The San Diego Union-Tribune: As San Diego mayor, I believe we can end homelessness. Here’s how we’re doing it

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, San Diego Union-Tribune Opinion

Gloria is mayor of San Diego and lives in Downtown.

Without question, homelessness is San Diego’s biggest challenge — as it is for cities across the nation. After two years of working every day to address it, we have learned a lot about what works, what doesn’t, and what we must do to make more progress.

According to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, for every 10 people we’re successful in getting off the street and into housing, 13 people become homeless. This is why the city is working to address the upstream causes of homelessness.

We’ve doubled funding for the Housing Commission’s rental support program. And I’m partnering with City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera on new tenant protections to help keep people in their homes.

We’ve been heavily focused on building out our homelessness response system — connecting those who have fallen into homelessness to shelter and services, and on a path to secure permanent housing.

During the past two years, we’ve expanded the availability of shelter beds by 68 percent. We’ve opened new shelters to serve specific populations, including women, seniors, families and those struggling with addiction and other behavioral health issues.

We’ve expanded the Safe Parking program, for those who sleep in their vehicles, with space for hundreds of people, along with services like counseling and employment assistance to help them get stabilized.

Currently, I’m working to open a site where people now living in tents on our sidewalks will have a sanctioned, safe place to camp with access to the same services that have proved effective at helping people in our shelters and safe parking lots.

Sidewalk encampments are bad for everyone — for the people living in them and for those who live, work and go to school around them. So along with creating an alternative to street camping, I’m supporting Councilmember Stephen Whitburn’s proposal to ban camping on streets and sidewalks near schools, parks, in canyons and riverbeds. If approved by the City Council, I’ll sign and enforce the ordinance.

We’ll continue to lead with offers of shelter and services. But our streets are not a home, and we cannot accept “no” for an answer when we’re providing safe and effective alternatives.

This is about protecting public health and safety and making sure everyone — including schoolchildren and people with mobility challenges — can safely navigate our sidewalks, ensuring that we don’t have a repeat of the deadly 2017 hepatitis A outbreak, and protecting unsheltered folks from the criminals who prey on them.

Finally, our comprehensive approach includes addressing the mental health crisis that plays a significant role in homelessness and the disturbing behavior too often seen in some of our neighborhoods.

I helped to pass CARE Court last year, and I’m continuing the push to modernize California’s conservatorship laws to help those who are clearly incapable of caring for themselves.

There’s not a city in America that has solved homelessness, but the work we’ve done in San Diego over the past two years have proved the situation is not hopeless. Far from it. Solving a crisis this enormous — one created over decades by chronic underbuilding of housing and neglect of our mental health care system — will take time and diligent, consistent effort.

We have a plan based on proven solutions, we’re executing it, and we’re committed to sticking with it until the job is done.

Read the original op-ed here.