S.D. COUNTY PROPOSES AID TO CITIES THAT OPEN NEW SHELTERS

Plan would fund health and education services for homeless people

Any San Diego County city that opens a new homeless shelter will be provided with various countyfunded services under a memorandum of understanding proposed Monday.

In the memorandum proposed to all 18 cities in the county, Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher said new shelters will be provided with county behavioral health services, public health education, communicable disease screening tools, and a human services specialist to help homeless people obtain benefits and resources for food, funding and health care.

In return, cities would agree to pay for staffing, three meals a day, security, hygiene, storage, cleaning, and general operations and maintenance costs. People in shelters also would have access to showers, restrooms and laundry services.

As an incentive to those cities, Fletcher said a proposed $10 million grant program to help fund new shelters will go before the Board of Supervisors for ratification May 24. The one-time grant funding would help cities open shelters, safe camping sites, tiny homes or other programs that

would get people off the street.

“As we award those grants, we will be looking for what cities can move fast,” Fletcher said about how funding will be determined. “Who can quickly get things up and running. Who can get people off the street and get them the help and services they need.”

Fletcher said priority for the funding will go to shelters that can be up and running in months rather than years.

“My messages to the mayors and managers this morning was, ‘Start getting your ideas, start getting your parcels of land and what you might do there,’ ” he said.

The memorandum of understanding was presented to city leaders Monday during a Regional Task Force on Homelessness intergovernmental roundtable. The virtual meeting was attended by representatives of all county cities except Coronado, Encinitas, Poway and Imperial Beach.

National City Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis was not at the roundtable but said she was briefed by the assistant city manager, who was there.

“That’s what we need,” she said of the county agreement to provide services at shelters. “We need wraparound services. We can’t just say, ‘Here’s a voucher.’ Do they need mental health services? Do they have an ID?”

Sotelo-Solis said she also was excited about the $10 million grant program.

“I know it’s one-time funding, and that is a challenge,” she said. “However, when we’re looking to address homelessness and unsheltered people, we need to throw everything at it and try to make things work.”

Michael McConnell, an advocate for homeless people, said he wasn’t too impressed with the county’s offer to provide services, as that’s what it is expected to do.

He did appreciate that outlining the services in advance could streamline the process, and he said it could help get people off the street.

While McConnell has always advocated for more housing rather than shelters, he said he did like the idea of encouraging more cities to open shelters to help people in their communities.

“I’ve always been a proponent of smaller shelters spread throughout the county,” he said, adding that homeless people generally want to stay in their own cities. “I certainly welcome and encourage cities to take advantage of that.”

The largest shelters in the county are in downtown San Diego, which also has the largest encampments on sidewalks. The latest monthly count by the Downtown San Diego Partnership found 1,474 people were living outside in April, a significant increase from 875 in April 2021 and the partnership’s highest monthly count dating back to January 2012.

Homelessness occurs throughout San Diego County, however, and there are indications that it has increased. A long line of RVs that are used as temporary homes line streets north of Old Town, encampments are scattered in canyons, riversides and in an area known as the Jungle in South Bay, and tents can be spotted on bridges and near off-ramps in many cities.

The Regional Task Force on Homelessness found that the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020, from about 2,300 to 4,100.

The last countywide count was in January 2020 and found 7,619 homeless people, with more than half living without shelter. The most recent count was conducted in February, and results are expected to be released next week.

Fletcher said the county already has worked with the city of San Diego on various projects to help homeless people, but the problem is one that affects cities throughout the county, and it will take a multi-jurisdictional effort to address.

“The situation on the street demands that we continue to look for every possible way we can to get more shelter facilities up, more safe parking, more safe camping,” he said. “And we can do it much faster.”

The memorandum of understanding is different from the one being considered by El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Santee. In that memorandum, outlined last week by Supervisor Joel Anderson, the four cities would work together on finding sites for emergency and long-term housing for homeless people.

Tamera Kohler, CEO of the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness, called the proposed memorandum of understanding transformational because it provided a clear list of what the county will provide.

Kohler said she also liked the flexibility it provided to cities by offering grant funding for a variety of shelters.

“It allows each community to address homelessness on their individual scale,” she said.

Some San Diego County cities already are taking steps to open their first shelters. Oceanside is planning to open one by the end of this year, while the San Diego Rescue Mission plans to open a shelter in National City sometime next year.

In National City, the nonprofit Amikas is building small homes for homeless mothers and their children, Chula Vista is creating a shelter with prefab structures, and Vista is considering opening its first shelter.

Fletcher said he hopes the county will be overwhelmed with proposals for projects that can quickly be put in place.

He also said he’s hopeful that the not-in-my-backyard attitude that has been an obstacle for many homeless services is fading as more people demand solutions to the problem.