There are only three homeless shelters in North County and at least 787 unsheltered people, according to the last Point in Time Count, and homeless service providers in the region agree that number is rapidly growing.
All three of those shelters are almost always at capacity, meaning people who need shelter in North County don’t have access to any.
Service providers say they will need more funding and more resources to keep up with the increasing number of homeless people. Without more funding and support from North County cities and the county, they fear they won’t be able to open more shelters and maintain their existing shelters.
Greg Anglea, CEO of Interfaith Community Services, which operates one of the shelters in North County, breaks down what Interfaith and its fellow service providers need to be able to respond more effectively.
ICYMI: Our reporters pulled together some of the most interesting stories, lessons and takeaways from their reporting in 2022. Read our What We Learned This Year series here.
This Year’s Great Journalism About San Diego
The news business has shrunk over the past couple of decades, but there are still dozens of journalists whose job is to uncover hidden truths about San Diego.
Voice of San Diego contributor Randy Dotinga pulled together some of our favorite journalism about San Diego from other publications. These local and national journalists worked hard to uncover abuse, scandals, stories of addiction and institutional failures.
Here’s a look at some of their best work from 2022.
Our best: Earlier this week Dotinga rounded up our reporters’ favorite stories from 2022. Read those here. And our Ariana Drehsler pulled together the best photojournalism captured this year by staff and freelance photographers. Check that out here.
In Other News
- Over the holiday weekend, the U.S. Border Patrol began dropping off groups of migrants at bus stations across San Diego County. Shelters that take in arriving asylum seekers reached capacity after mass flight disruptions slowed down their ability to move migrants on to their final destinations. Border Patrol then dropped off roughly 880 migrants at bus stations in San Diego, Oceanside and El Cajon without any resources or support in getting to their final destinations. It is still unclear why the federal government authorized the drop-offs. (Union-Tribune)
- San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced an update Thursday to the city’s Street Preservation Ordinance. The ordinance outlines rules that utilities have to follow when they dig into streets to make repairs or upgrades to their equipment and services. The update to the ordinance aims to ensure that utilities and contractors make quick and quality repairs to the work they did.
- Del Mar and the North County Transit District are at odds over how to spend $300 million from the state that was supposed to be put toward a plan to relocate the train tracks from the fragile bluffs into an underground tunnel. NCTD says some of the money should be used to replace a 100-year-old railroad bridge before the undergrounding project – Del Mar disagrees. (Union-Tribune) Related: Read more about the plan to relocate the Del Mar train tracks into an underground tunnel here.
- Here’s a guide on where to recycle your Christmas trees after the holidays. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.