Oceanside Unveils Plans to Move Hundreds from a Homeless Encampment

The cities of Oceanside and Carlsbad want to move more than 200 homeless people camped along state Route 78 into shelter and housing by 2027. Here’s how they plan to do it. 

A few months ago, Oceanside and Carlsbad jointly received an $11.4 million grant from the state through a program called the Encampment Resolution Fund, first announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021.  

This round of grants, totaling $192 million, went to 20 programs in 17 communities statewide. Oceanside and Carlsbad were the only cities in San Diego County to receive the funding.  

The two cities will partner with homeless service providers in Oceanside and Carlsbad to provide wrap-around services to homeless people camped in the area including medical care, case management, substance abuse treatment, mental health services and more. 

The goal is to ultimately move 100 percent of them into shelter and housing. 

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Salvador Roman, the city’s senior management analyst who spearheaded the proposal for the grant, unveiled who will be involved and what the initiative will do. 

Partnerships With Service Providers 

Oceanside and Carlsbad will contract with four organizations to help bring services to the encampment area and ultimately help people get into various shelter options.  

These are Interfaith Community Services, which operates two homeless shelters, a substance abuse treatment program, homeless outreach services and more; Catholic Charities’ La Posada de Guadalupe homeless shelter in Carlsbad; Whole Person Care Clinic, which provides medical care for low-income, homeless and uninsured people; and Community Resource Center, which helps homeless and low-income people with housing assistance, rental assistance, food and other resources. 

Each organization’s contract includes a portion of the $11.4 million that they will use to provide shelter beds, personalized case management, substance abuse treatment and counseling, trauma-informed mental health support, transportation services, storage options and more. 

The program will also expand the city’s motel voucher program to provide more transitional housing options and expand Carlsbad’s La Posada shelter to accept more clients. Oceanside’s navigation center, the city’s only homeless shelter, will also be available to accept referrals. 

Roman told Voice of San Diego that a portion of the funds will also go toward permanent housing solutions and homeless prevention like family reunification initiatives and rapid re-housing, which provides short-term rental assistance and other services for people to find permanent housing. 

“The goal of this program is to address 100 percent of the encampment residents within the encampment area,” Roman said during the meeting. “We want to not just have measurable results, but also tangible results.” 

Tracking Results 

When Oceanside and Carlsbad received this grant from the state, there was one caveat. 

State officials are requiring the cities to document exactly how the money is being used and what outcomes they see. If they fail to do so timely and accurately, they risk losing future opportunities for state funds. 

That means the state and the public will receive regular reports and data from city officials about how the program is going. 

Earlier this year, a state audit revealed that some cities, including San Diego, failed to fully keep track of revenue and spending of state homeless dollars and evaluate the outcomes of their homeless programs during three fiscal years between July 2020 and June 2023.  

The audit recommended that state law should mandate reporting of the costs and outcomes of state homelessness programs, and state agencies should require state-funded homeless programs to provide that data for people entering, experiencing and exiting homelessness.   

Potential Problem Areas 

Although many support plans to provide homeless people with shelter and other services, public speakers and some council members expressed concerns about where the program could run into problems moving forward. 

Some are worried the program may inadvertently push some homeless people from state Route 78 to an encampment in another part of the city rather than into shelter or housing. 

Councilmember Rick Robinson said he’s concerned some people might refuse some or all of the services they are offered. A common experience homeless outreach workers face throughout the region is that many people they encounter don’t want to go into a shelter or treatment program even when it’s available. 

Roman said at the meeting that the plan is to keep engaging with each unhoused person over the next three years until they feel safe and comfortable enough to hopefully accept the city’s services. City officials will use a by-name list to keep track of each unhoused person in the area, he said. 

Another worry expressed by Councilmember Eric Joyce is regarding the lack of substance abuse treatment programs available to homeless people. Interfaith Community Services operates the only substance abuse treatment program in North County, which Oceanside can make direct referrals to, but that program is already heavily utilized and may not be able to take every referral. 

Oceanside used to have its own sobering services center, which the city closed after two years because city officials said it was underutilized. But Voice of San Diego previously reported that the center’s referral structure and strict criteria may have contributed to its failure.  

Roman told Voice that the contract the city now has with Interfaith will allow city officials exclusive rights to refer clients to Interfaith’s treatment program, which will streamline the process of getting people into the program.