San Diego City Council candidates are calling for changes at the city’s safe sleeping sites after a resident died last week, marking 21 deaths since the homeless program opened in 2023.
The program offers an alternative space to congregate shelter, where individuals stay in tents on one of two sites, O Lot and 20th and B Street. Both are in the outskirts of Balboa Park. Mayor Todd Gloria touts safe sleep as an alternative to congregate shelter, but some residents brought a lawsuit against the city and service providers, Dreams for Change and the Downtown San Diego Partnership, for “inaccessible and inhumane conditions” last year.
Several councilmembers raised concerns about the program at a meeting Monday on the city’s homelessness plan. With Election Day fast approaching, I asked Council candidates to weigh in on the program’s effectiveness and whether they would do something different.
Some candidates emphasized the need for collaboration with the county and increased services. One candidate pitched health and safety audits of the sites, while another candidate said residents need to make lifestyle changes.
District 8 Council candidate and Democrat Antonio Martinez said the program needs more wraparound services. He said people need access to affordable healthcare and access to mental health support.
“If there’s mental health behavioral issues, to see how the [county] public health department could address it and maybe even locate them in another location that’s not necessarily in those safe sleeping sites,” he said.
He said part of that is having the county’s public health services work with the city to address issues on the safe sleeping sites. Martinez also said the city needs to do a better job of talking to and collaborating with nonprofits to provide services that cater to an individual’s needs.
“I can tell you right now that services are available. It’s just there’s no communication there between the public agencies and even amongst themselves,” he said. “I think that needs to change.”
Martinez’ opponent, Democrat Gerardo Ramirez, agreed the site needs more services like mental health care, addiction treatment and support to connect with permanent housing.
Ramirez called for independent health and safety audits of the sites to promote accountability. He cited a 2021 state law that requires local governments to inspect facilities if they receive complaints and file annual reports on shelter conditions.
“I think we also need accountability,” he said in an interview with Voice. “I think operations at O Lot have largely gone unchecked.”
A 2024 CalMatters story found most cities and counties are ignoring the 2021 law – including San Diego.
Ramirez also said all the city’s homelessness programs, like safe sleep, should be funded based on successful rates of connecting people to permanent housing and services.
District 2 Council candidate and Democrat Nicole Crosby emphasized the need for the county to collaborate with the city and create more pathways to supported living for older, homeless adults. She said the deaths at the site underscore the vulnerability of these people.
“We need a robust partnership with the county to assess people’s health, functional abilities, and care needs where they are,” she wrote over text. “Outreach teams, clinicians, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities should come together to create a direct pathway from the street to appropriate care, including skilled nursing placement when needed.”
Crosby said she would also like coordination with the county to provide physical therapy and occupational therapy teams to determine whether homeless individuals are able to live independently and care for themselves.
If some of these people need more assistance, she said she would like to support the county in finding pathways for them to have custodial care or skilled nursing facilities.
Crosby’s opponent, former Republican Richard Bailey offered a different take from other candidates. He said users of the site need to make lifestyle changes.
“Safe sleeping sites with no requirements to make a change in lifestyle simply perpetuates the homeless issue at ongoing taxpayer expense,” he wrote over text.
District 4 candidate and incumbent Henry Foster did not respond to a request for comment, but he raised concerns about the deaths at Ssafe sSleeping sites during Monday’s City Council meeting.
“What are we doing differently as we are seeing this occur?” he said. “Have we increased any standards? Have we done anything different?”
City staff responded by saying they do wellness checks three to four times per day to make sure people in their tents are safe. They said they are also considering whether to bring new medical care on site.
I followed up with city officials to understand what that would look like.
Nicole Darling, spokesperson with the city of San Diego, said physical, mental and behavior health services are already available through the Safe Sleeping operators’ case management. She said that includes onsite medical care and referrals to services and programs elsewhere.
She also said what was discussed at the meeting would be a new onsite substance use disorder treatment service.
“We are working on developing an agreement that could be put in place,” she said in an email statement. “No definitive timeline is available at this time due to external agencies and approvals being involved.”
Foster’s opponent in the district 4 race, Democrat Martha Abraham did not respond to a request for comment.
District 6 incumbent and Democrat Kent Lee did not respond to a request for comment. His opponent, Republican Mark Powell, also did not respond to a request for comment.