Mayor Todd Gloria Announced New Homeless Shelter Numbers That Continue to Disappoint Activists.
San Diego has a homelessness issue.
This isn't news. Todd Gloria, despite devoting a good deal of time and energy to the problem, has yet to deliver a solution that has made a sizable dent.
The replies to Mayor Gloria's tweet show the activist community's skepticism with City Hall's plans.
California's homeless population is the largest in the nation, by far. Some 113,000 people are unhoused in the state, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A meager 47,000 are in some type of temporary or permanent shelter.
According to We All Count, a regional task force devoted to ensure the local unhoused population is counted. According to the latest published count, San Diego is home to approximately 8,600 chronically homeless individuals.
Governor Gavin Newsome unveiled his California Blueprint at a homeless encampment in San Diego. The program sets aside $14 billion to combat the homeless crisis across the state.
“This past year, California has been able to move 58,000 individuals off our streets and into the housing and treatment they desperately needed,” said Governor Newsom. “The California Blueprint will double down on those efforts, focusing on clearing encampments, while also setting the groundwork for long-term systemic change with significant investments in mental health and substance abuse treatment to get vulnerable people off the streets.”
In response, the activist community held a vigil for troubling number of unhoused residents who have died on San Diego's streets this year.
To date, despite time, energy, and money, no interested parties have figured out an amicable solution to the problem.