Homeless population downtown drops dramatically, police say they're not seeing as many encampments in Balboa Park. Where did the people go?
There’s been a noticeable change in downtown San Diego: Many of the once-ubiquitous tents used by homeless people have disappeared.Actual enforcement of the law apparently didn’t have much to do with that, given reports early last week revealed that under the ordinance there were no arrests and just a handful of citations issued, which were given out around Balboa Park.Police said they have also encountered fewer homeless encampments in and around the park.
One place most of these homeless people didn’t go is to shelters. Those facilities are always close to full and don’t have many beds open on any given day. And, as has been reported repeatedly, not all open beds are appropriate for certain people — say, a top bunk bed for a person with physical disabilities.on Monday that only a handful of people encountered by law enforcement accepted offers of shelter beds, according to police.
Besides, the power of suggestion may have given a veneer of progress even before the ordinance took effect. Outreach workers had spread word of what was likely coming. It’s hard to say whether the situation in Balboa Park and downtown, however superficial it may be, will relieve pressure on Mayor Todd Gloria, who has been under fire for both not cracking down enough on homelessness and ramping up enforcement too much.
The enforcement focus on Balboa Park certainly hasn’t mollified Bill Walton, the civic figure and former NBA star who continues to be one of Gloria’s most unrelenting critics on homelessness. “A closer look at the numbers over the past decade shows there were times when the countywide population of homeless people living outdoors was larger than today,” according to a Union-Tribune“Downtown San Diego, however, has seen the number of people living on sidewalk encampments surge to almost 2,000, making the crisis more visible than ever.”, which increased the visibility of homelessness.
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