Oppose the Criminalization of Homelessness in San Diego

Oppose the Criminalization of Homelessness in San Diego

Started
May 26, 2023
Petition to
Mayor of San Diego Todd Gloria and 9 others
Petition Closed
This petition had 1,263 supporters

Why this petition matters

Sign the petition to OPPOSE Mayor Todd Gloria and City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn’s proposed ordinance to criminalize homelessness in San Diego.

Maps showing the impact of the proposed encampment ban.

This ordinance will only exacerbate the problems unhoused people have to navigate and will be yet another drain on city resources. 160+ local scholars and educators from across our region’s major colleges and universities and the American Nurses Association have sent letters to city leadership opposing this ordinance. City Councilmembers have also been left with unanswered questions.

Criminalization DOES NOT WORK. Todd Gloria knows this. He campaigned on that very point to become Mayor:

Todd Gloria's campaign platform to decriminalize homelessness

City leadership is currently focused on sweeping the problem under the rug, giving out citations regardless of the city's severe lack of shelter spaces and housing. Tickets and arrests will not solve the housing crisis our city is facing.

San Diego Sheltered Count has been trending downward since 2014

San Diego Downtown Unsheltered Count increased from about 500 in 2020 to nearly 2,000 in 2023

It has now been 13 months since San Diego has been able to house more people than have fallen into homelessness in a given month. More temporary shelter space will not address the root cause of homelessness — affordable housing. A shelter is not a home!

San Diego has not been able to house more people than have fallen into homelessness in a given month since March 2022

We are calling on Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego City Council to focus on ENDING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS through permanent supportive housing and rehabilitative services and CEASING the criminalization of the poor.

San Diego approved a Community Action Plan on Homelessness back in 2019 that was created by national experts but has done little to implement it. This ordinance is in direct contradiction to that plan.

Only housing endless homelessness. Here are real steps San Diego leaders can take to reduce homelessness and save lives:

  • Treat this housing crisis like a real emergency. Stop approving luxury housing, tourist hotels and new sports venues, and put every possible city resource into creating housing for extremely low to middle-income San Diegans and to expand housing subsidies.
  • Establish and properly maintain bathrooms and handwashing stations that are open 24/7.
  • Establish non-congregate shelters for seniors and people with disabilities in hotels and other locations. Ensure that no one is ever discharged from a hospital into the streets.
  • Issue a moratorium on impoundment of vehicles used as shelter for so long as the housing emergency exists.
  • Repeal the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance and stop using the anti-encroachment ordinance meant to control trash to punish people forced to live on city streets.
  • Establish a low-barrier permit program for street parking of vehicles used as shelters with access to bathrooms, handwashing stations and trash collection.
  • Preserve affordable housing and boost housing stability by reinstating COVID-19-related eviction protections, passing local rent control and lobbying our state Legislature to repeal both the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which bans effective rent control, and the Ellis Act, which allows affordable housing to disappear.
  • Improve the conditions for unhoused people while permanent housing is created.
  • Improve “safe parking” programs to meet basic humanitarian standards.
  • Open city beach and parkland for quality campgrounds, full-service RV parks with hookups and tiny homes for unhoused San Diego residents. Similar measures were taken to provide temporary housing for homeless veterans after World War II supported by the courts.
  • Facilitate and empower unhoused individuals to run their own programs and communities.

Petition Closed

This petition had 1,263 supporters

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Decision Makers

  • Todd GloriaMayor of San Diego
  • Stephen WhitburnSan Diego City Councilmember
  • Joe LaCavaSan Diego City Councilmember
  • Jennifer CampbellSan Diego City Councilmember
  • Monica Montgomery SteppeSan Diego City Councilmember