According to San Diego County’s Regional Task Force On Homelessness (RTFH), “The 2022 Point-in-Time Count found no less than 8,427 individuals experiencing homelessness across San Diego County, a 10% increase from 2020.”

This uptick in the number of people experiencing homelessness hasn’t resulted in a drastic increase in La Mesa. La Mesa’s Point-in-Time count indicated La Mesa had 52 un-sheltered individuals in 2020. In 2022, the count reported 53 un-sheltered individuals. However, the looming threat of increasing housing costs has made an impact on the community.

Deanne Ross, business owner of Act II in downtown La Mesa, said she’s seen the presence of homelessness near her business: “It’s an ongoing problem and it’s everywhere.”

Recently, La Mesa City Councilmember Laura Lothian said the council received an email regarding a need for support with housing.

“We received an email last week from a woman who has been renting for four years and is getting ready to lose her rental unit. And she’s in a panic. She goes: ‘I can’t afford rent. I can’t afford a deposit.’ She was a good tenant and an employed person,” Lothian said.

In this woman’s situation, Lothian said the city could assist her with finding help.

For individuals already facing the experience of homelessness, La Mesa’s approach to helping people get resources and support has put HOME at the center.

La Mesa’s Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement (HOME) initiative has navigated the nuanced issue of homelessness in La Mesa to recognize the gravity of this experience in San Diego.

In the first three quarters of 2022, the HOME team connected 34 people to permanent housing, and 15 people were connected to temporary housing in this timeframe, according to La Mesa Police Department Capt. Matt Nicholass.

Prior to the creation of HOME, Nicholass said the police department attempted to create services for unhoused individuals through a variety of initiatives.

“Some of these [initiatives] included uniformed officers bringing services to people themselves and officers assisting and riding with service providers,” Nicholass said. “The results and levels of engagement achieved through these initiatives were minimal.”

But in 2020, through a collaboration among the city of La Mesa, La Mesa Police Department and People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), the Homeless Action Plan and HOME were created.

“The reason we’re doing [HOME] is two-fold: to not burden the police department with non-police calls and to have more effective help when it’s a non-uniform person,” Mayor Mark Arapostathis said. “We wanted to do this in a non-threatening way. Our HOME clinicians have been trained to do just that.”

HOME is structured to dispatch trained specialists, including a full-time outreach worker and mental health clinician, to respond to non-emergency calls for service. HOME also facilitates contact with anyone suspected to be experiencing homelessness.

“HOME utilizes an evidence-based practice known as progressive engagement,” Nicholass remarked. “This model allows the HOME Outreach worker to start by addressing things that clients identify as areas of need.”

Since its inception in 2020, Nicholass reported that 67 people have been connected to permanent housing and 18 people were connected to temporary housing.

“The main approach is using clinicians to make contact and build trust,” Arapostathis went on to say. “We looked at some best practices in other cities and we saw that it was working around the United States.”

And according to local business owners, like Ross, the impact of HOME in La Mesa has been clear. Ross said that she usually contacts the police department for support once a week due to individuals sleeping in front of her business.

“It was truly a problem, to the point where sometimes we couldn’t even walk in the front door of our business because people would be sleeping out in front of our businesses,” Ross said.

“I think the La Mesa Police Department have done an amazing job over the last six months or so of identifying these people, of getting them help, of speaking with them one on one, and taking the necessary steps to put them in places where they need to be.”

Nicholass explained via email that a key reason why homelessness is a prevalent issue in La Mesa is the lack of accessible housing.

“One of the most significant issues that clients face is the affordability of housing. Many of the clients that we work with are on a fixed income,” Nicholass stated. “There are very few rental options for people with that kind of income. Another issue clients face is the dearth of short-term housing options in La Mesa and East County San Diego. The complexity and wait-times

associated with accessing physical & mental health treatment also continue to be a significant barrier for people living on the street.”

Lothian brought up the MTS trolley, which, in her opinion, may be contributing to unhoused individuals moving throughout the county of San Diego.

“It’s really clear to me that the homeless are using it to travel the county wherever they want to go,” Lothian said.

Arapostathis said the trolley station is an atypical location for HOME to gauge because it’s not a stationary location, and the resources HOME offers focuses on individuals located in La Mesa.

“The HOME program is dispatched based on the calls that we get,” Arapostathis said. “If there’s a person that someone has called about over and over again, we usually engage if we look at it and if it looks chronic, not maybe at the trolley station because that could be a fluid situation. Someone comes and they’re there for a few hours. Then, they get back on the trolley, and they’re gone. It’s only when it’s seen to be a chronic situation.”

Ross mentioned that she’s contacted the MTS because her store is located near the trolley station, and they’ve brought in officers when requested. Ross said that the La Mesa Police Department has also connected with the village association to offer support.

“I’m part of the village association, and the village association has had the police come talk to us and different things,” Ross said. “It’s been really good.”

To stay connected with individuals located in La Mesa who are wanting support, the HOME team has access to the Coordinated Entry System (CES) which connects people to long-term housing options provided by non-profits throughout the San Diego region. Nicholass said the HOME team provides transportation to and from appointments related to jobs, housing and healthcare. The HOME initiative reported in their historical statistics that 18 rides were given in quarter four of 2020. In quarter two of 2022, HOME coordinated 96 rides for clients.

As the city and police department continue to address the multi-faceted experience of homelessness, Arapostathis said that he has goals for program growth in 2023 and continued support to help people transition into autonomous living.

“I’ve talked to the city manager. My goal is to increase the number of members of our HOME team,” Arapostathis said. “The goal is always to decrease the number of people that are unsheltered. But, really, it’s not just decreasing the number. We want to increase the number of people that we’ve helped become autonomous of aid — independent and not having to rely on any program or the government, where they can live their life without extra help.”

Nicholass said there are a few ways people can get connected to HOME. La Mesa Police Department offers walk-in options on Mondays from 12 to 4 p.m. The HOME hotline can be reached at (619) 667-1475 to leave a message and/or set up an appointment with an outreach specialist.

Photos credit: Laura Lothian

Editor’s note: La Mesa Courier did this story/ran these images to bring to light the problem of homelessness in La Mesa and the efforts being made by City officials to help those struggling to find affordable housing. No matter the communities we live in throughout the greater San Diego area, homelessness is an issue to some degree. We encourage everyone reading this story to think about how best to help those seeking to get off the streets and into a better living situation.