After San Diego passed its controversial camping ban in June, many wondered whether Chula Vista, the county’s second-largest city, would follow.
But in a public meeting on homelessness last week, the City Council appeared to be leaning away from a sweeping law that would bar encampments from all public spaces. Instead, council members voted to look closer at more limited restrictions.
“I don’t think we should be overly broad,” Chula Vista Mayor John McCann said.
The City Council’s move comes amid questions over whether San Diego’s encampment ordinance and others like it violate the constitutional rights of unhoused residents. Earlier this year, a federal court struck down a similar law in Grants Pass, Ore. — a decision that city is now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A more limited camping ordinance
As the number of people falling into homelessness continues to rise across California, more cities are responding with aggressive tactics.
After San Diego passed its camping ban, Chula Vista officials began to discuss what a similar ban might look like in their own city. In August, McCann asked city staff to take a look at different options based on San Diego and other cities.
But on Thursday, city staff recommended steering toward more limited restrictions, like those in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Both of those cities limit where unhoused residents can stay, city staff said, but they focus on blocking camping in specific places and at specific hours of the day.
Staff members said this approach would be kinder to unhoused residents, and would be more likely to hold up in court.
“These are good examples of carefully crafted ordinances that I think don't run afoul of the rights of unsheltered people,” said Stacey Kurz, the city's director of Housing and Homeless Services.
The City Council voted to revisit those more limited restrictions at a later date.
A clearer look at the crisis
City staff also shared the results of a new, more comprehensive point-in-time count conducted last month.
The new count found that Chula Vista’s unhoused population is much larger than previous counts had shown. The city’s Homeless Outreach Team counted 786 unhoused residents — nearly double the 440 people reported in San Diego County’s tally in January.
Staff members emphasized that their number was also larger because it included people who were experiencing homelessness but were currently staying in a hotel or motel, something they said the county did not track.
Otay bridge shelter is still running at limited capacity
City staff also shared an update on the number of people currently being served by the city’s Otay bridge shelter.
Officials have repeatedly declined to share those details since the shelter opened in May. Many residents and homeless advocates have criticized the city for running the shelter at limited capacity and for not sharing more information on how many people it had served.
But when pressed by Councilmember Jose Preciado last week, city staff shared that the shelter, which is supposed to house up to 65, is still limited to serving only 48 people. On Thursday last week, Homeless Solutions Manager Angelica Davis said only 15 people were currently staying at the shelter.
Davis said city workers often refer people to partner housing programs or services instead of admitting them to the Bridge shelter. Since February, she said, 162 people or families have received housing through that combination of different services.
