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U.S. NEWS Saturday 9 december 2017
Tents considered blessing for homeless in San Diego

By JULIE WATSON The mayor has earmarked
Associated Press more than $80 million to
SAN DIEGO (AP) — For reduce homelessness over
Christine Wade, the tent the next three years.
she shared with six chil- “Ultimately the goal is to
dren, pitched in an asphalt put everyone in a home
parking lot, was far better who wants to be,” Faulcon-
than their previous home er said.
— a shelter where rats ate But units need to be built,
through the family’s bags and the temporary solu-
of clothes. tion is expensive. At a cost
“It’s peaceful here,” Wade, of $1,700 per person per
31 and eight months preg- month, $6.5 million will cov-
nant, said in an October er seven months, but the
interview at the camp- tents may need to remain
ground. open for up to two years,
A tent, of course, is not a according to the San Di-
home. But for these San Di- ego Housing Commission’s
egans, it is a blessing. head, Rick Gentry.
Like other major cities all Meanwhile, San Diego
along the West Coast, San County has spent $4 mil-
Diego is struggling with a In this Nov. 28, 2017, photo, a tent to house the homeless is seen in downtown San Diego. An lion to contain the hepatitis
unprecedented increase in people living on the streets is rocking cities along the West Coast from
homeless crisis. In a place Washington to California. Facing an acute shortage of housing for the poor, San Diego is turning to outbreak that has killed 20
that bills itself as “America’s tents to get people off the streets for now. The city diverted $6.5 million from its permanent housing people and sickened more
Finest City,” spiraling real budget to operate the giant tents. than 560 in the past year.
estate values have con- (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) At Perkins Elementary
tributed to spiraling home- sized tents that will house a Meanwhile, the number of Director Rob Hutsel said School, the student body is
lessness, leaving more than total of 700 people. encampments along the potential donors ask him more than a quarter home-
3,200 people living on the There are plans afoot to banks of the San Diego Riv- when he talks about plans less, up from 4 percent
streets or in their cars. build housing. But to deal er doubled. for a 52-mile-long river park three years ago.
Most alarmingly, the de- with the immediate emer- The San Diego River Park and trail system: “What Shawnni Wade was a
plorable sanitary conditions gency, the city had to take Foundation — whose mis- about the homeless? Don’t straight-A student as a third
help spread a liver-damag- $6.5 million that had been sion is to preserve the river build a park. It’ll just bring in grader. But when her fam-
ing virus that lives in feces, budgeted for permanent that feeds into the Pacific more.” ily’s troubles escalated,
contributing to the deadli- homes to operate the gi- — spent $115,000 removing “There shouldn’t be any she left the school; now,
est U.S. hepatitis A epidem- ant tents. 250,000 pounds of trash left thought about building a she’s returned as a seventh
ic in 20 years. “The people of San Diego by the homeless camps this park,” he said. “That’s so grader.q
“Some of the most vulner- need to decide what they year. unfortunate.”
able are dying in the streets want the city to look like,”
in one of the most desir- said Gordon Walker, the
able and livable regions head of San Diego Region-
in America,” a San Diego al Task Force on the Home-
County grand jury wrote in less. “San Francisco has es-
its report in June — reiter- sentially given up its streets
ating recommendations it to the homeless. It could
gave the city over the past go either way here. The
decade to address home- real issue is we don’t have
lessness. enough housing.”
San Diego has struggled Last year, the number of
to do that. Two years ago, people living outdoors in
Mayor Kevin Faulconer San Diego jumped 18 per-
closed a downtown tent cent over the previous
shelter that operated for 29 year, according to an an-
years during winter months. nual count taken in Janu-
He promised a “game ary. More than 400 make-
changer” — a new, perma- shift shelters covered down-
nent facility with services to town sidewalks alongside
funnel people to housing. new apartment high-rises.
But it wasn’t enough. In October, Faulconer
The result? Legions of Cali- teamed with the home-
fornians without shelter. A less services provider, Al-
spreading contagion. And pha Project, to open the
an extraordinary challenge Balboa Park campground
to the city’s sunny identity where the Wades found
that threatens its key tour- shelter. The city installed
ism industry. public washing stations,
For now, San Diego again is opened 24-hour restrooms
turning to tents. The camp- and scrubbed streets with
ground where the Wades a bleach solution.
lived served 200 residents Police also cited people.
but was only temporary; Within weeks, the nearly
this month, officials are 400 tents and tarps down-
opening three industrial- town disappeared.