Street homelessness in San Diego County is up 19 percent this year. The place where it might be the most visible is downtown’s East Village.
East Village is gentrifying. New development is turning the former warehouse district into a neighborhood filled with luxury condos, bars and restaurants. But street homelessness hasn’t disappeared; in fact, it’s up 80 percent since last summer, nearly triple what it was in 2013.
So what’s behind that spike?
On this week’s San Diego Explained, NBC 7 San Diego’s Monica Dean and Voice of San Diego’s Lisa Halverstadt explain how homelessness continues to explode in the East Village and the history behind it.