Homeless residents set up tents on Commercial Street in downtown San Diego. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz

Homeless tent encampments are growing in San Diego.

You know it. I know it. We see it all the time.

And recently, in an op-ed to the Union-Tribune, San Diego mayor Todd Gloria acknowledged how big of a deal tents are — and how they’re changing the conversation about the region’s single-biggest issue:

“One of the central challenges we face is that many of the folks camping on our sidewalks or in canyons don’t want to live in a congregate setting – which most of our shelters are – so they refuse offers of beds in these facilities,” he wrote.

Personal tents are changing everything; they appear far more preferable to shelter beds.

Nowadays, more resources are being thrown at the homelessness crisis than ever and there are still more unhoused San Diegans than ever — many of whom use camping-style tents as a lifeline. So, what now?

This week on the VOSD Podcast, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña tackle that question and review the history, facts and figures as outlined in Lewis’s latest piece, which you should totally read.

Latest Developments on … Developments

It was a big week for local development news.

San Diego leaders have conceded that they won’t build a massive transit hub at the Navy’s huge NAVWAR building. It was originally dreamt up as a spot to centralize the region’s transit and finally connect the trolley to the airport.

Now, they’re looking at a two-piece solution to connect the trolley and airport and come up with a dope transit hub in downtown San Diego.

Also: The city of San Diego is marching closer (again) to a major redevelopment of the Midway-Sports Arena area.

Also, also: Did you hear about the road update on Gold Coast Drive?!

For All Those Andy-Heads Out There…

Your beloved hosts, Keatts and Lopez-Villafaña, will host an in-person event on May 4, 2022.

They’ll discuss the upcoming primary election and local ballot measures at Cafe X.

It’s a VOSD member event, so you can attend for free if you’re already a member. Or you can use this chance to become a member and hang with us IRL. Sign up here and we’ll see you on May 4.

Listen Now

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Google

Nate John

Nate John is the digital manager at Voice of San Diego. He oversees Voice's website, newsletters, podcasts and product team. You can reach him at nate@vosd.org.

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1 Comment

  1. it’s basically impossible to help the wide majority of homeless .. unless of course like the old days where they are deemed a danger to themselves and the public wellbeing, and committed to lock down shelters or housing .. all these expensive ‘programs’ are merely liberal democrat crony payoff schemes to scam the public out of enormous sums of taxpayer money

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