Addressing homelessness is my top priority as your Mayor. Every single day, we are working to get people off the street, connected to services, and on a path to securing permanent housing. This weekly e-newsletter provides updates on each of these efforts and how we are ending homelessness in our City one person at a time. 

Unsafe Camping Ordinance Moves Forward 

On April 13, the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee voted to advance a proposed ordinance by Councilmember Stephen Whitburn that would prohibit homeless encampments near schools, homeless shelters, trolley stations, along the river, in canyons and in some parks.  

This is a proposal I strongly support, and I have requested the full City Council consider this ordinance and send it to me so I can sign it into law.  

In tandem with this proposed ordinance, my administration is working to establish a Safe Sleeping program for people living in tents to go that does not block the public right-of-way. These locations would also have supportive services on-site so we can help get people back on their feet and on a path to permanent housing.  

My administration has increased shelter bed capacity by nearly 70 percent in the past two years. This includes congregate and non-congregate shelters and shelters for women, seniors, families and transition-age youth.  

Given everything this City has done to expand homeless services and the millions in taxpayer dollars spent to do so every year, I see the Unsafe Camping Ordinance is an appropriate and necessary step to protect the public health and safety of all people across our City. It is simply not acceptable to pitch a tent on the sidewalk when another, far safer option is available.  

It is not humane to allow unsafe encampments to proliferate. We’ve seen what can happen when they do – in 2017, roughly 600 people were infected with hepatitis A, and 20 of them died because of unsanitary conditions on the streets of San Diego.  

Every day that someone remains in a tent on the street without services puts them further out of reach of real solutions to end their homelessness and leaves them vulnerable to predatory drug dealers and traffickers, disease and crime. 

I look forward to the full City Council’s consideration of this proposal in the coming weeks.  

Seniors Finding Permanent Homes through Shelter 

Last December, we opened Seniors Landing, a shelter with 33 private rooms for unhoused seniors in a former motel in Little Italy. The shelter is operated under a contract with the City by Serving Seniors, one of our region’s most effective and trusted nonprofit organizations dedicated to assisting our struggling older residents. 

Since it opened, Seniors Landing has welcomed 41 residents, seven who have already moved on to permanent housing. Seventeen more residents are matched to apartments with wraparound supportive services that will open soon. 

This is how our comprehensive strategy works to address homelessness: effective and compassionate street outreach, temporary placement into shelter and connection to permanent housing. I’m grateful to Serving Seniors and our Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department for making this shelter a success. 

Understanding the City's Shelter System



The City of San Diego has contracts with various service providers throughout the city to provide shelter options for individuals to stabilize in a safe, sanitary environment while they are connected to permanent or other long-term 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  
• 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  
• Golden Hall, Second Floor  
• Old Central Library Women’s Shelter 
• PATH Connections Housing  
• Rachel’s Promise Women’s Shelter  
• Rosecrans Shelter  
• Seniors Landing  
• San Diego Youth Services  
• Urban Street Angels Youth Shelter  

DSDP, PATH Help Juli Find Her Way Home 

Last September, a woman named Juli was sitting on the ground next to her wheelchair selling her own watercolor paintings when she was approached by the Downtown San Diego Partnership Clean and Safe program’s unhoused care team. She was in good spirits even in the face of her homelessness, a history of significant health issues and the death of her husband. DSDP’s care team noticed that Juli had what appeared to be a bump on her head and learned that it had been growing larger. 

Working with a team member from PATH (People Assisting the Homeless), which operates the City of San Diego’s Coordinated Street Outreach Program, the care team made sure Juli got the appropriate healthcare appointments and helped her complete an application for an emergency housing voucher. With the help of a housing care manager in Oceanside, Juli received the keys to her first home in more than 20 years just in time to have a safe place of her own to recover after surgery to remove the growth on her head.  

Juli told Keith, her DSDP care coordinator, “I realized something. I’m going to live. I can think about the future. I can make plans. I get to be happy.” 

Congratulations and best of luck to Juli!