There are now more than 500 homeless San Diegans staying at the city’s safe campsites in Balboa Park.
As of Wednesday, the city reports 521 people were staying in 434 tents at the two sites. The city says the two sites can collectively accommodate people staying in another 110 tents.
Where some are moving next: Since the first of two sites opened in June, city spokesman Matt Hoffman said 26 people have moved into permanent or transitional housing.
Hundreds want to move in: Hoffman said 336 households are on a wait list to get into one of the city’s safe campsites.
Meanwhile, the shelter access situation: In the last four weeks of the year, 83 percent of referrals for people seeking a bed in one of the shelters overseen by the San Diego Housing Commission didn’t result in a placement. Data from the city’s housing agency showed 98 percent of the roughly 1,700 shelter beds overseen by the commission were occupied as of Wednesday.
Oceanside Selects its Next Beach Builder
The jury is out. Oceanside wants an Australian firm to help rebuild its eroding beaches.
International Coastal Management headquartered in Queensland, wooed a large panel of jurors selected to help San Diego’s northernmost city design new ways to keep sand on the shoreline. It was one of three design teams that submitted ideas, the others being a Dutch beach design group called Deltares and SCAPE, a team based in San Francisco.
ICM proposed a project called “living speed bumps” which consists of building two small headlands – that could look like raised native dune structures – that keep sand from being taken away by waves. And, the concept features an offshore artificial reef to slow down the ocean’s power before it hits the coastline.
The city announced the winning designer on an Instagram post Thursday, adding that the City Council will vote to approve ICM’s concept at its Jan. 31 meeting.
Some extra reading from the Environment Report: The U.S. Government owes the city of Oceanside a beach after it built Camp Pendleton and its harbor. Instead, the city is spending its own money on saving its sand.
In Other News
- San Diego Councilman Kent Lee, still a relative newcomer on the City Council, is set to lead the city’s housing and budget committees this year. (The Union-Tribune)
- CBS 8 checked the status of the Ocean Beach Pier following last week’s colossal waves and learned it’ll remain closed the rest of the winter. Related: High tides will be back in San Diego next week. (Fox 5 San Diego)
- A former military contractor who infamously fled to Venezuela years after pleading guilty for bribing Navy officials in a blockbuster corruption case was back in a San Diego courtroom on Thursday. (City News Service, Associated Press)
- The Union-Tribune asked local hospitals to weigh in on the state’s Medi-Cal insurance expansion for undocumented people.
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.