Photos: The Faces of Homelessness

Officials have made it clear that the conditions on public property won’t be allowed to continue. They’re now trying to ban encampments and offer shelter as an alternative. 

Over the last several months, I have spoken to nine people about how they got to where they are, what obstacles they face and what they feel is missing from the region’s response. 

Some have struggled with substance abuse and others are down on their luck. And because securing housing can take years, they’ve instead created their own homes and communities on San Diego’s sidewalks, river banks, freeway underpasses, shelters and shopping centers. 

These are their stories. 

Carmen Battle

When I approached Carmen Battle she was talking to an unhoused person next to state Route 94 freeway in the East Village. Battle was homeless for two years until she secured a home reserved for low income and homeless individuals. Her studio came furnished, a sheet hangs instead of a curtain and she has written on a wall. A certain section of it is about a sexual assault that she says happened while living at the housing project. She never reported it.

Battle heard voices and saw people who were not there while we were talking. She says she’s bipolar but is not taking medication for it. She sometimes sleeps on the street because she says that helps calm the voices in her head. 

Before becoming homeless, Battle was living in an apartment with her 10-year-old daughter and working at a Goodwill store. But then she started drinking and using drugs again and eventually her older daughters adopted their youngest sister. She hasn’t seen her five kids since 2019. 

The 55-year-old worries that she might lose her studio because of damage to the room that she claims she never did. She wants to get treatment for substance abuse but feels that she doesn’t have the proper support.

Josh Nicols

Josh Nicols, was sitting next to a shopping cart with his belongings at a shopping center parking lot in Lemon Grove. The Navy veteran has been homeless since 2014. He has never stayed in a shelter because he worries they will be overcrowded and have too many rules. He doesn’t want to be cramped. He says he hasn’t seen much change on the street when it comes to homelessness and would like to know where the money is going.

Before becoming homeless the Wisconsinite lived in an apartment with someone he didn’t know very well. He says that his roommate introduced him to drugs. The 51 year old says embracing that lifestyle, dipping into his life savings and not working, is what led to him being homeless. 

“When you’re out here you see things through a different lens,” he said. His plan for the future is to “survive.”

Kirsten Williams

Hidden in overgrown bushes along a San Diego freeway in San Ysidro, Kirsten Williams stands in front of a fire to keep warm. The 49-year-old has been homeless on and off for six years. She has six kids, the youngest is 11 and adopted by another family, to which she says, “he’s a blessing for someone else.” Still, she hopes to see him again one day. 

She stays in motels when she can afford it, but prefers the tent she shares with her two dogs over a city shelter, where her dogs might not be welcome or complicate getting into one in the first place. 

She says they’re worth it. They’ve kept her safe when men have attempted to enter her tent. She says she’d like politicians to go out and speak to homeless people about what they want. And for the city to offer more resources beyond downtown. 

She has many other hopes for the future — getting her teeth fixed, being drug free and cooking for her family — but for now, this is her reality. 

Marie Garcia

I met Marie Garcia at an encampment downtown. She’s 18 and five months pregnant. Garcia has been in trouble with the law since she was 12 years old, she told me. “It’s easy to get into the system but hard to get out of it,” she said.

She’s been without a home for five years but on the street for a little over two. “You don’t really connect with the outside world when you’re down here,” Garcia said. She said living in an encampment feels like being in a different world. Garcia does not want to go to a shelter because she feels there is no privacy and doesn’t feel comfortable staying in a big room with people she doesn’t know. Her mom is also homeless and stays in a tent nearby.

Silvia Ibarra

Silvia Ibarra opts to stay in an RV with her boyfriend in San Ysidro over a shelter because of her dog, too. She tried staying in a shelter once but her dog caused problems and she didn’t like having rules. She wanted freedom.

I met Ibarra, 52, while she was sitting in a wheelchair in front of her RV on an empty lot. Before becoming homeless she was employed, but a stroke left her unable to work and pay rent, she said. The county eventually took away her nine children. 

She still has trouble speaking and while we talked she had a hard time focusing. She is on a waiting list for housing, she told me, but she has been waiting for more than five years.

Albert Maldonado

Albert Maldonado, 60, says a big problem on the street is sanitation, and that there could be more washing stations and portable public restrooms. He was sweeping the sidewalk near his tent downtown when we met. 

Before Maldonado slept on the street he was staying at a sober living facility, but he’s decided he can’t live in that type of environment. 

Originally from Philadelphia, Maldonado quit school at 13 years old. He had run-ins with the law and ran with the wrong crowd but says he is now working on being a better person. 

Rachel Hayes

When I approached Rachel Hayes she was smoking a cigarette near her tent at an encampment downtown. The street cleaners were cleaning one side of the street, and she and her boyfriend, Richard were getting ready to move their tents to the side that had been cleaned.

The 55-year-old says she became homeless because of a series of bad choices and has been homeless since 2012. She struggled with drugs off and on since 2005 but has been sober since Nov. 4. She attends weekly meetings at Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.

Hayes has stayed in a few shelters but said she didn’t sleep well there and doesn’t feel like she is shelter material. She likes her freedom. She has been on the list for housing and has been told she should be moving into her new place in May. 

Chad Daniel

Chad Daniel has been homeless on and off for almost five years. I met him near the River Bottom in Mission Valley, where he stays. He wants to be housed, and he’s on a list, but so far a spot has not opened up. 

The 50-year-old moved to San Diego during the pandemic after reconnecting with an old flame. When that didn’t work out he was homeless but still working. He told me he would shower outside before going to work and tried to save money, but he couldn’t keep up and then was let go when work slowed down. 

He doesn’t want to stay in a shelter because he is worried about theft, which he hears happens often in shelters. He also has more control over his life on the street, he said. For now, he tries to make money by selling items he finds on the street. 

 “Everyone’s got a hustle,” he told me, “we are trying to provide for ourselves.” 

Danielle Patrice Draeving

Danielle Patrice Draeving lost her job during the pandemic after working as a flight attendant for 10 years. She drove to San Diego from Wisconsin last September with her 5-year-old son, JD. When they made it to San Diego, she would deliver food through a delivery app so that her and her son could sleep in a motel. Eventually her car broke down and she couldn’t pay the fees for towing. 

Draeving and her son now stay in a homeless shelter downtown. She still delivers food through  a delivery app but now uses a bike that has an attachment for JD to sit in. Since it’s rained a lot recently she hasn’t been able to work as much as she would like.

The 32 year old feels that everything is taking too long, from getting an EBT card to getting on the list for housing. She understands everyone is doing the best they can but wished that the process would move a lot faster. 

She says not everyone is drunk and high who are homeless, “sometimes people have a bad year.” As for the future, Draeving is hoping that she and her son will soon have a place to call home. She wants to work in home health care and is hoping to home school her son.