Addressing homelessness is my top priority. Every single day, we are working to get people off the street, connected to services and on a path to securing permanent housing. 

Making Progress on New Safe Sleeping Site at O Lot 

City crews are hard at work preparing a piece of City property called the “O” Lot, which will open this fall as a new Safe Sleeping site for hundreds of people. 

Located in the Balboa Park area, adjacent to the Naval Medical Center San Diego, the O Lot was previously used as an overflow parking lot. In order to allow for specific site access, City crews worked to expand and stabilize a separate access road for travel to and from the lot. The road was widened to allow for delivery and emergency vehicle access. This road will only be used by those accessing the Safe Sleeping site and will not allow for public access or be used as a thoroughfare. 

City crews are also busy constructing platforms that will provide an even foundation for tents and offer added protection against ground moisture and weather conditions. 

Our new Safe Sleeping Program is an important piece of the City’s Comprehensive Shelter Plan. Safe Sleeping sites operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and offer safe, legal camping space as an alternative to traditional shelters for people experiencing homelessness.  

Safe Sleeping clients get a tent, a cot, meals and access to bathrooms, showers, handwashing stations and drinking water. Each client also has a case manager who helps them get the resources they need to end their homelessness. 

Our Safe Sleeping site at 20th and B Streets in Golden Hill has been extremely successful at bringing in people who have refused other shelter options. As of Tuesday, we had 145 people staying at the site. 

The Safe Sleeping program is just one part of the City’s new Comprehensive Shelter Strategy, which defines the City’s shelter needs and its plans to fulfill them over the short, medium and long term.

Mental Health Care Critical to Homelessness Response

Behavioral health programs and funding are the purview of the State and County, but it is cities like ours that are on the frontlines of the mental health crisis, dealing with its impacts every single day – particularly with homeless residents, who are the least likely to have access to care.

In 2022, San Diego first responders went to over 53,000 mental health crisis calls, spending over 130,000 hours of service time handling them. The number of calls and service time is equivalent to 36 first responders spending their entire shifts every single day for a year responding only to mental health calls.

Given the resources cities put into helping people in distress, I and mayors from around the state are getting more involved in pushing for improvements to our broken behavioral health system.

The California Big City Mayors Coalition, which I chair, sponsored conservatorship reform legislation, Senate Bill 43 authored by Sen. Susan Eggman, which would expand eligibility for conservatorship and help get people suffering from severe mental illness and drug addiction into care.

The City is also ready to begin referring people into CARE Court next month. This is a new voluntary program for a small segment of the population, predominantly those with schizophrenia and similar psychotic disorders, that mandates the County to provide services.

I also helped lead the push for more mental health beds by supporting Governor Newsom’s bed bond to fund up to 10,000 new permanent mental health beds across the state. Right now, we are woefully under-resourced, particularly in drug treatment beds, and must have opportunities available to people when they’re ready to get help for addiction and turn their lives around.

By addressing our mental health crisis, we can make a huge difference in the lives of so many San Diegans, including those experiencing homelessness while suffering from severe mental illness.

Understanding the City's Shelter System 

The City of San Diego has contracts with various service providers to provide shelter options for people experiencing homelessness. At our shelters, people are connected to support services and ultimately put on a path toward permanent housing.  

The shelters listed below are City-funded or included as part of the City’s Coordinated Intake System for shelter placements. (Note: These do not represent all shelters operating within the City of San Diego.) 

• Alpha Project Bridge Shelter I  
• Alpha Project Bridge Shelter II  
• Barrio Logan Family Shelter 
• Community Harm Reduction Shelter  
• Community Harm Reduction Safe Haven 
• Father Joe’s Villages Bishop Maher Center  
• Father Joe’s Villages Paul Mirabile Center  
• Golden Hall, First Floor  
• LGBT Center - LGBTQ+ Affirming TAY Shelter (Clairemont) 
• LGBT Center - LGBTQ+ Affirming TAY Shelter (Midway) 
• PATH Connections Housing  
• Rachel’s Promise Women’s Shelter  
• Rosecrans Shelter  
• Salvation Army Interim Family Shelter 
• San Diego Youth Services 
• Seniors Landing  
• The Alliance 
• San Diego Youth Services  
• Urban Street Angels Youth Shelter  

San Diego Nonprofit and Church say Yes to Affordable Housing in God’s Backyard 

The faith community in San Diego has long helped serve people experiencing homelessness and now is stepping up to help build more affordable housing in our city.  

Bethel AME San Diego, led by Senior Pastor Harvey L. Vaughn, is partnering with YIGBY San Diego, a nonprofit group of cross-sector professionals who are working to put homes on underused church properties. They are working together to build homes on land that the church owns in Logan Heights. Two small duplexes on the land will be replaced by a 26-unit project that will house veterans and seniors. 

“Because of the City’s zoning changes, we were able to do 26 units instead of 16, so that’s been a real blessing,” Pastor Vaughn said. “These units will be energy-efficient and extremely nice. This is the first of many housing projects we hope to build in Logan Heights.”  

YIGBY, which stands for Yes in God’s Back Yard, has an ambitious goal for the region, and is working toward building 3,000 units on church-owned properties by 2025. Pastor Vaughn hopes to do more housing projects with YIGBY and help get them to that goal. 

“I really believe that we as people of faith, our responsibility goes beyond the people who come to worship,’ Pastor Vaughn said. “Churches have responsibility to both our congregants and our community and if we have space to provide affordable housing, we should do everything we can to build it. This is a model that can be replicated in other parts of San Diego.” 

CARE Event in Southeastern San Diego Connects 150 People to Services

Outreach workers were recently at the Willie Henderson Sports Complex in Mountain View where they met with nearly 150 people experiencing homelessness to connect them with resources and services.  

The City’s Department of Homelessness Strategies and Solutions department facilitates these Coordinated Access to Resource and Engagement (CARE) events throughout San Diego communities twice a month. The City, County, local agencies and nonprofits partner work together to help people experiencing homelessness by bringing services and resourced directly to them.  

CARE events are usually conducted during the last two weeks of the month in areas where there is a known population of individuals experiencing homelessness. The City and our partners set up in public spaces to offer opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness to get access and referrals to essential resources.  

The next CARE event will take place from Sept. 18-20 and connect people experiencing homelessness with supportive housing, while also connecting them to case management, health education, public benefits, mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, primary care referrals and more. People are also offered hygiene kits, transportation and other basic essentials.  

The program has successfully connected more than 1,700 people to services and has led to more than 180 people being placed into housing.