Morning report: The latest on the homeless shelter crisis

On Tuesday, council members began weighing their options as the city prepares to lose hundreds of shelter homes by the end of the year.

Proposed short-term solutions include: Expanding the city's two safe campgrounds, opening new or expanding existing shelters, renting hotel rooms, and providing financial assistance to people who are homeless for the first time or have been living in city shelters for at least a year.

How we got here: After months of concerns about impending shelter closures and City Council directives in July, city and housing commission staff have been working on plans to close several shelters. At first, it looked like the city would be short more than 730 beds by early 2025 and would have to close a large shelter early next month. Officials say they are now preparing to lose 614 beds at two large Father Joe's Villages shelters by the end of the year. Other planned closures have been postponed.

What they did: Sarah Jarman of the city's Homeless Strategies Division and Casey Snell of the San Diego Housing Commission said they have visited seven possible shelters and assessed the potential of some city-owned properties, including 101 Ash St. and the city government building, to house people, but have not made a decision. They said they are also in talks with the owners of several unnamed hotels who may be willing to rent out entire blocks of rooms, as well as with providers who may be willing to provide more shelter space. Jarman said city officials have confirmed that the 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 would present an action item to the City Council next week, but did not specify what action or actions that might be.

One thing doesn’t happen: Many residents came to the City Council meeting to speak out against the possible use of the Balboa Park Activity Center, which temporarily housed homeless residents of an emergency shelter following the January floods. Mayor's Office spokeswoman Rachel Laing confirmed that the Activity Center is not on the list of possible emergency shelters.

The Day in County Behavioral Health News

The district has come one step closer to its goal of providing more than two dozen psychiatric beds in the university sector.

The county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to finalize plans to loan up to $32 million to UC San Diego Health for renovations. The loan will be used to create 30 new psychiatric beds and possibly a crisis unit designed to divert patients from hospital treatment.

The new services for patients with Medi-Cal insurance will be offered at the former Alvarado Hospital near San Diego State, which UCSD purchased late last year. The plan calls for the county to tap into its reserves to provide the loan and UCSD to pay it back with interest over 30 years. 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 to address what is now widely considered a shortage of mental health beds in the region.

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

• Supervisors also voted unanimously, with Chair Nora Vargas absent, to grant Supervisor Jim Desmond's request that county Executive Ebony Shelton send a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting $51 million annually for new services related to SB 43. The new state law expands eligibility for guardianships to people with severe substance use disorders, and mental health district 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, that are now not reimbursable.

The county is expected to implement SB 43 in January. Some experts expect the county to see a rise in short-term incarceration, further exposing a treatment system that already struggles to care for those incarcerated voluntarily.

About the security plan for the city center

An influential downtown business group, along with Mayor Todd Gloria, unveiled a five-point strategy to address public safety issues earlier this week.

Gloria supported the Downtown San Diego Partnership's plan, which calls for city actions including increased police presence downtown, changes to homelessness enforcement and consideration of a possible loitering ordinance. The group released the plan as it seeks to renew special levies it receives from property owners to improve conditions downtown.

We wanted to know: Is Gloria willing to implement the plan's proposals, namely banning 24/7 tent camping on downtown streets and sidewalks and loitering, increasing police presence, and rethinking the progressive enforcement model she currently uses to combat homelessness crime?

What his team said: Gloria spokeswoman Rachel Laing confirmed that the mayor has given the green light to an increased police presence and will review his options regarding loitering. But changes to homelessness enforcement won't come overnight.

Laing said the mayor has not ordered police to take down the tents, something his administration tried to do once during the day and failed. But she said the mayor's team is reviewing — or will review — that proposal and whether the city can reduce the number of contacts and shelter offers required before homeless people are fined or arrested for breach of the peace or illegal sheltering, two longstanding city violations that often target homeless people. She acknowledged that the city would need to evaluate the 24/7 tent ban “in light of existing case law and previous legal comparisons.”

What the man behind the legal settlements says: “They can't just change it without us,” said attorney Scott Dreher, who has negotiated several legal settlements dictating the steps police must take before ticketing or arresting homeless San Diego residents for homelessness-related violations. In other words, Dreher said, the city can't change its practices without a judge's approval and without Dreher's input.

The next steps of the partnership: The business group and downtown stakeholders met with Gloria, Police Chief Scott Wahl, Fire Chief Robert Logan and the Metropolitan Transit System on Tuesday for what they called “the first of many conversations about what the implementation of this safety plan will look like.”

“The Downtown San Diego Partnership coalition will fight for funding in the next city budget and continue to seek additional funding at the county, state and federal levels 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 work with county officials, the district attorney, the sheriff and others to focus on the behavioral health components of their plan.

More news

• San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert has her sights set on Sacramento. Fox 5 reports that while she has not yet launched an official campaign, she is preparing to succeed Senator Brian Jones in 2026.
• The Diocese of San Diego will no longer allow homeschooling groups and charter schools to use its facilities. (The Pillar)
• Despite some progress, San Diego's old sidewalks continue to be a problem for the city. Last fall, officials began waiving a permit fee to make it easier for property owners to repair their sidewalks. City officials believe the program has been successful, but acknowledged that the city still has a “huge backlog” in sidewalk repairs, the Union-Tribune reports.
• The Legacy International Center in Mission Valley is 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 being sold 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 school leaders planned to ask homeowners to support a school bond, but after the district's superintendent became embroiled in an investigation following allegations that she bullied students on a softball team, she decided to delay it until 2026. Meanwhile, some of the district's principals fear the roofs could fall out from under them.
• The city of Del Mar passed a short-term rental law this week. Homeowners who want to operate a short-term rental must 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.