SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The City of San Diego says this comes down to a matter of public health and safety. They say to prevent future outbreaks, they have to do these regular cleanups.
Homeless advocate Michael McConnell says the trashing of tents is just a Band-Aid and not a real solution.
"They have been making some small steps in the right direction, so I was a little bit concerned when I saw how ruthless they were being yesterday and just throwing out people's entire tents,” said McConnell.
Video shot by McConnell Tuesday morning shows City of San Diego work crews throwing away tents filled with clothes, shoes, and other belongings into large dump trucks.
"The city has turned down the FEMA money to put in hotels, and then they're going around throwing away people's tents,” said McConnell.
McConnell says the city has gotten better with posting notices for its regular cleanups, and he understands the sidewalk obstructions, but he says the trashing of multiple tents was too harsh for people who have nowhere else to go.
"Well, they have to start over. I mean, they throw away jackets, they throw away dog food that somebody I'm sure was feeding their dog with. I mean, these are all things that have to be replaced,” said McConnell.
The City of San Diego says its cleanup crews take the utmost care with people's belongings, certain things are placed in city storage units, but the items thrown away Tuesday were abandoned and deemed soiled and unsanitary.
"Those videos don't tell the whole story. We have our crews documenting what they're throwing away. They're making sure that any personal belongings are tagged anything of importance or significance that they think may be needed wanted by an occupant of one of those tents,” said City of San Diego Spokesman, Jose Ysea
Ysea says the encampment cleanup is to prevent public health outbreaks, such as Hepatitis A in 2017 and most recently, shigellosis.
“These particular ones keep showing up in these videos are tents that are full of debris full of filth, and feces and urine. So again, they're a public health issue and a public safety issue,” said Ysea.
Ysea says the city has received encampment complaints from businesses and residents and will continue to use police outreach and medical teams to offer services.
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