Balboa Park Groups Opposing Potential Safe Campground

By Lisa Halverstadt, the Voice of San Diego

March 21, 2023

Balboa Park organizations have come out against putting a safe campground for unsheltered residents in an often-overlooked lot at the edge of the iconic park.

The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, made up of about 25 park institutions, has informed City Councilman Stephen Whitburn, who represents the park and has championed the concept, that it doesn’t support a campground at a typically underutilized parking lot at Inspiration Point. The city is also considering other sites.

The campground is a central piece of Whitburn’s broader proposal to also bar camping on public property when shelter options are available, and to ban homeless camps at all times within two blocks of schools and shelters, in parks including Balboa Park and along trolley tracks. Whitburn and Mayor Todd Gloria last week detailed their plans for the proposed ordinance and the yet-to-be-sited campground to accommodate unhoused residents uncomfortable with traditional shelter options.

Whitburn said city workers recently visited Inspiration Point to assess its suitability as a camp site but they haven’t decided to proceed.

Paola Avila, Gloria’s chief of staff, said that if the city moves forward at Inspiration Point it now expects to set up 200 to 300 camp sites in southern-most parking areas now adorned with solar carport canopies. Whitburn previously said he’d back both a large shelter and a safe campground at a parking lot near downtown, though he did not identify Inspiration Point until recently.

The Cultural Partnership told Whitburn it was opposing his proposal during a Feb. 24 Zoom meeting. The group hasn’t changed its tune.

“Inspiration Point is really the front door to Balboa Park, and we always want to make sure that Balboa Park is a safe and welcoming environment for the guests who come to the park, for the volunteers and the paid staff and the schoolchildren who visit the park every day,” Peter Comiskey, the Cultural Partnership’s executive director, told Voice of San Diego late last week. “I think that’s a really good reason that Inspiration Point is a site we would not be able to support for this opportunity specifically.”

In a separate statement, the Cultural Partnership said it could not support “the vague proposals being discussed” and that it believes park organizations, visitors and other stakeholders should get a chance to participate in a public process surrounding the proposal.

Whitburn said he has tried to be transparent with the Cultural Partnership and expects a formal process once the city decides whether it can proceed for what he’s calling his safe sleeping initiative. If the city proceeds in Balboa Park, Whitburn said he will fight to design the project to succeed inside a popular tourism destination.

“If we move forward with safe sleeping at Inspiration Point, I would want to examine ways in which we could visually screen that site so that there was privacy for the people staying there and that there was not a significant visual impact on the park,” Whitburn said.

Whitburn envisions the site providing restrooms, food and services.

He’s drawing on Denver’s safe campground program, known as Safe Outdoor Spaces, which serves up to 60 people at multiple sites and has been expanded to include more locations since an initial rollout. Portland also approved a camping ban late last year and is also now pursuing city-sanctioned campgrounds as part of that initiative.

Whitburn wants San Diego to test the concept in his district, which includes downtown and Balboa Park, and then explore more sites. He has advocated using lots near downtown that aren’t close to residential areas.

Whitburn and Mitch Mitchell, chairman of San Diego Housing Commision, a city housing agency that has been analyzing shelter sites and costs, said they hope Balboa Park organizations will recognize their support is needed.

Mitchell said he recently received a call from a person affiliated with a park organization he declined to identify who said they would oppose moving unhoused people to Inspiration Point and rally others in Balboa Park against the project too.

“That conversation broke my heart because we are supposed to be a community that comes together, makes suggestions and solves big problems. In that one conversation, what I realized is that there are those that are only going to say no, and unfortunately saying no is not a solution,” Mitchell said. “The entire community has to think about what the right solution is that allows us to build the infrastructure necessary to address this crisis knowing that it’s not going to happen overnight and that we need a window of time to make progress.”

Mitchell said the Housing Commission, which previously saw an envisioned safe campground project fall apart, is excited to be reviewing options with Gloria’s office in hopes of moving forward within four months.

Whitburn and Gloria spokesman Dave Rolland, however, were hesitant to estimate a timeline since the city has yet to officially select a site.

Regardless, Rolland said, the city will work “as quickly as possible.”

Whatever happens, the City Council vote on Whitburn’s proposed ordinance will come first. In most areas, the city won’t be able to crack down on unhoused campers unless shelter is available, but unhoused people who have for years congregated near downtown shelters and in parks could be impacted as soon as the ordinance goes into effect.

The likelihood that the ordinance will proceed before the safe campground has riled some who might support the concept on its own.

John Brady, a consultant who once lived on the street in East Village, and his firm previously surveyed unsheltered San Diegans to gauge interest in a safe campground. They came away convinced that some unhoused residents would appreciate the option.

Last week’s announcement demoralized Brady.

“The fact that the ordinance is coming before the safe camp says everything about what the priorities are,” Brady said. “Where are people gonna go? Let’s get serious about this.”

Thirty-five-year-old Tosha Alvarado, who would be forced to move from the area near the Barrio Logan shelter where she now sleeps outside if the City Council approves Whitburn’s ordinance, is also upset.

Alvarado said she’d consider a move to the safe campground but isn’t certain what will happen to others staying near her who can’t or won’t abide by the rules of the camp.

“Maybe they should work on that first before moving us all,” Alvarado said. “They’re gonna basically give us no option but jail.”

Whitburn acknowledged the city needs to move quickly to provide more spaces for unsheltered San Diegans.

“(Alvarado’s) concerns are at the heart of the reason why I am working so hard to open a safe sleeping site because people like her deserve to have a place to go where they feel safe and stable and have access to resources,” Whitburn said. “I hope to get something like that up and running as soon as possible to help alleviate her concerns.”

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.