San Diego county mayors from Oceanside to Chula Vista gathered on Monday at the Lomas Santa Fe Country Club to discuss a region wide issue: homelessness.
The event brought together 18 city mayors to discuss what their cities are doing to combat the issue.
Oceanside Deputy Mayor Ryan Keim said it's important to get face-to-face with leaders from other parts of the county. "We have similar problems and we all need to know how we can help each other and how we can be more cohesive," he said.
National City Mayor Ron Morrison shared the impact of big events on his city.
"Just a couple of weeks ago ... we started getting things cleaned up, and boom! Here comes in a whole new wave of homeless because of Comic-Con. They got pushed out of downtown San Diego and then we take on somebody else's problem all over again," he said. "We're a small city, with very limited resources, and yet we're being asked to take on these huge problems for other people."
With the U.S. Supreme Court giving cities more power to expand encampment bans and the state expanding conservatorships, there's a growing urgency for resources and for cities to work together.
More San Diego cities are expected to take up homeless encampment bans in the next weeks to come and continue stretching already thin resources.
Looking ahead
This is the third time the San Diego Rescue Mission has brought officials together to look for solutions.
Rescue Mission President Donnie Dee said it’s important to get all 18 cities in the county to work together.
"I do believe at some point somewhere down the road ... what's going to come out of this is actually an 18 city strategic plan instead of 18 individual plans. That's what we have right now," Dee said. "And that makes sense because they (city leaders) get elected to think about their city. So we've got to continue to communicate to them that as long as you just think about your city, we're never going to change the state of homelessness because homelessness knows no zip code."
