San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘THEY ARE NOT TRYING ... THEY ARE CAMPING’
Downtown S.D. condo owners growing weary as homeless incidents rise
As he pushed the stroller with his two young children up Ninth Avenue during his midday walk in downtown San Diego, Jarvis Leverson stopped at the intersection of F Street.
“This is where I have to divert my route,” he said. “I can go that way,” gesturing his head in one direction, “or that way.”
Across the street, the sidewalk was crammed with tents and makeshift canvas shelters erected by the homeless people who have lived there for weeks, even months. Discarded cartons of food and piles of trash were scattered outside the tents, in the gutter and on the street.
Leverson opted to avoid Ninth Avenue and turned left on F Street, then took a right on Eighth Avenue. Once again, he found the sidewalk impassable, and he rolled the stroller onto the street to avoid tents and people.
It’s a daily occurrence for Leverson, who lives in the Parkloft condominiums on Island Avenue.
Parkloft, a 120-unit, 11-story building on Island Street in East Village, is one of many residential buildings in downtown San Diego. People who live there, where some units with views of Petco Park sell for more than $2 million, say they are wearying of the worsening conditions in their neighborhood.
“Our house right now is on the market because I do not feel safe,” said Elizabeth Ta, who has lived at Parkloft since 2014 and has a 3year-old daughter. “I can’t even walk to Petco Park to the kids playground without running into a homeless person. And God forbid I try to walk to CVS.”
Leverson and his wife bought a unit in the building in 2020. They had lived in the same unit as renters seven years earlier. Back then, Leverson said, it was an up-andcoming East Village neighborhood and sidewalks were clear of homeless encampments.
The sidewalks in front of Parkloft are still clear; security patrols are paid for through homeowner association fees, Leverson said.
Just a few blocks north, however, things are much different. A monthly count conducted by the Downtown San Diego Parntership found about 160 homeless people on sidewalks and in cars and tents between Sixth and 12th street in the blocks from E Street to the north and Market Street to the south.
In all of downtown, the number
of homeless people living outdoors has surged over the past six months and has reached almost 2,000.
Leverson and his neighbors say the increase in people on the street has brought an increase in alarming encounters. While violent incidents make the news, along with efforts to help, house and shelter homeless people, the day-to-day, declining quality of life experienced by downtown residents is often overlooked.
“You name it, I’ve seen it,” Leverson said, describing the contrast of walking from a $1 million unit into abject poverty, drug use and mental illness. “I’ve seen people OD on the street, seizuring, foaming at the mouth. Every day I walk past people doing meth and with needles in their arms. People with their pants down, defecating on the street. I’ve seen people fighting. I’ve seen a person beating someone with a pole. I’ve seen people having sex.”
Nathan Crowley, who has lived in Parkloft two years, has experienced worse.
‘Maybe I’m numb to it’
Around 4 p.m. on Jan. 30, Crowley said he was pushing a shopping cart at the neighborhood Ralphs when he saw a man who appeared dirty and disheveled, eating food from the shelf.
“Maybe I’m numb to it, but it didn’t bother me,” he said. “I just went around him and minded my own business.”
A few minutes later, Crowley was in the meat section looking down when he saw the same man out of the corner of his eye charging forward with a wine bottle in his hand. Crowley was struck in the face with the bottle, and he dropped to the ground.
“It was bad,” he said. “Blood was everywhere. I couldn’t see. I was in huge pain.”
Crowley later learned he was the third person the man was suspected to have assaulted that day. He said the man had a court hearing Feb. 14 and will have a mental evaluation March 25.
“I had about 35 stitches, a fractured eye socket, fractured skull, brain bleed, bruised brain, a concussion,” he said. “I’m very lucky to even be alive.”
He still has a black eye and has trouble focusing, he said.
“The irony is, out of all my friends, I’m the one who is the most empathetic toward the homeless,” he said. “I’m not going to let this one person change my outlook on life. But I can tell you, it’s been tough.”
Leverson said he has a heart for people on the street, but he thinks the city is making a mistake by allowing them to have tents.
“It’s the safe space where they’re doing drugs, not to mention we can’t use the sidewalks and you have to walk in the middle of the street,” he said.
The city does regular abatements of encampments and throws away tents and other items that are considered abandoned. Despite the clean-ups, the effort doesn’t seem to make much of an impact.
The San Diego Police Department has a Neighborhood Policing Division dedicated to keeping the sidewalks clear, “but the number of encampments and the time it takes to address each one takes consistency and education to achieve compliance,” Ashley Bailey, the city’s strategic communications officer for public safety and homelessness, said in a statement.
While violent incidents do occur, they are rare, say the outreach workers, church volunteers and activists who interact with homeless people.
Homeless advocate Michael Mcconnell, who monitors police activity around encampments and often brings supplies to people living on the street, said he never has had a violent incident, but he does understand the residents’ concern.
“I get it,” he said. “I think there’s merit to what their perception is because there is more substance use and there appear to be more mental health issues.”
Resident Lisa Roth is among the Parkloft residents who say they have lost patience. She suggests hiring companies to tow away tents and requiring homeless people to pay to retrieve them and awarding tax benefits to commercial building owners or tenants who prohibit camping around their premises.
“These are not homeless persons in search of a new life,” she said. “They are vagrants who live in our beautiful city rent- and tax-free, enjoying handouts and supplies like tents and blankets. We recognize these people. They are not trying to get off the street. They are camping. They are ‘residents.’”
Roth said she walks nine blocks to work and has adjusted her schedule to wait until after 7:30 a.m. to avoid people defecating and urinating in the morning.
Hopeless, tired
Kevin Badami said he feels hopeless.
“I would love to use the library downtown, but it’s akin to a Third World country now in parts of downtown, which is a shame,” he said.
Ken Hsiueh, another condo owner who bikes to work each morning, says he’s tired of the situation.
“I used to have empathy for these people, but after living downtown for 15 years it is hard to care anymore when they violently lunge at you, destroy infrastructure and leave trash strewn for hundreds of yards along the bike path,” he said. “And yet every day our city cleans it up and shuffles the homeless around only for them to return within a week or two.”
Barb Ward and her husband bought their condo in 2007 and said they used to take pride in bringing family members and friends to their neighborhood, including the new Central Library, which she now sees as a “dumping ground for drug addicts, dealers and sadly mentally ill people.”
“Perhaps I sound harsh and void of compassion towards those inside the sidewalk tents,” she said. “Yet, if I sound harsh, it’s because I’ve become hardened having seen too many smoke their meth in front me. Too many drugged men and women rocking back and forth half-naked on the sidewalk of J Street right next to our city’s world-class ballpark.”
Ward said the city should put people in hospitals or city campgrounds.
There have been recent efforts to get more people off the street and into shelters or housing.
On Thursday, City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn announced he is proposing an ordinance to ban encampments on sidewalks and other public places.
The city of San Diego also is launching a pilot program to house and bring services to homeless people in the area where Leverson walks every day, with a plan to keep the sidewalks permanently cleared.
A temporary women’s shelter has opened in the former library in the neighborhood, and Whitburn and Father Joe’s Villages have discussed opening safe campgrounds as an alternative to tents on sidewalks.
Last year, the city and county opened a shelter focused on people with addictions and mental health problems and also operate a smaller harm reduction shelter for people with similar problems.
Proposed state legislation and a new CARE Court scheduled to launch this year also could lead to more mandated treatment for people with mental illnesses.
Whitburn’s proposed ban on encampments, which has the support of Mayor Todd Gloria, is expected to go before the City Council next month. If it passes, the city faces daunting enforcement challenges in part due to a police staffing shortage and shelters already at near capacity.
Still, the proposal was greeted as good news by Leverson.
“I think it’s phenomenal,” he said, adding that the ordinance would address the frustration many downtown residents have about blocked sidewalks.
Leverson said he plans to be at the City Council meeting when the proposal is introduced, and he plans to bring others to speak in its support.
While hopeful the new ordinance will bring about change, he also is a bit jaded. He recalled other proclamations about increased enforcement, including a ban on tents on sidewalks during daylight hours last year. Clearly, he said, that isn’t working.