Por Ken Williams | Editor<\/p>\n
In North Park, some residents have been complaining via social media about homeless people camping out in the Morley Field section of Balboa Park as well as virtually taking over North Park Community Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe some of the homeless want a space where they can be free of the pressures of life.\u00a0North Park is a community of compassion and accepting attitudes,\u201d said Edwin Lohr, president of the North Park Community Association. \u201cOf course our neighborhood parks are a more attractive place to congregate but there are other places here in North Park where we see the homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community concern over a perceived rise in homelessness in the hip neighborhood has sparked yet another public meeting to discuss the hot-button issue.<\/p>\n
The North Park Community Association will present a \u201cForum on Homelessness \u2014 A Collective Impact\u201d at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Lafayette Hotel, located at 2223 El Cajon Blvd.<\/p>\n
Members of the community are invited to attend the forum, where city officials and local police officers will be among those who will discuss the following topics:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Homeless awareness<\/p>\n
\u2014 Facilities needed, such as restrooms, showers and storage<\/p>\n
\u2014 Support services needed<\/p>\n
\u2014 Housing issues<\/p>\n
\u2014 Crime and safety<\/p>\n
\u2014 Human dignity of the homeless individual<\/p>\n
Participants will receive a handout that answers frequent questions about homelessness.<\/p>\n
The forum will be the second one in recent months in North Park. On July 11, the North Park Community Association and a local chapter of the National Association of Social Workers conducted a \u201cSee Something, Say Something\u201d meeting at Queen Bee\u2019s. You can read San Diego Uptown News\u2019 coverage of \u201cWhat to do about the homeless?\u201d at bit.ly\/1IwnfFN<\/p>\n
The official 2015 count conducted by the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless shows that there are currently 8,742 homeless people scattered across sprawling San Diego County. Of that total, 4,156 homeless people are unsheltered.<\/p>\n
Bryan Tarr, one of the forum\u2019s organizers from the North Park Community Association, said that Jessica Lawrence, District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria\u2019s policy adviser and his point person on homelessness, will sit on the panel to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n
Tarr said other panelists will include Melissa Peterman, director of the Homeless Housing Commission; representatives from the Uptown Service Center, a mail and computer center for the homeless in North Park; and the county\u2019s Health & Human Services Agency\u2019s Behavioral Health Services Division.<\/p>\n
“Homelessness is a prevalent and persistent reality in North Park and other mid-city neighborhoods, but communities across the nation have had success in drastically reducing homelessness. This panel of experts will be focused on addressing the concerns and frustrations we hear from community members on the issue,” Tarr said.<\/p>\n
“Homelessness is largely visible along the commercial corridors in North Park, however we know it exists throughout the community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are failing the homeless individuals, and we are failing our community.”<\/p>\n
\u2014Ken Williams es editor de Uptown News y Mission Valley News y puede ser contactado en <\/i>ken@sdcnn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a> o al 619-961-1952. S\u00edguelo en Twitter en <\/i>KenSanDiego<\/i><\/span><\/a>, cuenta de Instagram en <\/i>KenSD<\/i><\/span><\/a> o Facebook en <\/i>KenWilliamsSanDiego<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ken Williams | Editor In North Park, some residents have been complaining via social media about homeless people camping out in the Morley Field section of Balboa Park as well as virtually taking over North Park Community Park.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":846,"featured_media":249328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"North Park forum to tackle homeless issue","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}