Morning Report: The Latest On Downtown Homelessness

By Voice of San Diego, the Voice of San Diego

December 11, 2023

A downtown business group’s latest census shows a 9 percent month-over-month decrease in street homelessness in downtown and its outskirts.

The latest tally: The Downtown San Diego Partnership’s November 2023 tally of 1,172 people is the lowest count since November 2021. The Nov. 30 count represents a 44 percent decrease from the record 2,104 people counted in May.

What this census doesn’t reveal is where unsheltered people have relocated outside the downtown area. As Lisa Halverstadt has previously reported, homeless residents often simply move elsewhere when police crack down.

A new survey: The city recently released the results of an October survey of 713 homeless residents downtown. Among the findings: 34 percent said they were San Diego natives and 75 percent reported that the city of San Diego was the most recent place they had lived indoors for longer than three months. Eight percent said they had been living in San Diego for less than six months. More than three-quarters said they didn’t have any current income and 38 percent reported they frequently use fentanyl, methamphetamine or heroin.

Here’s the city’s more detailed rundown of the survey results.

Mayor Todd Gloria has said the survey could help inform decisions about programs and offerings at existing shelters and future service sites.

We told you last week that former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer endorsed Sunbreak Ranch. That’s the plan to move all homeless San Diegans to a remote camp.

He described it as a “creative” idea. He also told our Lisa Halverstadt that he did not support a site next to the San Diego International Airport, H Barracks, that the city has identified for a safe campsite or parking lot for unhoused individuals.

Scott Lewis in the latest Politics Report writes that Sunbreak Ranch could hurt a lot of progress as long as it keeps pulling in people like Faulconer and others.

“It has become a big black hole that’s beginning to suck up all the energy the homeless crisis has generated,” Lewis writes. “As long as it lives as a supposedly viable alternative to any proposed solution, it will absorb and kill all of them.”

Read the Politics Report here.

On the latest episode of the VOSD Podcast, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Jakob McWhinney unpacked everything you need to know about the idea and why, while it’s unlikely to ever exist, it could remain a default option for people who don’t want to see homeless shelters or services in populous parts of the city.

Senior investigative reporter Lisa Halverstadt joins the crew to provide an update on SB 43. That’s the new state law that expands opportunities for officials to detain those deemed unfit to care for themselves.

Listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your pods.

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Hannah Ramirez.

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/.