Just like Long Beach \u2014 where more than 3,000 people were homeless at the last count<\/a> \u2014 San Diego has a large number of unhoused individuals. In San Diego\u2019s 2023 point-in-time count<\/a>, out of more than 6,000 homeless people more than 3,200 were living unsheltered.<\/p>\n In an effort to quickly provide more shelter space for these people, San Diego built what it\u2019s calling a \u201csafe sleep site\u201d in Balboa Park near Downtown.<\/p>\n On a hill overlooking the city, rows and rows of ice fishing tents are clustered together in an old, fenced-off auxiliary parking lot. Inside each tent, cots and sleeping bags provide a place to sleep. The ice fishing tents, an idea taken from Denver, are extra insulated, so they keep the tents cool in the summer and warm when it gets cold. All of the tents are set up on a short platform, with a wooden floor on the inside.<\/p>\n The city contracts with two nonprofits, \u200b\u200bDreams for Change<\/a> and the Downtown San Diego Partnership<\/a>, to run the safe sleep sites. Rather than living in makeshift setups on the street, these options provide not just shelter from the elements but also access to services, care and community.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n <\/b>\u201cThis whole place was unpaved before they set this up,\u201d Jose Ysea, Public Safety Media Services Manager for the city of San Diego, told me when he showed me the site last week. \u201cThe city owns all of this, and they came in and paved it and built these roads.\u201d<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t able to see the operation up close due to the operator\u2019s strict policy against allowing media on site (for residents’ privacy, according to Nicole Darling, Director of Communications for the City of San Diego), but the city did share a photo of the inside of the tents.<\/p>\n \u201cSetting up safe sleeping sites is significantly quicker than traditional shelters,\u201d Sarah Jarman, San Diego’s Director of Homeless Strategies and Solutions said in a Zoom call, and that the cost is far less expensive.<\/p>\n Plus, there are other benefits to the arrangement compared to traditional options, especially congregate and sex-segregated shelters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a lot of feedback from our clients, \u201cJarman said. \u201cSan Diego has a significant number of congregate and non-congregate shelter beds, but we saw an opportunity for \u2018semi-congregate\u2019 options.\u201d<\/p>\n What that means is the safe sleep sites are able to accommodate different groups. Darling told me the locations are intended to have a low barrier to entry. Pets are also allowed, and people can come with partners and caregivers.\u201cPeople have built these street families, and we\u2019ve been able to move those families into the same site,\u201d Jarman said. \u201cAt our safe sleeping sites, you can come as pods.\u201d<\/p>\n Apparently, the plan is working. The first site had 136 tents that filled up within weeks, so the city expanded to have over 400 \u2014 and each tent can shelter two people.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom July 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2023, 304 individuals have been enrolled in the program,\u201d Ysea said in an Email. \u201cAnd there have been 14 exits to permanent or other forms of long-term housing.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of that success is because the city has been able to provide services along with shelter at these sites. \u201cPeople are finding a great community there,\u201d Jarman said. \u201cThey still have access to all of our\u00a0 services, they get two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, there are showers, restrooms, laundry.\u201d<\/p>\n They also provide transportation and let residents come and go at the location, so they can get to mailboxes set up Downtown or other services around the city.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen a reduction in Downtown of our homeless count,\u201d Jarman said. \u201cAnecdotally, we have heard really positive feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n Currently, Long Beach doesn\u2019t have enough space in its shelters for everybody who\u2019s homeless in the city. While they\u2019re trying to build 33 tiny homes<\/a>, convert a motel into supportive housing<\/a>\u00a0and expand the winter shelter capacity<\/a>, all of those efforts are taking too long to address the problem on the street today.<\/p>\n A safe sleep site wouldn\u2019t be a one-size-fits-all fix for Long Beach, especially with the high demand for mental health and case management services that will be crucial to moving people into permanent housing, but with more than 2,000 unsheltered people on the street, it’s a solution that could help deal with encampments while the city works on finding more permanent options.<\/p>\n Editor’s note: This story was updated with the correct spelling of Sarah Jarman’s name.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With city leaders considering new ways to quickly add homeless shelter space, San Diego\u2019s efforts might offer a glimpse of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":1555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[98],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[131],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-homelessness","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/11\/29094641\/Safe-sleep-site-tent-768x1024.jpeg\")
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