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

State’s Encampment Resolution Funding is Helping City of San Diego Move People into Housing

Thanks to the State of California’s Encampment Resolution Funding program, California has cleared 5,679 encampments from the state right-of-way since July 1, 2021, moving people experiencing homelessness into housing.  

Now, the state is making nearly $300 million available in Encampment Resolution Funding to help municipalities continue to relocate even more individuals from encampments into housing. 

This new round of funding just announced by the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom builds on the $415 million the state has already awarded to cities, counties and continuums of care to clean up encampments and house people living on the street.  

Here in San Diego, we’ve successfully secured three Encampment Resolution Funding grants, which we’ve put to work to help get people out of unsanitary encampments and into permanent housing. 

In 2022, the State awarded $2.45 million to the City of San Diego to help unsheltered residents in the East Village neighborhood move from homelessness to safe and stable housing. This year, we secured two more Encampment Resolution Funding grants, one for approximately $3.1 million to address a string of encampments in City Heights and other Council District 9 communities, and another grant, in partnership with the County of San Diego and the City of Santee for $17 million, that will help us to clear an encampment located along the San Diego County riverbed corridor from San Diego through Santee and Lakeside.  

My administration will continue to be highly focused on addressing encampments that are unsanitary and unsafe for both the people living in them and the communities around them.

City Funding Helps Create Hundreds of New Affordable Homes 

We have just announced another round of funding in our Bridge to Home program, which helps affordable housing projects get across the financing finish line with direct investment. Five new affordable housing projects are being recommended to receive a total of $15.4 million in Round 3 of Bridge to Home funding.  

To date, our investments have enabled projects totaling over 1,300 affordable homes to move forward in neighborhoods across the City — from Rancho Bernardo to San Ysidro. 

The five latest projects will create a total of 400 new affordable homes in five different City Council districts. Of the 400 homes, 96 would be set aside as permanent supportive housing for San Diegans experiencing homelessness. 

This innovative program helps get shovels in the ground more quickly by providing gap-financing assistance to developers who are creating income-restricted homes. Getting more of these homes built as quickly as we can helps address homelessness and provides homes that low-income San Diegans can afford.  

The first two rounds of Bridge to Home helped fund 937 affordable homes in Rancho Bernardo, City Heights, El Cerrito, Downtown, Encanto and San Ysidro, including 272 homes with attached supportive services for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. 

Read more about our Bridge to Home program on Inside San Diego.  

City’s Safe Sleeping site at O Lot Reaches First Milestone 

Our Safe Sleeping Program at Balboa Park's O lot has reached a milestone and has now been up and running for over a month.  

We opened the newest Safe Sleeping site on Oct. 20 and it’s already serving nearly 250 individuals by offering them a safe space to stay in individual tents as an alternative to traditional congregate shelters. 

This is just one of several existing shelter options (congregate, non-congregate, safe parking, etc.) offered by the City to meet the unique needs of those experiencing homelessness.  

The onsite operators of the O Lot are Dreams for Change, which oversees the City’s other Safe Sleeping site, and the Downtown San Diego Partnership. They keep the site running smoothly while helping get people connected to services and on the path to permanent housing.  

The O Lot site has capacity for up to 400 tents, with room for up to two people in each tent. The site has storage, restrooms, shower facilities and onsite, round-the-clock security. 

A free shuttle runs between the two safe sleeping sites and a designated Downtown location to help clients access other services and medical appointments, run errands or go to work or school.

The City of San Diego’s Inclement Weather Shelter Program, Explained 

Winter is coming, which means temperatures will drop and people experiencing homelessness will need additional warm, safe places to go, especially when it rains.  

The City of San Diego’s Inclement Weather Shelter Program provides additional shelter capacity during rainy or bad weather days. 

The program typically operates from November through March and is activated when any of these conditions are met: The temperature is 50ºF or below and there is a 40% chance of rain; the temperature is 45ºF or below regardless of a chance of rain; or in exceptional weather conditions, such as one or more inches of rain within 24 hours and sustained high winds.  

People can show up directly to the locations listed online here to gain access to a bed. Beds opened for inclement weather are on a per-night basis, and access to a bed is first-come-first-served; however, we always have had open beds every time the program has been activated and there was never a time when we had to turn someone away.  

Those staying at the City’s Safe Sleeping sites will not need to access indoor shelter beds because the sites use tents designed for ice fishing that are able to withstand extreme temperatures. They are insulated and will keep people inside warm during cooler weather and keep them cool during warmer weather. 

Platforms under the tents also help with protection against moisture and weather conditions, and temperature checks are conducted regularly on site.  

If you want to help ensure people experiencing homelessness stay warm during the coming winter months by donating blankets or warm clothes, we recommend donating directly to a service providers. Consider participating in the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Winter Donation Drive. The organization is asking for donations of hats, gloves, sweatpants, socks, sweaters and other things to help people stay warm. Please resist the urge to donate blankets and warm clothes directly to people experiencing homelessness, as it can prevent them from accepting shelter and work to trap them in an endless cycle of homelessness.  

Understanding the City's Shelter System 

The City of San Diego has contracts with various service providers to offer shelter options to 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: There are additional shelters outside of this system that are 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  
• O Lot Safe Sleeping Site  
• Rachel’s Promise Women’s Shelter  
• Rosecrans Shelter  
• Safe Sleeping at 20th & B  
• Safe Sleeping at O Lot  
• Salvation Army Interim Family Shelter 
• San Diego Youth Services 
• Seniors Landing  
• San Diego Youth Services  
• Urban Street Angels Youth Shelter  

Surveying People Experiencing Homelessness to Better Understand How to Help 

In early October, City staff and community partners surveyed people experiencing homelessness in Downtown San Diego as part of an effort to better understand their needs and how we can help them end their homelessness.  

The Downtown Unsheltered Homeless Engagement Survey's primary objectives were to identify the current unsheltered population, understand when and why they became unhoused, and explore opportunities and resources to facilitate placements into shelters or permanent housing.  

The survey covered several locations in downtown San Diego and was made possible through collaboration with various service partners and stakeholders, including the San Diego Day Center, the Downtown San Diego Partnership, Father Joe’s Village, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), People Assisting the Homeless, Alpha Project and others.  

Key takeaways include:  

• 48 percent of those surveyed said that a congregate shelter setting would meet their needs 
• 21 percent said there is a person with whom they feel safe who might welcome them into their homes 
• 26 percent said they were struggling to access mental health care 
• 38 percent said they used fentanyl, heroine and/or meth  

Data like this helps the City’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department and our community partners make decisions about what programs and services to provide at both current shelters and future homeless service sites such as H Barracks. For example, the 21 percent of people who say they have people they can turn to for housing may be good candidates for the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Family Reunification Program. 

Homelessness is a crisis, and we need to continue to work to provide safe places for people to get out of street encampments and connected with services that will help them end their homelessness. 

We’ve created several facilities across our city with great success – and in partnership with the communities hosting them – and I look forward to continue using our data-driven approach to help drive future solutions to addressing our city’s most serious crisis.