San Diegans Want Homeless Solutions but Not in their Backyards

Homeless service proposals have had a rough year. 

Would-be neighbors and others railed against Mayor Todd Gloria’s vision for a 1,000-bed shelter campus in Middletown. Point Loma residents panicked about plans for another large site near the airport initially eyed for a mix of shelter options, even after Gloria said he expects to only pursue a parking lot for people living in vehicles there. Many East County residents also came out against a tiny home project the county initially pitched in Spring Valley that a county board majority eventually scrapped – and a smaller one the county is now pursuing in Lemon Grove.  

The protests reflect public frustration about the state of the region’s homelessness crisis and distrust that local government can or will address it – or do it particularly well. They also reflect a growing wave of public safety concerns that many housed residents see as intertwined with homelessness. Some elected leaders, meanwhile, emphasize that the projects would give homeless residents safer places to go and even pave the way for more enforcement. 

Backlash against homeless-serving projects isn’t unusual. It’s rare for these programs to be embraced by the community when they are initially proposed. 

But this year, local leaders faced a tidal wave of blowback. Residents packed meetings and gathered at the project sites to protest.  

In June, H Barracks opponents chanted and took turns with a bullhorn on the other side of the fence at the Point Loma city property as Gloria held a press conference about his budget allocations for homelessness. The group blasted the Middletown shelter proposal too.  

Thus far, Gloria has stood by the projects he and his administration have pushed this year while a county board majority led by Chair Nora Vargas already backed off one plan. 

The community opposition fuels uncertainty around the projects themselves and the future shape of the region’s homelessness response, even as public officials pledge to press on. 

Meanwhile, unsheltered residents throughout the county constantly confront a shelter shortage. From July through September, the city’s housing agency reported that nearly nine out of 10 requests for shelter went unfulfilled. 

And this summer, several unsheltered residents in Spring Valley and Lemon Grove – all of whom had health issues – told Voice of San Diego they were desperate for viable shelter options in their communities.  

Gloria, who is no stranger to opposition to homeless-serving projects, has repeatedly said local leaders must weather the storm. 

“What I know for sure is that when these things are created, they’re fine,” Gloria said this summer, noting that cities throughout the region need to have safe refuges for their homeless residents. 

He started the year pledging that the city would add at least 1,000 new shelter beds before his next State of the City address.  

At the time, Gloria’s staff was considering options for H Barracks, a city-owned site near the airport that will eventually become a Pure Water processing site. Point Loma residents were panicking at the suggestion that the five-acre site across the Esplanade Canal from Liberty Station could potentially be filled with 300 to 700 people staying in large tent shelters, a campground or in vehicles. They gathered thousands of signatures in a Change.org petition and raised concerns about safety, the site’s proximity to Liberty Station and more.  

Gloria’s team announced in April that the city plans to solely pursue a parking lot for about 190 vehicles there – at least for now. Yet the city also included in its approved Coastal Commission permit application an option to potentially pursue two large 300-person shelter tents, riling residents again. Gloria’s team is adamant it’s unlikely to pursue this option and has recently said he plans to move forward on the site he considers ideal to serve homeless residents – even following a hotel developer’s September lawsuit aiming to kill the project.  For now, a city spokesperson said site preparations are on track to allow the city to open the lot early next year, but the city plans to settle on a timeline once that work concludes. 

As Point Lomans questioned the city’s H Barracks plans, Gloria announced another shelter proposal that drew criticism from a broader swath of San Diegans. In the spring, Gloria announced a plan to turn a Middletown warehouse at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street into a 1,000-bed shelter campus. An initial lease proposal spurred immediate flak from commercial real estate pros who deemed it a bad deal for the city.  

Residents in Mission Hills and other nearby areas spread those concerns and circulated their own about pollution below the site and how the large shelter could impact their neighborhood. They later echoed formerly homeless residents and advocates who questioned the city’s ability to operate a 1,000-bed shelter effectively – and whether a 1,000-bed shelter could even be effective.  

The Gloria administration and the owner of the warehouse have countered that the unique space is ideally suited to shelter hundreds of homeless residents given that it’s not in the immediate vicinity of homes and businesses. Gloria has said he remains committed to the project despite a hail of questions from other city officials and the City Council’s decision in July to punt on the proposal. Neighbors haven’t stopped protesting or speaking out since then. Gloria has said talks with the warehouse owner haven’t halted either.  

As Gloria dealt with public frustration about his proposals, county board Chair Nora Vargas heard from Spring Valley residents frustrated with a plan approved by the county in March to put 150 tiny homes on state property on Jamacha Boulevard near State Route 125.  

Residents feared safety issues and flagged the site’s proximity to schools and neighborhoods. Vargas responded in June by successfully proposing that the county nix the project, a move that led the county to lose $10 million in state-committed cash for the project. Fellow Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe pitched a smaller 70-cabin project at another state-owned site at Troy Street and Sweetwater Road in Lemon Grove that has since also drawn fire from the community. 

Hundreds showed up at a July Lemon Grove community meeting where most spoke in opposition and some shouted at Montgomery Steppe. Opponents later staged at least one protest at the site. 

Montgomery Steppe has said she remains committed to gathering feedback from residents – and the project itself. 

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Montgomery Steppe, a former San Diego city councilmember, told Voice this summer. “I know we are going to come up against opposition, but we have a population that does not have a place to lay their heads at night.” 

Gloria later told Voice he contacted Montgomery Steppe after the contentious meeting. 

“I called Supervisor Montgomery Steppe and just (asked), ‘How are you doing?’ And she seems pretty committed to it,” Gloria said. “I understand what it is to be on the receiving end of those kinds of meetings but if I allowed those to be the final answer, we wouldn’t have expanded shelter capacity as much as we have in my first term as mayor.” 

Derek Falconer, a lead organizer of H Barracks opposition group Point Loma CARES, said local leaders might face an easier path in the future if they are more open to feedback and questions from residents as they shape homeless-serving projects.  

This isn’t how the city handled H Barracks, Falconer said. 

“It’s just sort of, ‘This is happening. Stop asking questions. Just accept it,’” Falconer said. “That shouldn’t happen.” 

Falconer said smaller projects could also trigger fewer concerns. For example, he said, an 80-spot H Barracks parking lot might have drawn less outrage though he admitted it’s unlikely the community would wholly embrace it. 

Gloria has said he’s focused on larger-scale projects because they’d have capacity to serve more homeless San Diegans. 

Montgomery Steppe acknowledged the county’s engagement with residents about the Spring Valley tiny home project should have been more sustained over time as the county proceeded. She has promised to keep gathering input from Lemon Grove residents with tough feedback as the county pursues the smaller project. 

“We cannot go around it,” Montgomery Steppe said in July. “We have to go through it.” 

San Diego State political science professor Brian Adams, who has studied community pushback on homeless-serving projects, agreed that politicians should address community concerns head on. That could mean adjusting projects to respond to fears, proactively emphasizing the rules for program participants, hearing directly from current and formerly homeless residents who benefited from similar services or making the case for the model they are pursuing rather than simply stating it will be effective. 

Still, Adams said, politicians should recognize that opponents aren’t necessarily representative of the broader community and that opposition to projects is likely to fade once they open. 

“As long as they’re running smoothly and they’re not causing problems, people forget they were even done,” Adams said. 

Levi Giafaglione, who has lived and worked in homeless shelters, said local governments should emphasize how well-staffed programs can help unsheltered people transition out of survival mode and potentially disruptive behavior on the street that makes housed residents uncomfortable. That means the homeless residents who move in are less likely to draw complaints that they’d generate living outside and more likely to reintegrate into the broader community. 

Like Falconer, Giafaglione endorsed smaller projects. He said smaller programs throughout the region would make it easier for homeless San Diegans to access shelter in their own communities – and spread the responsibility of addressing a countywide homelessness problem in ways that might make proposals more palatable for both homeless and housed people. 

“If each one of these communities takes a little piece, the obstacles that the unhoused person is having to face to just get into shelter to begin with, there’s just less obstacles,” Giafaglione said.  

Clairemont Town Council president Nicole Crosby, whose community once raised concerns about the city’s Rose Canyon safe parking lot and affordable housing projects in the area, said her neighborhood’s experience has shown that the worst fears often don’t pan out. 

Though both faced pushback before they opened, Crosby said the 27-vehicle lot at Rose Canyon and a 52-unit housing complex that serves formerly homeless seniors were ultimately embraced by Clairemont. 

Crosby said Clairemont’s experience shows communities should recognize that homeless-serving projects can end up helping rather than hurting their communities. 

“You’ve gotta give it a chance,” Crosby said.