Act petition at a downtown county courthouse and soon learned her son met initial criteria for outreach and further evaluation.  

By late December, the county’s CARE team was trying to persuade a now-homeless Pharoh to voluntarily opt into the program. Pharoh doesn’t remember much about this process.  

Anita attended Pharoh’s CARE Court petition hearing on Jan. 3, 2024. He didn’t show.  

Anita recalls hearing that the county team would have to persuade Pharoh to sign onto the CARE program. She tried to explain that her son didn’t recognize his illness and would likely refuse treatment. She told the judge that families expected the program to serve people who wouldn’t seek voluntary treatment. The judge told her that the CARE program was entirely voluntary. 

“It hit me that this is not the program family members advocated for,” Anita said. 

A few weeks later, Anita and her husband drove downtown during an unprecedented rainstorm to check on their son. They drove him to a church that was taking in unsheltered people. Pharoh, however, recalls sleeping outside in the rain. 

In the weeks to come, Anita said the CARE program helped Pharoh move into a series of motels. He bounced from Mission Valley to La Mesa and finally to El Cajon.  

Pharoh acknowledges he’d “tear up” the hotel rooms but appreciated the chance to get off the street to shower, eat and think. 

“I needed that because I’d be under a blanket in Balboa Park,” Pharoh said. 

During this time, he recalls workers from Telecare Corporation, a county contractor, visiting him in the hotels and taking him to 7-Eleven to buy food. Pharoh said he was excited about the prospect of Telecare helping him get housing, something he wasn’t sure he could get on his own. That was ultimately what motivated him to agree to be part of the CARE Court program. 

Then, in early March 2024, El Cajon police arrested Pharoh less than a mile from the hotel where he had recently stayed. 

At the time, Pharoh said he was restless in the El Cajon hotel waiting for a new apartment that the county-contracted CARE team promised. It seemed like it would never come.  

“I wasn’t in a good place then,” Pharoh said. 

Pharoh recalls picking up a box on a doorstep and encountering several El Cajon police officers who rushed toward him. It all happened so quickly. 

El Cajon police alleged in a report that Pharoh stole a $56 package, walked away from a police sergeant who confronted him and then got in tussle with officers after he refused to follow their commands. Pharoh was arrested and later charged with resisting an officer and petty theft, though the box was recovered during the incident. He ultimately pleaded guilty to resisting an officer. 

Pharoh, whose arrest also constituted a probation violation, spent more than three months in county jail. 

Anita was devastated. 

She tried to maintain hope last June when, with the help of the CARE program, Pharoh was released into a residential treatment program at Veterans Village of San Diego. Sure enough, Anita thought at the time, Pharoh seemed to be doing well.  

While in jail, Pharoh started taking Suboxone, a medication that helped him avoid drug cravings that spurred past relapses. He seemed more clear-headed and followed the rules of the VVSD program.  

Then, after months of progress, Pharoh walked away from VVSD in early November after receiving a day pass to leave the facility. Anita was terrified. She reported him missing and checked the sheriff department’s website twice daily to see if her son was in jail. At one point, when a police officer called to follow up, Anita feared Pharoh might be dead.  

Pharoh said he walked away out of frustration. He watched as others in the program moved into apartments and after months at VVSD, he was eager to leave. On the day he left, Pharoh said, he met with a woman who offered to rent him a place and planned to stay with her for a couple days. Then he lost his wallet and his phone. Pharoh said he remained sober during this period. 

San Diego police ultimately arrested Pharoh for a probation violation due to a missed meeting with his probation officer. It was the day after Thanksgiving, 24 days after he left VVSD.  

Once again, Anita was stunned – and disappointed. 

“Jail shouldn’t even be any part of this,” Anita said. “It shouldn’t have to be.” 

Indeed, a key goal of the CARE Act was to help people in Pharoh’s situation avoid jail time. 

Yet he spent two months in jail following his latest arrest, missing Christmas with his family. At one point, the phones were down at the Otay Mesa jail, leaving Pharoh and Anita unable to talk.  

The county acknowledges two thirds of participants in its CARE program have past or ongoing criminal justice involvement – and that this has been challenging. 

Amber Irvine, the county’s CARE program manager, said the county tries to discourage judges and other criminal justice system players from tying consequences to failure to participate in CARE and to maintain confidentiality about CARE proceedings that the law requires.  

“The tension has been unwieldy and frankly unsolvable at this point and so we’re doing what we can to be of support to individuals who have had concurrent proceedings,” Irvine said during a January presentation to a state behavioral health board. 

Pharoh has been repeatedly caught up in this tension. 

When Pharoh walked into a January court hearing with chains around his wrists and waist and saw his mother sitting in the courtroom, he couldn’t resist waving at her. Once the hearing started, the judge and attorneys discussed coordination challenges moving Pharoh into a new treatment program. 

When the hearing concluded and a sheriff’s deputy started to walk Pharoh out, he turned to Anita, asking her to deposit money in his jail account. Then Pharoh realized he wasn’t supposed to speak to her. 

“Oh, sorry,” he said.  

For Anita, the situation was evidence that Pharoh’s condition was worsening. Pharoh, already thin, also appeared gaunt and was the only person smiling during the court hearing. 

“He’s not well,” Anita said moments later. 

As she left the courthouse, Anita said Pharoh’s outlook seemed no better than in the past. CARE Court wasn’t the game changer she had hoped. Instead of a higher level of care or a conservatorship, Pharoh was stuck in jail – and there was nothing Anita could do about it. 

“All I can do is let it play out,” Anita said. 

On Jan. 31, Pharoh moved out of jail and into an Escondido independent living facility that the CARE team found for him. 

Anita hoped he would be stable enough to handle the new temporary home. She worried he’d walk away again. A day before he left jail, Anita said a county official with the CARE program reiterated after she called to check in that the new placement would be voluntary. What happened next would be up to Pharoh. 

Days after moving in, Pharoh said he appreciated his new digs and another chance from the CARE team. He didn’t mind that he could be drug tested at any time. He said he was motivated to follow the voluntary agreement he made with CARE Court that he said called for sobriety, housing and regular meetings with a psychiatrist and the county’s CARE team. He said he wasn’t hearing voices that once constantly pestered him despite not being on anti-psychotic medications that once left him with uncomfortable side effects.  

Pharoh was also appreciating simple things like sitting in the sunshine after two long months in jail. 

“After the dark days, the light shines,” he said. 

Pharoh now has another reason to be excited. He said the CARE team helped arrange a tour of an apartment complex in East Village this week. He filled out an application and after conversations during his Monday visit, he’s optimistic he’ll be approved. 

“God is really working for me,” Pharoh said. 

He noted the move would allow him to walk to the CARE Court hearings he now has downtown every 60 days.  

Pharoh said he has enjoyed the program but is starting to wonder when he’ll be done with it. He wants to feel independent, not like someone’s constantly looking over his shoulder. He resolved to wait until he officially graduates from the program, something he expects to happen by December.  

Anita is worried – and in wait and see mode. Again. 

Anita can’t help but recall moving Pharoh into his own apartment in fall 2023 and then watching his condition deteriorate in the weeks before she filed the CARE Court petition. 

“All I can think about is that we were at this exact place. He was at his own independent living,” Anita said. “What is different now?” 

State Sen. Tom Umberg of Santa Ana, author of the CARE Act bill sponsored by Newsom, told Voice of San Diego in January that Pharoh and Anita’s experience with the new court system troubled him. He was concerned about Pharoh’s jail stays during a program meant to help him avoid that outcome. He has vowed to pursue updates to the law. 

“There needs to be a remedy for people exactly like Pharoh,” Umberg said. 

After Voice updated Umberg’s office on Pharoh’s more recent experience, a spokesperson said the senator was “happy to hear about Pharoh’s progress” and “cautiously optimistic for his family.” 

The post An Advocate Thought CARE Court Would Be a Lifeline. Then She Used It. appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Mayor Todd Gloria’s plan to transform a Middletown warehouse into a 1,000-bed homeless shelter campus is officially dead. 

After months of holding on, Gloria finally acknowledged the obvious on Friday: The Hope @ Vine shelter concept expected to cost the city about $30 million to operate each year and millions more to lease is no longer viable. A massive city budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year likely loomed large in that decision. 

“After a year of negotiations and multiple hearings, we have come to the conclusion that the proposed homeless shelter campus at Kettner and Vine can no longer advance,” Gloria said in a Friday statement. 

Gloria emphasized that he remains committed to delivering new shelter beds. City officials are set to present other options to the City Council on Monday. 

Among them, Gloria said Friday, are a private property on Second Avenue that the city could lease, the old Central Library and the City Operations Building which now houses a fire station and city permitting staffers and planners who are set to move out in coming months.

Gloria’s announcement about the Kettner and Vine shelter ends his nearly year-long campaign to get a largely reluctant City Council to sign off on a pricey lease deal and a shelter plan that drew criticism from homeless advocates and neighbors. 

Gloria’s mega-shelter pitch ignited controversy almost immediately after his April press conference outside the roughly 65,000 square foot former print shop at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street. Real estate pros quickly criticized proposed above-market lease rates and questions swirled about the warehouse owner’s intentions. Homeless advocates and nearby Mission Hills residents chimed in with concerns about whether the city could successfully operate such a large shelter. 

Last July, after nabbing more favorable terms that were still above market rate, Gloria took a deal to city councilmembers that he argued would allow the city to site a longterm shelter at a unique and ideal location. City budget analysts and attorneys slammed the lease proposal. The City Council ultimately voted 7-2 to postpone its vote on the mega-shelter lease after a slew of questions and follow-up requests. 

The City Council hasn’t taken a public vote on the proposal since.  

Gloria said this fall that the city had negotiated a better deal with property owner Douglas Hamm, a real estate investor, after getting input from councilmembers and that he still hoped to move forward. 

“The deal terms are getting more favorable – from my perspective – for the city. As soon as we have a deal that I can stand behind, I’ll take that back to the City Council,” Gloria told Voice of San Diego in October. “If we can’t get one, and that’s a possibility, then we’ll cease negotiations and we’ll move on to other options.” 

The failure of a proposed city sales-tax hike in November – and likely, less than favorable feedback from the City Council during the latest of many closed-door briefings on the shelter pitch in December – cemented the death of the Hope @ Vine plan. 

That same month, some councilmembers publicly expressed frustration that Gloria’s team had penciled the shelter plan into the city’s five-year budget outlook despite a lack of City Council approval. 

Now Gloria has acknowledged the mega-shelter isn’t happening. 

Hamm, who for months held on and continued talks with the city amid significant criticism, expressed disappointment.  

Hamm put his warehouse property on the city’s radar via a cold email in October 2023 that noted he thought it could be uniquely suited to help address the city’s homelessness crisis given its size, location and the fact that it isn’t in the immediate vicinity of any homes or businesses.  

“From day one, I believed the property at Kettner and Vine had the unique attributes to be part of that solution and improve the lives of thousands. I still believe that, even as it has become clear that a deal with the city is no longer viable,” Hamm wrote in a statement. “While I’m disappointed in this outcome, I’m proud of the thoughtful effort we put forward. ‘Hope at Vine’ was an ambitious idea grounded in a genuine desire to do what’s best for both the property and the neighborhood.” 

Gloria expressed similar sentiments on Friday – and said he remains committed to opening more shelter beds. 

“While I continue to believe the proposed shelter at Kettner and Vine was the best and most cost-effective option for a permanent shelter program, I remain firm in my commitment to expand shelter,” Gloria wrote in a statement. “Getting people off the streets and out of the riverbed and canyons is not optional. That is why we are continuing to push forward with real solutions, identifying new sites and taking the necessary action to bring more people indoors.” 

The post The Middletown Mega Shelter Plan Is Dead appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

More than 18 months ago, San Diego Unified pitched the city of San Diego on a plan: The district would offer up its former Central Elementary campus for a safe parking lot for homeless families if the city could get a contractor to run it. 

That safe parking lot now appears unlikely to materialize. 

For months, school board members publicly questioned why a project they saw as a win-win wasn’t moving forward. 

The city, meanwhile, said it concluded last year that it couldn’t proceed after receiving far less money from a grant than it needed for the project. A spokesperson said city officials shared that news with district staff last August. The city also quietly inquired about potentially using $342,450 awarded by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness to the Central Elementary project to help fund its planned H Barracks safe parking lot.  

The school district project hit another impasse last month after City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera’s last-ditch effort to pull together the city’s housing agency and other players to try to work out a plan. 

Housing Commission Senior Vice President Casey Snell told Voice of San Diego that her agency, which Elo-Rivera looped in to try to save the project, ultimately decided it couldn’t deliver after weeks of discussions with safe parking provider Jewish Family Service, the district, the Task Force and city staff. 

“Insufficient funding is available to launch and sustain a safe parking program at this site, especially with the budget constraints the city and SDHC will be experiencing for the upcoming fiscal year,” Snell wrote in an email. 

Indeed, after the failure of a November sales-tax measure and an increased pension bill, the city is facing a massive budget deficit that could threaten new homeless-serving projects. 

… 

When district officials first floated the partnership with the district in June 2023, it seemed like an easy win for both local governments. The Central Elementary project was meant to support homeless families with children, a broadly sympathetic population. Throughout the period the proposed safe parking site was discussed publicly, it received no public pushback, a notable departure from the usual furor surrounding homelessness projects. 

The district planned to eventually welcome an affordable housing project on the site, leaving the space open to serve homeless families in the district for a couple years. 

After analyzing the site, the city and the district envisioned opening a roughly 40-space safe parking lot for families living in vehicles. District officials also offered up the use of vacant classrooms and restrooms in Central Elementary as well as play areas. 

The city began looking for money to make it happen. 

District leaders saw the concept as such a sure thing almost a year later that they pledged in a deal with the teachers union to work with the city to open at least one safe parking lot for homeless residents at one of its campuses – and agreed to a June 2025 deadline. 

Yet the project had already faced a setback by last spring. 

Around then, the Task Force formally notified the city that the project had only been awarded a $342,450 grant, far shy of the nearly $1 million the city sought in its application. 

City officials projected they’d need $996,463 to operate the program in its initial year, city spokesperson Matt Hoffman said. 

Task Force CEO Tamera Kohler said the conditional award to the city followed more than $58 million in funding requests across the county for $9.1 million in state Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program funds it had to dole out. 

Getting far less than the nearly $1 million they sought for the Central Elementary project left city officials convinced the project was no longer possible. 

“Bottom line: If the full grant funding was received, the city would have proceeded with the old Central Elementary project and worked with the district to try and expand the [safe parking] program’s footprint,” Hoffman said. 

Yet Kohler told Voice the Task Force rarely – if ever – fully funds projects via its grant processes and that counting on a major onetime funding source for a project isn’t considered a best practice. 

Hoffman defended the city’s ask and said the city team had been under the impression its request was reasonable based on the grant materials.  

Emails obtained by Voice after a public records request show city officials started asking Task Force staff by early May 2024 if they could repurpose the grant they conditionally received for the Central Elementary project.  

“As we’ve discussed previously, while the original location we applied for is not completely off the table, it is possible that this program will operate at a different site than originally anticipated,” Kimberlee Zolghadri of the city’s homelessness department wrote in a May 8, 2024 email. 

The other site the city inquired about backing with the grant was H Barracks, a larger safe parking lot now expected to open this March – after a state and Task Force deadline to spend grant funds by the end of 2024. The project is expected to serve homeless populations including families. 

Spokespeople for both the district and the city confirmed that district officials weren’t informed of these inquiries. 

On Aug. 13, Task Force COO Lahela Mattox emailed city officials that the nonprofit was rescinding its grant offer after conversations about possibly using funds for H Barracks. 

The project timeline and location no longer matched the 2024 spending deadline, Mattox wrote. 

Throughout the process, Hoffman said staff in the city’s homelessness department “explored every opportunity to try and allocate additional funding” for the Central Elementary project as they also grappled with a tight city budget and tried to move forward with other new homelessness projects. 

“Staff tried to make it work from a budget perspective but could not,” Hoffman wrote in a statement. 

Hoffman also said the city’s attempt to move grant funds to another project reflected their hope to not lose funding that could support a homeless-serving program rather than an attempt to hamper the district’s safe parking plan. 

Hoffman said that the city told the district it couldn’t make the Central Elementary project work late last summer. 

“City staff notified district officials during a meeting last August that the partial grant funding was pulled back — and in any case not enough to operate the program for any substantial amount of time — and thus this project could not proceed with the city’s involvement at that time,” Hoffman wrote. 

District spokesperson James Canning also confirmed that the district learned that the Task Force funding was rescinded in August.  

School board members, however, apparently didn’t get the message. 

Elo-Rivera, whose district includes Central Elementary, said he got a call from school board member Richard Barrera last summer. Elo-Rivera recalled Barrera, who also represents Central Elementary, asking if he could find out “what was holding up the contracts that needed to be signed to get this off the ground.” 

Elo-Rivera said he eventually learned that the city had tried to reallocate Task Force grant funds for another project. The councilmember came away convinced the city didn’t approach the project with the same urgency the district did. 

Barrera said he was caught off guard by what Elo-Rivera learned. 

“I thought we were in the process of going back and forth on the licensing agreement, and we hadn’t heard from the city,” Barrera said. “When (Elo-Rivera) looked into it, that was the first time that I had heard that, that the city didn’t have money for the project.” 

Barrera said he doesn’t question city officials’ need to balance tricky budget questions. What frustrates him is what he views as a breakdown in communication, particularly regarding the attempted reallocation of funds. Had that been communicated more clearly, he feels district officials could have begun to explore other funding options earlier. 

“If the city just wanted to reallocate that money for another project that gets pretty frustrating, because we think this is a good project and an important project,” Barrera said. “But if that was the intention, the city should have just made that clear.” 

Realizing the Central Elementary project was stalled after he heard from Barerra, Elo-Rivera said he pulled in the city’s housing agency and urged other players to try to work something out. He hoped that the Central Elementary site could accommodate families as soon as the 2024 holiday season. 

That didn’t happen – and the failure of Measure E likely cemented the deadlock. 

Elo-Rivera still holds out hope the project might come together. He’s disappointed the city hasn’t delivered already and wishes the City Council had been looped in after city officials learned the Task Force grant wouldn’t fund as much as hoped. He thinks the City Council should have gotten a chance to vote to direct city funds to the project when it voted on the city budget in June. 

“I share the sentiments and the goal of the school district and the school board members to provide safe places for family experiencing homelessness to sleep and I think it’s a total shame that space that could be made available to do that is not being utilized,” Elo-Rivera said. 

Both Canning and Barrera also say the district is still eager to partner with the city, other governments and nonprofits to try to open a safe parking lot at Central Elementary.  

Both said the district can’t go it alone.  

“The district is not funded, nor does it have the expertise to offer our students and families experiencing homeless shelter,” Canning wrote.  

Barrera also argued that financing a safe parking site was not “an appropriate or legal use,” of district funding. So, he said, officials will continue to look for other partners willing to step in, as it feels clear to him there’s a need for this resource. 

“The fact that there’s families driving around tonight not feeling like they can be in a location where their kids are safe and they’ve got access to any sort of facilities, access to any sort of resources is a shame, and it’s a shame for our city that that continues to be the case,” Barrera said. 

The post Safe Parking at a City Heights School Isn’t Happening. Here’s Why appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

There’s been a math problem at the center of San Diego’s homelessness crisis for at least the past three years. 

More San Diegans are falling into homelessness for the first time and service providers’ efforts to move unhoused people into homes haven’t kept up. 

This past year, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness reports that more people exited homelessness, but the number of newly homeless San Diegans eclipsed that progress. 

The nonprofit which coordinates the countywide response to the crisis reported that 11,456 formerly homeless people moved into homes – up nearly 30 percent from last year. But 15,657 people sought homeless services for the first time, a 10 percent increase from last year’s total. 

That’s the equivalent of 14 people accessing homeless services for the first time for every 10 formerly homeless residents who were housed from October 2023 through September 2024.   

Task Force CEO Tamera Kohler wrote in a statement that she considers the numbers both encouraging and further evidence of a service system and housing market unable to meet the need. 

“It indicates we improved in housing more people, but we also know the system continues to be overwhelmed, serving more people who are homeless for the first time,” Kohler said. “Without a dedicated local funding source and a lot more housing across the board, we are going to continue to face challenges.” 

The increased housing outcomes follow an uptick in new subsidized affordable housing projects and units that likely won’t continue at the same pace. 

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria saw the new report as another data point underlining the need to redouble efforts to deliver more housing.  

“While the progress is encouraging, we continue to face significant challenges due to constrained housing supply, which has pushed rents sky-high,” Gloria wrote in a statement. “We must continue to build more housing and ensure every San Diegan has a roof over their head at a price they can afford.” 

Sofia Cardenas, data and compliance manager for homeless-serving nonprofit Alpha Project, said new projects allowed service providers to house dozens of people at a time in recent months. 

Cardenas also had some other theories on what drove the regionwide increase in San Diegans exiting homelessness in the past year. She thinks increased focuses on shared housing options championed by fellow nonprofit Townspeople and diversion programs aiming to help shelter residents and others who are newly unhoused avoid a longer stint of homelessness with a burst of temporary assistance helped too. 

Cardenas said a pot of flexible funding provided by the Task Force to help with onetime costs like apartment deposits and past-due bills gave diversion efforts a shot in the arm. 

Yet the flow of newly homeless San Diegans continues. Cardenas and other service providers constantly meet them.  

“Unfortunately, it’s the same sad story of people getting priced out of their communities,” Cardenas said. 

Many of them are seniors. Task Force data shows 2,569 of the San Diegans who accessed homeless services for the first time this past year were over 55. Another 1,707 were young adults under 25 and 1,213 were families. Just over 900 were veterans.

In a statement, San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera wrote that he sees the latest Task Force data as more evidence that the city, county and other local governments should continue to bolster homelessness prevention programs to stem the flow of people becoming homeless for the first time.  

“The data from the past year is clear,” Elo-Rivera wrote. “We’ve improved in getting people who are experiencing homelessness into permanent housing, and we will see the results we all desire if we expand the prevention programs that have proven successful in keeping vulnerable people off the streets.” 

The post Newly Homeless Residents Still Outpacing Newly Housed appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

The city’s housing agency last month set new rules on when homeless residents can get kicked out of city-backed shelters, campsites and parking programs. 

For years, city-funded shelters established their own rules and the city didn’t track how many people they forced out. Then city officials learned that one of their foremost service providers was booting more homeless residents than others and disproportionately removing Black clients.  

Now, after working with Father Joe’s Villages to significantly reduce the list of people banned from its facilities, the San Diego Housing Commission is standardizing rules across the city’s homeless service system – and says it saw reductions in suspensions even before its new rules took effect Oct. 1.  

Per the new rules, some violations such as assaults or threats can trigger an immediate suspension for up to four months while a theft could lead someone to be barred for up to 30 days. The rules also call for progressive discipline for lesser offenses and ensure homeless residents can appeal bans. 

The housing agency reports that the number of suspensions in shelters overseen by the housing agency dropped from more than 100 in July 2023 to 21 as of Sept. 30.  

“Even though it took us a while to get this out officially, the work we’ve been doing has impacted performance,” said Casey Snell, Housing Commission senior vice president.  

Snell said the housing agency and Atlanta-based consultant Equity in Action spent months meeting with providers including Father Joe’s, front-line shelter workers, people staying in shelters and formerly homeless San Diegans to get feedback. Snell said the Housing Commission plans to continue those gatherings as it tracks the impact of the new rules. 

Now, shelters are required to give homeless residents at least 30 days’ notice before suspensions for less serious repeat violations. Residents can also seek appeals via both providers and the commission.  

The rules also address common complaints from shelter residents. For example, they prohibit providers from suspending clients between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. absent immediate safety threats and require service providers to store suspended residents’ belongings for at least three days after suspensions. They also call for providers to try to help those they force out transfer to another program.   

The policies also give guidance on incidents that merit progressive discipline, how providers should try to address issues prior to terminations and how to brief residents on appeal options. 

The rules set expectations for shelter residents too. For example, residents can’t bring in drugs or weapons and shouldn’t behave in ways that disrupt others. The rules also clarify that residents should notify shelter staff if they won’t be at their bed during evening check-ins. Missed curfews have historically led many to lose their beds.  

Housing Commission staff met with service providers last week to review how the rules are playing out so far.  

Sofia Cardenas, data and compliance manager for nonprofit Alpha Project which operates five city shelters, said providers are adjusting to rules she described as reasonable and balanced.  

“Ultimately the rules are getting to what we have wanted and the whole community wanted to do all along which is remain low barrier and at the same time ensure safety standards,” Cardenas said.  

She said Alpha Project appreciates the commission’s continued interest in feedback and upcoming training to help with implementation. 

Father Joe’s, which for years had its own detailed rules, simply wrote in a statement that it “values its longstanding partnership” with the city’s housing agency and has taken part in conversations about the new policies. 

Two former shelter residents who were part of a group that provided input said they mostly appreciated the changes and the housing agency’s attempt to reduce discrimination. Both remain concerned about oversight of service providers. 

For example, former Father Joe’s shelter resident Sandy Myskowski noted that the policies have providers manage most suspension appeals and count on shelter staff using de-escalation and other best practices before taking that step.  

“There still just isn’t a lot of room for independent oversight,” Myskowski said. 

Kuni Stearns, who once stayed at the Convention Center shelter, wanted more accountability and detailed obligations for providers. For example, he said, providers should be mandated to serve meals that meet the needs of residents with disabilities or health conditions rather than simply provide two meals. 

“I’m mostly grateful that they put this together,” Stearns said. “One of the challenges I see is not everyone’s going to be beholden to that.” 

Snell said the housing agency plans to closely review discipline in homelessness programs in coming months and to provide in-person training for service workers early next year on de-escalation, implicit bias and other topics that the commission thinks will help providers better implement the new rules. 

Snell said the housing agency is also open to future changes to the new policies. 

“This is a working document,” Snell said. “We do not consider this final by any means.” 

The post New Rules Dictate When Shelters Can Boot Homeless Residents appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Mayor Todd Gloria and other city officials want to open more than 200 homeless shelter beds at troubled Veterans Village of San Diego and a San Diego Rescue Mission shelter in National City to help address the impending closure of two large shelters. 

The plan, developed by city and Housing Commission leaders, also calls for the city to repurpose 56 beds in a transitional housing program for homeless people dealing with chronic alcoholism and to deploy funding to help residents of other homeless shelters move into housing. 

The City Council previously voted to expand two homeless campsites, a process that the city announced last week is already underway. 

All told, the proposed plan would deliver at least 258 shelter beds and 235 tents at now-underutilized sites to respond to the loss of 614 beds at two shelters operated by Father Joe’s Villages by the end of the year. 

Gloria said the city’s also in talks with another unspecified 100-bed facility it hopes can serve seniors and families in private spaces.  

The proposal follows City Council direction to come up with a plan and weeks of work by the city, its housing agency and the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. It also follows discussions with service providers and current and formerly homeless San Diegans who shared input. 

Based on that feedback, many of the new beds won’t be in packed shelters and some new offerings focus on specific populations. 

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all intervention,” Gloria said. “It’s not moving everyone en masse to another location.” 

Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who made the motion in July to have city officials confer with stakeholders on a short-term shelter plan, praised how outside input helped shape the proposed solutions. 

“It’s been about having a process that would guide us toward multiple options that seemed not just acceptable but good for folks who have been there before and are there now and know what it takes to get into a better place,” Elo-Rivera said. 

The Housing Commission says this work continues. 

Father Joe’s and city housing agency officials are conferring with Golden Hall residents about their next steps. As of Thursday, the city reported that more than half of the 165 people who remained at the shelter next to City Hall want to move to other shelter programs while a third expressed interest in one of the city’s safe campsites.   

For now, the city expects to shut down the Golden Hall shelter on Dec. 20 and to have most of its new beds ready to go by early December. 

The city’s housing agency reports that all 199 clients staying at the Paul Mirabile Center shelter, which Father Joe’s plans to convert into a sober living and detox facility next year, plan to remain there. 

Gloria cheered the progress the city has made in the past few months. 

“We’ve been working with the Housing Commission and our nonprofit partners to meet the commitment that I’ve made, which is that no one served at our shelters would be forced to return to the street,” Gloria said. “We are accomplishing and will accomplish that goal.” 

Here are details on the new proposed shelter options. 

Veterans Village of San Diego: At least 165 new beds 

The nonprofit that has long served veterans, homeless San Diegans and people struggling with addiction was recently forced to stop treating people with substance use disorders. The state revoked its license after concerns about client safety and other issues documented in a series of inewsource stories.  

VVSD was devastated by the state’s decision but ultimately decided not to fight it. Beds have since sat empty. 

Gloria and Casey Snell, a senior vice president at the Housing Commission, said the city saw this as an opportunity to swiftly provide new city shelter beds by Dec. 1. 

Snell said VVSD’s headquarters boasts two-bedroom apartments and multiple types of rooms with private bathrooms, most of which have just a few beds.  

For now, the Housing Commission expects to dedicate at least 30 beds in the facility’s apartments to seniors and to provide 100 beds for single men and 35 veterans in its other spaces. The agency plans to have Father Joe’s oversee services for seniors and single men while VVSD will serve veterans. 

Gloria and Snell said they are confident future shelter residents at the Pacific Highway campus will be well-served despite concerns surrounding VVSD. 

“I believe with the Housing Commission’s oversight we can make sure that the right services, the right provider is on site to make sure that anyone who’s there is well cared for,” Gloria said. 

The Rescue Mission’s South County Lighthouse: 37 new beds 

This summer, the Rescue Mission opened a 162-bed shelter in National City that it’s slowly been ramping up ever since. 

Now the city of San Diego wants to partner with the nonprofit, which historically has avoided government contracts, to provide 37 beds for single men at its National City shelter campus.  

Rescue Mission vice president Paul Armstrong said about 90 of the shelter’s beds were full as of late last week and that it expects to soon fill another 35 beds.  

A contract with the city would put the new shelter at full capacity. 

Though the Rescue Mission shelter isn’t in the city of San Diego, Armstrong said it has drawn clients from San Ysidro, which is far from the city’s downtown homeless service hub. 

Gloria said he sees the new capacity in South Bay as an important resource for the region. 

“I’m a mayor that fully understands that San Diego is a South Bay city, neighborhoods like San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and others do have homeless populations, and have every reason to access this regional South Bay resource,” Gloria said. 

Serial Inebriate Program: 56 repurposed beds 

For more than two decades, the city has partnered with the county on a transitional housing program historically offered to homeless repeat offenders struggling with alcoholism.  It now wants to repurpose beds at apartment buildings in City Heights that Gloria said have sometimes sat empty under the program’s existing model. 

While the program operated by TURN Behavioral Health Services will still serve homeless San Diegans dealing with alcohol addiction and other behavioral health challenges, Snell said adding it to the city’s shelter network will increase access and make it easier to fund the program over the long haul as funding has dried up for transitional housing. The program will continue to provide treatment services and other more intensive support. 

Snell said the program expects to initially prioritize welcoming Golden Hall residents who may have alcohol use disorder as existing residents move out. The city previously stopped welcoming newcomers to the transitional program to prepare for the shift. 

In-Progress Safe Sleeping Expansion: 235 new tents 

Following a City Council vote to bolster contracts earlier this month, the city announced last week that it was in the process of adding new tents at its two campsites in Balboa Park. 

Once the homeless campsite expansion is complete, the city says the program’s capacity will be 760 tents that can accommodate up to two residents each. Intakes associated with the expansion are set to begin in November. 

There have been concerns about the conditions and housing outcomes associated with the two sites.  

Councilmembers, city officials and some formerly homeless San Diegans have said they believe the sites provide an important option for people uncomfortable in traditional shelter programs. 

The Shelter Diversion Plan: Impact TBD 

The city is preparing to launch an initiative on Nov. 1 with the Regional Task Force on Homelessness to aid people who have struggled to move out of shelters or are homeless for the first time. 

Snell said the city’s housing agency will work with providers and others to explore what it would take to help people who are newly homeless or who may have some income or support to leave shelter. 

That could mean linking a shelter resident with funds for a security deposit and three months of rent to make moving into an apartment more feasible, reconnecting someone with family or helping them find housing they could share to minimize costs. 

The Task Force is expected to help the city swiftly ramp up diversion resources and nonprofit Catholic Charities has been pulled in to help manage individual cases. 

“This will create an opportunity hopefully for folks who just need a little bit of support to exit shelter,” Snell said. 

The goal is also to help make room in shelters for others in need. 

Other Plans in the Works 

Gloria’s team said the city expects to present details on the unspecified 100-bed facility for seniors and families at a Dec. 10 City Council meeting. The Housing Commission is also set to open a shelter for LGBT youth at its headquarters next year.  

The city and its housing agency are also reviewing responses to their requests for property owners and others to pitch properties that could house shelters.  

Gloria spokesperson Rachel Laing said the city expects to settle on three to five potential options it can more closely evaluate and begin negotiations on. She said the city is also continuing to analyze its own properties that could serve as shelter sites. 

For now, Gloria said he sees a 1,000-bed shelter campus at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street that Gloria that the City Council punted on this summer as the city’s best long-term permanent shelter option. 

He said Friday that lease negotiations continue with the owner of the Middletown warehouse. 

“The deal terms are getting more favorable – from my perspective – for the city. As soon as we have a deal that I can stand behind, I’ll take that back to the City Council,” Gloria said. “If we can’t get one, and that’s a possibility, then we’ll cease negotiations and we’ll move on to other options.” 

The post Here’s the City’s Plan to Respond to Two Big Shelter Closures appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Less than six months after the U.S. Supreme Court gave California cities the green light to ban homeless encampments, homelessness policy across much of San Diego County is rapidly changing direction. 

Yearslong efforts to reach out to homeless residents and connect them with services suddenly are taking a back seat to encampment bans and stepped-up enforcement. 

Four of the county’s five largest cities now either outlaw public camping or are actively considering a ban. Advocates for the homeless say they have mostly stopped contesting the bans and are recalibrating in the face of hardening public opinion. City officials say residents are forcing their hand by demanding tougher laws. 

Last week, National City became the sixth city in the county to move toward an encampment ban. This week, Chula Vista will take up its own ban. Carlsbad is considering updating its homelessness policy to beef up enforcement. Next month, the county Board of Supervisors plans to discuss updating its own policies. Though Board Chair Nora Vargas said she prefers “collaboration and long-term support to break the cycle of homelessness” she also “understand[s] the urgency behind Gov. [Gavin] Newsom’s [recent statewide directive] to clear encampments.” 

If all three cities plus the county adopt bans, they will join San Diego, Escondido, Poway, Vista and San Marcos in outlawing some form of camping on public property. 

A little more than a year ago, encampments were permitted throughout the county and the consensus of experts and policymakers was that outreach and affordable housing, not enforcement, were the keys to solving homelessness. Now, the vast majority of San Diego County residents live in places where public camping is against the law. 

“It’s a domino effect,” said John Brady of Lived Experience Advisors, a San Diego organization that advocates for the homeless. “It’s a foregone conclusion that pretty much every city is going to [outlaw encampments…] We have to rethink what we’re thinking and saying as advocates because we’ve lost the narrative.” 

Mayor Ron Morrison of National City was more blunt about the sudden shift in policy and public opinion.  

“The pendulum has swung,” he said. “It went from ‘[homeless] people have needs’ to ‘this just gets disgusting.’” 

How We Got Here 

The topline reason given by city leaders for the sudden policy shift is a June Supreme Court ruling that freed cities from an earlier requirement to provide adequate shelter before outlawing public camping. 

The ruling ended a yearslong standoff between cities and advocates for the homeless, who say banning encampments without providing shelter simply criminalizes homelessness and does nothing to help struggling people. 

Officials said the court case, which began with a lawsuit filed in 2020 on behalf of homeless residents in Grants Pass, Oregon, had an unintended effect. It gave cities four years to try alternate approaches—and decide that offering services alone often wasn’t enough to reduce the number of people on the streets. 

John McCann, mayor of Chula Vista, said that since 2016 his city has sought to offer homeless people a growing range of services. A city outreach team of caseworkers and police officers seeks out homeless people and offers to connect them with help. The city recently opened a transitional shelter and is in the process of developing 156 units of permanent supportive housing. The city also provides vouchers for motels and offers rental assistance to struggling tenants. 

A city report acknowledged that the vast majority supportive housing units will not be available until 2026 at the earliest. And the transitional shelter was initially slow to accept homeless clients because of building delays and a lengthy intake process. 

Still, McCann said, outreach efforts frequently fail to move people into housing because “there were many people who for different reasons—mental health or drug addiction—they wouldn’t accept the help and wanted to stay on the streets…We have people we offer help to 30-plus times and they refuse services. Compassion is the way to go but we need to have boundaries.” 

Outreach workers reported similar results in National City, where fewer than 20 percent of homeless people contacted over the past year accepted offers of help, according to a city report. 

Since 2020, the number of homeless people in both cities has grown, nearly doubling in Chula Vista to roughly 650, according to federal statistics. 

“We need to have an encampment ban to be able to protect neighborhoods and kids and families,” McCann said. “Encampments are happening…in the poorest parts of our community, and we need to be protecting our children in those poor neighborhoods.” 

Changing Priorities 

Brady said the rapid shift in public opinion has forced advocates to rethink their strategy in the face of both tougher laws and soaring housing costs.  

Brady estimated it now costs an average of $3,000 per month to shelter one homeless person in San Diego County’s high-cost housing market, even as the number of people becoming homeless each year outstrips the number of shelter beds available. 

“We can’t shelter our way out of this,” he said. 

Instead, advocates now are seeking to overhaul the county’s entire approach to homelessness by encouraging greater coordination between service providers and lobbying the federal government for what Brady called “a Marshall Plan for housing.” 

“We’re 171,000 units short of housing” in San Diego County, he said. “Everyone in San Diego talks about needing 10,000 units. That’s just treading water.” 

The View from Residents  

At a recent city council meeting in National City, residents lined up to voice their support for the city’s proposed encampment ban, which would outlaw camping on all public property, including near schools, waterways and major public transit stops. 

No speaker opposed the ban and no activists attended in protest. Councilmembers voted unanimously to advance the ban for final consideration next week. 

The proceedings were a marked contrast from five months ago, when a similar proposed ban drew strong opposition from activists and was rejected by councilmembers, who directed city staff to explore less punitive options. 

Since then, said Councilmember Jose Rodriguez, who did not support the earlier ban, “I heard from residents who visit parks and don’t feel safe. That’s not okay…We need to protect our residents.” 

Flor Burciaga, a National City resident who attended the council meeting in support of the ban, said that as a professional social worker, “empathy and compassion is innate in me. But how many times do you offer services to people who don’t want them? [I don’t want] to be punitive but there needs to be enforcement.” 

Burciaga said she lives near Interstate 5 freeway, close to a homeless encampment. “Homeless people go through our trash and leave trash,” she said. “One of our neighbors had squatters come to his home and he was attacked by a man trying to stay in his shed. I used to want to help everyone and now I just want peace and quiet.” 

Brady, of Lived Experience Advisors, said the proliferation of encampment bans has left homeless people feeling “angry, frustrated, mad and disturbed.” He predicted the bans would hurt more people than they helped. “Our deaths on the street will skyrocket this year,” he said. 

Sitting at a shaded picnic table in Chula Vista’s Bayfront Park last week, Chula Vista resident Betty Calica offered a view that encompassed all sides of the debate. Calica said she herself has experienced homelessness. Yet, she insisted cities need to draw the line with people who refuse offers of help. 

“The best way to do it is give [homeless people] a chance,” she said. “If [they] mess it up then the city shouldn’t do it again. By all means, have the police enforce it. You lost your opportunity the first time.” 

Calica said she first became homeless 12 years ago after friends of her children vandalized the family’s apartment building and the family was evicted. Calica ended up on the streets and sent her children to live with their grandmother. The children ran away and were placed in foster care. 

Being homeless “is devastating,” she said. “I was crying every day I was on the street.” 

Calica said she sought help at a county service agency and was sent to Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego’s East Village. “They saved me,” she said. “I went every day and stood in line until I got” into the center’s residential program. “I got my kids back in three months,” she said. 

Calica said the center’s many rules—“get up, make your bed, straighten your room, it’s like boot camp”—helped her stabilize her life. She became a chore supervisor and transitioned into permanent housing after a year. She said she now lives in an unairconditioned trailer near the Chula Vista waterfront and works part time at a 7-11 convenience store. 

Calica said she spent a lot of time at Bayfront Park escaping the heat in her trailer and reading books on her phone. 

“I know a lot of the homeless people around here,” she said. “They’ve been on the streets for years. They’re struggling with drugs, alcohol…The services are there. You have to want it. They’re there to help you, not screw you over…It’s more about the motivation. You have to stay positive. In the shower you have to say, ‘You can do this. You are strong. Thank you, God, for this day.’ I count my blessings every day.” 

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