The city of Chula Vista is taking action against what Mayor John McCann has called the region’s most urgent challenge, homelessness, by establishing its first ever strategic plan to address it.
Homeless prevention services, encampment enforcement and more shelters were some of the suggestions residents shared, rapid fire, as they were inscribed in red marker on a poster board.
That discussion took place at the first of four community workshops to gather resident input on exactly what policies and strategies the five-year roadmap should include. Two more are planned, including one Wednesday night.
“After 2020, things have become epidemic, and we want to make sure that we’re getting homeless individuals off the street,” McCann said as part of his opening remarks for the first workshop, at the Norman Park Senior Center.
This year’s Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine an estimate of those unhoused in San Diego County and regions across the country, found that Chula Vista had the highest homeless population in South County. The city also had the second largest homeless population in the county overall.
At the same time, the city experienced a 6.6% drop from the prior year. But Chula Vista’s numbers jumped substantially in 2024, when the city saw an increase of 58.2% in the homeless population.
According to a city spokesperson, this year’s decrease can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the more clean-up operations conducted on public lands by Caltrans along the Interstate 5 and state Route 54 corridors. Other factors include clean-ups on behalf of private property owners in coordination with the city’s Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) and successes moving unsheltered people into transitional and permanent housing.
Earlier this month, the city received $8.61 million in Homekey+ funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development to fund the construction of more permanent housing. The city plans to use the funds to convert the former Palomar Motel in western Chula Vista into 27 units of permanent supportive housing for low-income residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
The motel is expected to be ready by November 2026, but outside of that the city only has one other shelter, the Chula Vista Village at Otay. The transitional shelter offers 65 tiny homes for a temporary stay of 90 to 120 days, according to the city’s website.
The city spokesperson also confirmed that they are continuing to look for other funding opportunities and partnerships to expand available services and housing options.
Currently, the city partners with nonprofits such as the Salvation Army Community Center, South Bay Community Services and Veteran Community Services to identify additional shelter as needed.
Residents at the workshop suggested utilizing safe parking programs as a response to shelter demand.
“We ought to have safe parking. There’s just no doubt about it. There should be safe parking in a city this size. It would eliminate a lot of problems,” said Penni Wilson Neely, a Bonita resident.
Safe parking programs are an option that allow people living out of their vehicles to safely stay overnight at specific lots. Currently there are no safe parking programs offered in South Bay.
One heated point of discussion was delayed progress in cleaning up homeless encampments.
It’s been a year since the city of Chula Vista established its own encampment ban, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision to remove barriers to local anti-encampment restrictions. Previously, if a city did not have a shelter big enough for its whole unhoused population, you could not ban encampments on public property. With the new high court ruling, this can be done even if there is no room in local shelters.
According to Sgt. Bryan Jackson of the Chula Vista Police Department, since the rule change officers have had to enforce the ban several times.
Typically, they provide 24-hour notice for encampments that need to be cleared.
“So we do have that as an extra tool in our tool bag if we ever need to use it,” said Officer Taylor Cate, “But first, like they were talking about, we are usually outreach, first. We want to help everyone that we come in contact with.”
Carlos Rodrigues, a 57-year-old resident, shared the need for more enforcement of an encampment on C Street in the northern part of the city, where Eucalyptus Park is expected to be revamped with a multi-million dollar upgrade.
“There’s always trash. There’s always encampments there. There’s families that walk around, there’s kids that walk around down C Street, and nothing is being done about it,” Rodrigues said.
“I’ve been assaulted by homeless people, literally, a guy with a knife assaulted me,” Rodrigues continued, “Now I carry pepper spray constantly, thinking about getting a taser as well, but I carry it on me every time I go out into the community.”
The city has previously struggled with clearing areas overrun by homeless encampments. For instance, in 2022, officials closed Harborside Park for two years as a result of criminal activity and to evict the unhoused individuals who lived there .
After the economic hardships of the pandemic, the once lively park, adorned with a skate park and basketball courts, became riddled with a sea of shopping carts and tents, some overflowing with debris.
Rodrigues also mentioned repeated issues with an encampment near the Walmart shopping center between Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
A row of tents, mattresses, and even a piano, have been part of the pile of debris found there.
Rodrigues reported the problem to CBS 8, which discovered that the land is privately owned, a complicating factor when coordinating clean up.
“It’s an open case,” said a city official at the meeting, “That case, just to put (it) in perspective, has been open since 2023 before I even worked on it.”
As part of the city procedure, they notify property owners and give them an opportunity to handle the issue first, allowing 10 to 14 days before taking further action.
In addition, with the meeting taking place at a senior center, the largely older crowd advocated for more assistance for seniors in danger of losing their homes.
According to city data, 33.4% of local unhoused individuals last year were seniors.
“Once somebody becomes homeless, it’s too hard to get them back,” said John Acosta, a resident. “The rental assistance program that is provided by the city … it is very difficult for any senior to qualify for that. Make it easier for a senior to get assistance.”
The Shallow Rental Subsidy Program, launched this summer, helps seniors who are 55 and older with a rental subsidy of $500 a month. To qualify, participants must have an income at or below 50% of the area median income and they can’t receive rental assistance from other programs.
Applications for the program opened in September. It already has reached full capacity.
“Focus on that, because we are all getting old,” said Acosta to city staff at the community workshop.
For those looking to share their own suggestions for solutions to homelessness in Chula Vista, residents can attend the upcoming workshops all taking place from 6 to 7:30 p.m:
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