Morning Report: The Latest on the Shelter Crisis

Councilmembers on Tuesday began considering their options as the city prepares for the loss of hundreds of shelter beds by the end of the year.

Among the near-term solutions floated: expanding the city’s two safe campsites, opening new shelters or expanding existing ones, renting hotel rooms and offering financial assistance to people who are homeless for the first time or have been in city shelters for at least a year.

How we got here: After months of concerns about upcoming shelter closures and direction from the City Council in July, city and Housing Commission staff have been working on plans to address the closure of multiple shelters. It initially appeared the city could be down more than 730 shelter beds by early 2025 and that one large shelter could be forced to shut down early next month. Officials say they are now preparing for the loss of 614 beds at two large shelters operated by Father Joe’s Villages by the end of the year. Other planned closures have been delayed.

What they’ve been doing: Sarah Jarman of the city’s homeless strategies department and Casey Snell of the San Diego Housing Commission said they have visited seven potential shelter sites and evaluated the potential of some city properties, including 101 Ash St. and the city operations building, to shelter people but have yet to make any decisions. They said they are also in talks with owners of multiple unidentified hotels that may be willing to rent out blocks of rooms and providers who may be willing to add more shelter beds. Jarman said city officials have confirmed that its two safe sleeping sites are equipped to accommodate 232 additional tents by the end of October.

What’s next: Jarman and Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said they expect to bring an action item to the City Council next week. They didn’t specify what the action or actions may be.

One thing that’s not happening: Many residents came to the City Council meeting to oppose the potential use of the Balboa Park Activity Center, which temporarily housed displaced shelter residents after the January floods. Mayor’s Office spokesperson Rachel Laing confirmed the activity center isn’t on the potential shelter short list.

The Day in County Behavioral Health News

The county is a step closer to adding more than two dozen psychiatric beds in the College Area. 

County supervisors voted Tuesday to finalize plans to loan UC San Diego Health up to $32 million for renovations to help deliver 30 new inpatient psychiatric beds and potentially, a crisis unit meant to divert patients from hospital care.

The new services for patients with Medi-Cal insurance will be at the former Alvarado Hospital near San Diego State, which UCSD purchased late last year. The plan for now requires the county to dip into its reserves to provide the loan and for UCSD to pay it back over 30 years with interest. County and UCSD officials expect to finalize their agreements by the end of next month.

Tuesday’s vote follows years of talks between the county and UCSD about ways to address what is now broadly considered a behavioral health bed shortage in the region.

In a Tuesday statement, UCSD wrote that it expects the new services to open as soon as 2026 if all goes as planned.

• Supervisors also voted unanimously with Chair Nora Vargas absent to proceed with Supervisor Jim Desmond’s request to have county Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton send Gov. Gavin Newsom a letter requesting $51 million annually for new services tied to SB 43. The new state law expands eligibility for conservatorships to include people with severe substance use disorders and county behavioral health officials said Tuesday the line items in Desmond’s proposal stemmed from their estimates tied to costly new services including treatment beds and hospital services now ineligible for reimbursements.

The county is for now set to implement SB 43 in January. Some experts expect the county will see an uptick in short-term holds that further expose a treatment system already struggling to serve those voluntarily seeking care.

• Supervisors also voted unanimously to back Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer’s pitch to create a plan that identifies needs and gaps in the behavioral health system affecting children and young adults up to 25 following years of increased demand for help. Lawson-Remer’s item requested that county staff return in six months with early strategies and plans and present a final report in 18 months. 

About That Downtown Safety Plan

A powerful downtown business group earlier this week unveiled a five-point strategy to address public safety concerns flanked by Mayor Todd Gloria.

Gloria endorsed the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s plan, which calls for city actions including increased police presence downtown, changes to homelessness-related enforcement and an exploration of a potential anti-loitering ordinance. The group released the plan as it seeks to renew the special assessment it receives from property owners to help improve downtown conditions. 

We wanted to know: Is Gloria ready to mobilize on the plan’s proposals to ban tents on downtown streets and sidewalks 24/7 and loitering, increase police presence and revisit the progressive enforcement model it now uses to address crimes associated with homelessness?

What his team said: Gloria spokesperson Rachel Laing confirmed the mayor has given the go-ahead to increased police presence and will explore its options on loitering. But homelessness enforcement changes won’t be coming overnight.

Laing said the mayor hasn’t ordered police to order a takedown of tents that his administration once tried and failed to implement during the day. But she said the mayor’s team is exploring – or will explore – this proposal and whether the city could reduce the number of contacts and offers of shelter needed before homeless residents are ticketed or arrested for encroachment or illegal lodging, two longstanding city violations often aimed at homeless residents. She acknowledged the city will have to assess the 24/7 tent ban in “relation to applicable case law and previous legal settlements.” 

What the guy behind the legal settlements says: “They don’t get to just change it without us,” said attorney Scott Dreher, who negotiated multiple legal settlements that dictate steps police must take before ticketing or arresting homeless San Diegans for violations tied to homelessness. In other words, Dreher said, the city can’t change its practices without a judge’s approval and input from Dreher.

The Partnership’s next steps: The business group and downtown stakeholders met Tuesday with Gloria, Police Chief Scott Wahl, Fire Chief Robert Logan and the Metropolitan Transit System for what it described as “the first of many conversations about what implementation of this safety plan looks like.”

“The Downtown San Diego Partnership coalition will be fighting for resources in the next city budget along with continuing to pursue additional county, state and federal funding to invest in downtown cleanliness and safety,” Josh Callery-Coyne, the partnership’s vice president of policy and civic engagement, wrote in a statement.

Callery-Coyne said the group plans to soon engage with county officials, the district attorney, sheriff and others to focus on behavioral health components of its plan.

In Other News

• San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert is setting her sights on Sacramento. Fox 5 reports that although she hasn’t formally launched a campaign, she is setting herself up to succeed State Sen. Brian Jones in 2026. 
• The Diocese of San Diego will no longer allow homeschool groups or charter schools to use its spaces. (The Pillar) 
• Despite some progress, San Diego’s aging sidewalks continue to be a headache for the city. Last fall, officials began waiving a permit fee to make it easier for property owners to fix their sidewalks. City officials believe the program has been successful, but they acknowledged that the city still has a “daunting backlog” of sidewalk repairs to make, the Union-Tribune reports. 
• The Legacy International Center in Mission Valley is up for sale. The campus was once televangelist Morris Cerullo’s vision for a “religious Disneyland,” but he died the same year the project was completed. The property is selling for $215 million. (CBS 8, Times of San Diego) 
• A softball scandal may have cost Poway Unified time and money to fix its schools. NBC 7 reports that administrators planned to ask homeowners to back a school bond, but after the district’s supe was swept up in an investigation following allegations that she bullied students on a softball team, they decided to put it off until 2026. Meanwhile some of the school leaders in the district are worried roofs will cave in under them. 
• The city of Del Mar approved a law for short-term rentals this week. Homeowners who want to run a short-term rental need to register with the city by Dec. 31. The new law still needs to be approved by the Coastal Commission. (Fox 5) 

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.