The latest data shows homelessness has increased in Council Districts 1 and 2 along the coast. Residents in Pacific and Mission beaches discussed this increasingly complicated issue offering their criticisms, insights, and possible solutions.

The general consensus is that tough love needs to be dispensed, along with compassion, to get people off the street, off drugs, into housing, and ultimately, back into society.

“Solving the whole problem of homelessness is much bigger than most of us can comprehend,” said small-business owner Greg Knight of Mission Beach. “What we are seeing at the beach are not just homeless people, but criminals. A criminal/homeless compound that has 30-plus bikes taken apart, while neighbors are having their bikes stolen daily – that should be a serious red flag that criminal activity is happening.”

Added Knight: “Tents in the park with an abundance of needles laying around and people coming and going at all times of the day should be a serious red flag for drug sales/activity. We are seeing these criminal activities on a daily basis on our beach and bay. Criminals should be arrested whether they have a home or not.”

Pacific Beach community planner Carolyn Chase had a suggestion for best practices in dealing with unsheltered people. “The only thing that works is to fund a civic organization that is a constant positive presence, usually from a storefront,” Chase said. “The purpose is to understand who is on the streets and why. You have to find out who is merely down on their luck, versus who has substance abuse issues, versus all the other categories of people who are unhoused and prefer the beach areas.”

Added Chase: “Usually these groups can sometimes offer services or job training or neighborhood improvement jobs for those who are able. A key issue is that, by the time people are surviving on the streets, it’s a complicated – and individualized – path to where they can take care of themselves without public support.”

Bill Zent of PB noted homelessness “is a huge drain on City resources our taxes’ and budgets. The impact on our sidewalks and neighborhoods and parks is equally affected.”

Zent said: “The city should not be using our tax dollars to buy hotels and the County should not have a voucher system to put them in local hotels. It is expensive and dangerous.”

Scott Chipman of PB blames drug use, including legal marijuana, in part for increasing homelessness.

“The one thing that most seem to agree on is that what we are currently doing is not working, only making the problems worse,” Chipman said. “With the liberalization of drug laws, drug courts are now virtually useless. Although high housing prices are detrimental, I don’t consider it a major contributor to homelessness.”

Gary Wonacott of Mission Beach said: “About 10% (of homeless people) can be helped to return to society. We must make an effort with these people who need to be screened and identified. We also need to identify potential places where they can work and then pay 75% of their wages for the first six months. This reduces the risk for the employer, who must sign a contract.”

PB-based landscape architect Jim Neri noted that “mental health issues account for about a third of the homeless population, long-term care facilities have decreased over the past 50 years and Medicaid does not cover it even if there were more beds. We need to get back as a society to caring about and for the mentally ill.”

Added Neri, “Hard drug use accounts for another third of the homeless population. We need to identify the drug lords and companies in the USA that are the heads of the snakes and cut them off. Poverty and lack of affordable housing put people on the streets when they are young and that is what they know. Providing affordable shelter and making job training available will help some make a meaningful life for themselves.”

Thomas Coat of PB focused on the growing number of seniors living on the streets. “Seniors aged 50 and over now make up the largest- (25 percent) and fastest-growing segment of San Diego’s homeless population,” said Coat. “Instead of spending billions of dollars after seniors become homeless, wouldn’t it be wiser to find ways to keep them in housing in the first place? So why are so many seniors being forced to live on the streets?”

Caryn Blanton of the nonprofit Shoreline Community Services, which aids the homeless with an office in Pacific Beach serving the central beach area, which includes Mission and Pacific beaches up through La Jolla Shores, said unhoused people are being helped to connect with wrap-around services available to them.

“What makes us unique as an organization is that we are calling our community into finding creative solutions to these issues of homelessness that impact all of us,” Blanton said. “We work with businesses, other organizations, agencies, local government, faith communities, and neighbors to help address the challenges that we face. Together, we are making positive changes at a grass-roots level while the bigger system works on reform at a higher level.”

Blanton noted Shoreline Community Services offers these three programs to address the needs of the homeless in the Central Beach community:

– Volunteer Community Outreach Team – “Trained volunteers who go out into the community to meet with unsheltered neighbors where they are to build trust, relationships, and support. This is a crucial piece of the work that we do intend to increase the possibility that they will access services and resources needed to get off the street.”

– Respite Medical Hotels – “Medically fragile people being released from a hospital stay, or an emergency room incident, are given time to recover in a hotel room instead of being turned back to the street. Guests are offered supportive services through our community partners to ensure individual needs are assessed and addressed.”

– The Compass Station – “A drop-in center at 1004 Chalcedony St. where people experiencing homelessness can connect with resources and services from our community partners. This is a safe, friendly, and ‘local’ place for them to engage with those who care and offer compassionate assistance.”

Some of the services offered are phone/tablet/laptop charging, access to laundry, access to showers, benefits enrollment assistance, ID/driver’s license vouchers, document recovery, computers to look/apply for work, onsite volunteer nurses, mail acceptance, family reunification assistance, mental health service connections, substance use service connections, veteran services connections, and housing service connections.