Social Media Targets Provider As Homelessness Surges In Encinitas

By Tigist Layne, the Voice of San Diego

April 23, 2025

A heated debate about the future of a homeless services nonprofit has erupted in Encinitas as residents react to a level of visible homelessness the city hasn’t seen before.

Last month, a social media account called Save Encinitas Now shared an Instagram post that quickly spread.

It showed an animated video of a person, depicted only by a hand, throwing crumbs toward a cluster of rats on the street. In the background, stood a building branded with the letters “CRC,” representing homeless services nonprofit Community Resource Center.

“Fact: the CRC is the number one reason Encinitas has a growing, out of control homeless problem,” the post’s caption said. “The CRC attracts them into our city every day only to feed them and turn them loose on Encinitas.”

The host and moderators of Save Encinitas Now are anonymous and shared the post to 14,000 Instagram followers, and it quickly spread throughout the community. It prompted a response from Community Resource Center’s CEO John Van Cleef via an op-ed in The Coast News, where he said the post “crossed a line that should never be crossed.”

But Save Encinitas Now responded with its own op-ed, doubling down on its message and calling CRC a “hub” that “draws in transient populations.”

Ultimately, the Instagram post caught the attention of Encinitas Mayor Bruce Ehlers.

Ehlers condemned the post at an April 9 City Council meeting, calling it “inappropriate and reprehensible.”

“I’d like to call for the Instagram social media post about Community Resource Center comparing homeless people to rats to be withdrawn by its authors and supporters,” Ehlers said from the Council dais. “This degrades people and does not help solve the problem. In fact, it results in diverting our collective attention away from the causes of homelessness.”

Save Encinitas Now took the post down, but the growing chorus of voices criticizing Community Resource Center for being a magnet for homelessness continues.

At the root of the backlash is a harsh reality: Encinitas, a quiet and affluent beach town, is now facing a growing homelessness problem that wasn’t nearly as visible just a few years ago.

Founded in 1979, Community Resource Center provides free food distributions, housing assistance, case management, domestic violence programs and more. The nonprofit has offices in Carlsbad and San Marcos, but its main offices and food distribution center are in downtown Encinitas.

That’s where the controversy started.

Leaders of Community Resource Center are in the process of seeking the city’s approval for a remodel of their 1940s-era downtown office, which would include expanding the building into the property directly next door.

Van Cleef told Voice of San Diego they’re not expanding services; they are just expanding their space.

Still, the idea of Community Resource Center expanding in any way didn’t sit right with some residents, including operators of Save Encinitas Now. They started posting videos sent in by residents of unhoused people sleeping, loitering and urinating outside of Community Resource Center, urging city leaders to vote against Community Resource Center’s expansion.

The posts are accompanied by captions that claim Community Resource Center is attracting homeless people to Encinitas and that the nonprofit advertises at trolley stations to encourage unsheltered people from other cities to visit their facility.

“There are so many claims that are just factually incorrect,” Van Cleef said. “The attributes of downtown already attract unsheltered people to the downtown area in any city – walkable areas, public restrooms, things like that. There’s also plenty of research and data that show unsheltered people tend to stay in their own communities that they’re familiar with.”

Van Cleef told Voice that their building’s security cameras caught one person staging a photo of a homeless person sleeping outside.

“Imagine coming to CRC for the first time and then having people outside video you,” Van Cleef said. “That kind of behavior begins to push a line that’s really not okay.”

He also denied the allegations about Community Resource Center advertising at trolley stops.

“The idea that we would advertise specifically to encourage homeless people to leave their communities and travel to us is blatantly false and ridiculous,” Van Cleef added. “Community Resource Center has never advertised at any of the trolley stops.”

Recent discussions at the City Council about how to allocate federal funds from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program added fuel to the fire. Community Resource Center, which receives these funds annually, requested $30,000 in CDBG funds and general fund dollars for its food distribution program.

At a March 12 City Council meeting, one public speaker urged the Council not to give them money. Martin Tracey, a business owner near Community Resource Center’s downtown location, said people come out of Community Resource Center have trashed, vandalized and urinated on his business.

“I am offended that you’re going to give my tax dollars to people that are putting a blight on this community,” Tracey said. “I live with it every single day.”

Unsheltered homelessness in Encinitas has significantly increased in recent years, according to data from the point-in-time count, the region’s annual homeless census.

The 2024 point-in-time count revealed Encinitas saw one of the largest spikes in the North Coastal region in unsheltered homeless people compared to 2023. Its unsheltered homeless population increased from 76 people in 2022 and 73 people in 2023 to 123 people in 2024. That’s a 68 percent jump from 2023 to 2024.

Service providers and regional experts say that point-in-time data is typically a severe undercount, so those numbers are likely higher. The numbers from the 2025 count are not yet available. 

Homelessness in Encinitas is much more visible now than it has ever been. It’s a fact that Save Encinitas Now acknowledged. Save Encinitas Now declined to reveal their identity and only agreed to communicate with Voice via Instagram messaging.

“Encinitas has had a small handful of homeless people since the 70s, and they’ve mostly been surf bums,” they said. “But everybody in Encinitas, over the last six months to a year, has seen and experienced and dealt with them a lot more, and in a lot of areas where they’ve never been historically.”

Ultimately, the account’s operator said, the responsibility falls on Community Resource Center and the city of Encinitas.

“The CRC is the magnet. It’s the daily free food magnet,” they said. “It has worsened because of a very relaxed approach to enforcement of laws … If Encinitas took a strict approach to law-enforcement, the location of the CRC may not be as important – but because they don’t, the location is a huge problem.”

They added that they would like to see Community Resource Center moved to a different location – away from downtown, residential areas and businesses – and it should have full-time security patrolling the facility, they said.

In general, the account’s operator said, the city needs to do a better job enforcing its laws in order to see any progress on homelessness.

“Homeless people simply need to be forced into treatment, forced to live in shelters, or incarcerated if they refuse,” Save Encinitas Now said. “We recognize that it’s not an easy solution, and that feelings will be hurt along the way, but Encinitas like every other city needs to decide whether or not it prioritizes public safety or whether or not it feels like it’s compassionate to let people openly use drugs and pass out on public sidewalks.”

Encinitas has a ban on camping in public places. Last August, Capt. Shane Watts from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office told city leaders his deputies had seen a reduction in camping violations since the camping ban went into effect.

Mayor Ehlers told Voice that the City Council will soon discuss implementing other enforcement measures like private security to patrol parks and other areas of the city.

“We are interested in cracking down on illegal activities associated with homelessness,” Ehlers said. “We have laws against camping and other things, and that’s what we’re focusing on. Just being homeless is not a crime.”

As for the controversial Instagram post seen around Encinitas, Save Encinitas Now stands by its message.

“When you hand out free food to addicts and junkies and mentally ill, even if that is a well-intentioned effort, it can be ruinous to a community and a business district and a neighborhood,” they said. “We took the post down because it was a distraction from the core message, which is that the CRC is attracting an element to Encinitas that is causing genuine blight and threatening public safety.”

At the March 12 City Council meeting, councilmembers unanimously voted to approve the CDBG and general funds for Community Resource Center, but they asked city staff to create a contract with the nonprofit that sets specific performance requirements to minimize impacts on surrounding businesses and neighbors. Things like addressing littering, loitering and any illegal activity.

City leaders approved some requirements at an April 17 City Council meeting, with councilmembers affirming their support for the nonprofit’s mission. They will consider more measures, like private security, at an upcoming meeting on May 15.

Wednesday’s meeting was packed with supporters of Community Resource Center who took turns sharing positive stories about the nonprofit and urging the Council to continue supporting them. There were only a few public speakers who spoke against the nonprofit.

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