NATIONAL CITY, Calif. — The homeless encampment ban for National City went into effect Friday. CBS 8 spoke with the Mayor about how they're enforcing the new law.
“We want to get it past the excuses to say it is not humane to have people out living on the streets,” said Mayor Ron Morrison.
It’s now illegal to set up encampments on public property throughout the city, especially in parks, riverbeds, or near schools.
“Our first contact is basically trying to get people help and so we have our homeless outreach team, our police department, all of them, they work together and see if we can’t get these people help,” said Mayor Morrison.
National City's new law is the latest in a cascade of encampment bans in cities across the county following the Boise and Grants Pass Supreme Court decisions essentially gave local governments more authority to enforce anti-camping laws. Mayor Ron Morrison told CBS 8 they’re already seeing results.
“It has already clearly sent a message even when we just announced we were going to do it. The homeless count is definitely down a whole lot," said Mayor Morrison. "We are not seeing it being pushed out from the other cities because they realize if they’re pushed over here, they’re going to be pushed somewhere else.”
CBS 8 visited the newest shelter in National City off Euclid Avenue that opened in July. It’s privately funded through donors and operated by the San Diego Rescue Mission.
“We’re in the process of bringing in additional guests, that’s how we refer to the people we serve. We want them to feel like they’re our guests,” said Paul Armstrong, Vice President of Programs at San Diego Rescue Mission.
Staff has been busy ramping up capacity, expanding to 125 beds on October 1, 2024, and when they secure more funding, they’ll expand to full capacity at 162 beds.
“We’re triaging their situation, figuring out what they need, get them connected to the right resource, and take a step forward,” said Armstrong. “When they come in, they’re going to get a bed with some storage capacity beneath that bed. They’re going to get three meals a day. We have a shower facility so they can shower.”
“There’s a difference between meeting the needs and addressing the needs," explained Armstrong. "Meeting the needs means getting them the basic stuff, but actually dealing with the harder issues, that’s at the heart of what we do. We want to address the needs to help people go from experiencing homelessness to thriving and being an active member of our community again.”
Mayor Morrison told CBS 8 many of the encampments in their area have been on state property alongside the freeways where Caltrans has the jurisdiction.
“They’re there on state property because up to this point, they’ve been given a free pass, and we’re just saying the free passes are gone," said Mayor Morrison. "We’re going to give you free passes to help, but not free passes to trash the neighborhood or even to be living out on the streets.”
According to Mayor Morrison, any citations or arrests would only be reserved for extreme cases, but they’re not actively looking to go that route.
A similar ban on encampments will also be going into effect in Chula Vista at the end of the month.