North County Report: Vista’s First Low-Barrier Shelter Could Open Soon

Vista’s first low-barrier homeless shelter now has an operator. 

The City Council last week unanimously approved an agreement with Retread, Inc., a homeless services provider, to run the city’s new homeless shelter called Buena Creek Navigation Center. 

The Buena Creek Navigation Center will be Vista’s first low-barrier shelter and the fifth low-barrier shelter in North County. Low-barrier shelters don’t require things like sobriety or background checks to enter.  

There is one other homeless shelter in Vista, but it is exclusively for women and families. 

What this means for the region: The shelter is a joint effort by the cities of Vista and Encinitas – 36 of the shelter beds will be dedicated for Vista’s homeless residents and 12 will be set aside for Encinitas’ homeless residents.  

Vista and Encinitas received $5 million in state funding to cover operational costs for the shelter’s first three years. 

This is the first time in North County where two cities are funding one program directly, Jonathan Lung, Vista’s homeless services program manager, told KPBS in November. 

And it’s long overdue. 

According to last year’s countywide annual homeless census, Vista saw a spike in its unsheltered homeless population, increasing by more than 15 percent compared to 2022. 

And there’s been a severe lack of low-barrier shelters in North County for years. Before 2023, there was a roughly six-year period where only two low-barrier homeless shelters were available to North County’s entire unsheltered homeless population.   

City officials across North County started to notice just how much the shelter shortage was impacting the area’s homeless population, including in Vista. 

Back in September, Vista’s city leaders learned that limited shelter capacity and staffing shortages at nearby homeless shelters meant some of Vista’s homeless residents weren’t getting shelter when they wanted it.  

Vista has agreements with two shelters in neighboring cities – one is La Posada de Guadalupe in Carlsbad and the other is Haven House in Escondido.  

But city leaders learned many of its homeless residents who sought shelter over a 10-month period couldn’t access it due to a lack of open beds. 

Between Oct. 5, 2022 and Aug. 10, 2023, Vista’s homeless outreach team referred 87 homeless people to either La Posada or Interfaith, but 50 of those referrals were unsuccessful, according to a city staff report. 

Council members said at the time they were “alarmed” that this had been going on for months and they were just finding out about it. 

That’s what prompted the City Council to fast track the opening of the Buena Creek Navigation Center. 

The shelter: Clients can stay up to 120 days and will be in two-person rooms with their own bed, dresser, nightstand and secure storage for their belongings. They will also receive hygiene kits, three daily meals and laundry services.   

Case managers will be available and strongly encouraged for all clients, though it will not be required, Lung said at the Jan. 9 meeting. 

Clients will also have access to classes and group meetings focused on topics like trauma, addiction and recovery, anger management, faith and financial literacy.   

After the shelter’s initial three years, the city will have to find another source of funding to keep the shelter operating, Lung said. 

Councilmembers requested regular data and statistics from Retread, an issue that caused contention a few months ago when city leaders felt they weren’t kept in the loop about homeless residents not being able to find shelter. 

Looking ahead: The shelter is expected to be open on March 4, about a month after the county conducts the 2024 point-in-time count. 

Results of the count probably won’t be available until the summertime, but the region’s leaders and homelessness experts are expecting to find that overall numbers have risen.  

For more than a year, the number of people falling into homelessness has far outpaced the number of people finding housing, according to monthly reports by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.  

This year’s point-in-time count will be conducted on Jan. 25. 

What We’re Watching 

Last week I received an email from Escondido Mayor Dane White. It was a mass email sent to residents and other people interested in keeping up with Escondido – and it caught my attention. 

White, who’s entering his second year as the youngest mayor in Escondido’s history, has been outspoken about one of his top priorities: homelessness. 

Escondido has the highest unsheltered homeless population in North County, according to last year’s point-in-time count. The city saw a 67 percent increase in its unsheltered homeless population compared to 2022. 

One of White’s first actions as mayor was to create a homeless subcommittee, which is made up of himself and Councilmember Joe Garcia. 

This was the subcommittee that led the controversial decision back in August to pull funding from one of its only homeless shelters over concerns that the shelter was serving too many people who weren’t from Escondido.  

White’s email, with the subject line: “An update and important call to action,” highlighted four major policy proposals the subcommittee and subsequently the City Council will consider in the coming months: 

• Additional requirements for service providers. 
• A ban on living in R.V.’s on public roads. 
• A policy guide for city staff to follow. 

• A ban on camping in public places. 

White’s email encourages residents to attend council meetings, submit public comments and be engaged in these issues. I know I’ll be tuning in. 

In Other News 

• A court’s decision overturning a ban on natural gas appliances in new homes and buildings in Berkeley has halted similar ordinances in San Diego County including in Encinitas, Del Mar and Carlsbad. (Union-Tribune) Related: Encinitas was the first city in the county to implement a ban on natural gas appliances, back in June city leaders made the decision to step back from the ordinance because of the situation in Berkely. (Voice of San Diego) 
• Another landslide has once again disrupted a coastal North County beach. This time, the trail down to Beacon’s Beach, a popular surfing spot in Encinitas, will be closed until further notice because of a recent landslide. (Union-Tribune)  
• Faculty at Cal State San Marcos and San Diego State University will join their colleagues at other California State University campuses in a strike planned for next week over contract negotiations. (Coast News) 
• KPBS spoke to the new CEO of the North County Transit District to talk about his big goals for the transit agency. (KPBS)