The recent crackdown on large sidewalk homeless camps in downtown San Diego has forced people without shelter into Balboa Park and other parts of the city.

“For the first time during the day, I”m seeing people sleeping in the colonnades,” said Balboa Park Conservancy Director Tomas Herera-Mishler, who also said he’s seen shopping carts for the first time in the park recently.

More homeless people have also been seen in Embarcadero Marina Park South behind the San Diego Convention Center.

The dispersal follows a crackdown on downtown tent sites on 17th Street, Commercial Street, National Avenue and other places. That action was part of the city’s effort to curb a hepatitis A outbreak that has left 17 people dead and more than 300 hospitalized over the course of the monthslong outbreak.


The virus is spread through fecal matter, and steps to stop the outbreak have included installing restrooms and hand-washing stations downtown and using a bleach solution to power-wash sidewalks where homeless people have set up tents.

Lt. Scott Wahl, public information officer with the San Diego Police Department, said clearing large downtown tent sites was part of the steps to stop the spread of the virus.

“This is not an attack on the homeless,” he said Thursday. “This is to protect the homeless. We’ve had 17 deaths.”

City crews already had been cleaning up trash on downtown sidewalks on a weekly basis where homeless people camp. Notices about the cleanups were posted at the sites 72 hours in advance, and homeless people usually pack up their tents and return later in the day after crews have left.


On Monday, police were on hand at the large campsite on 17th Street to tell the people not to return. Wahl said that most people were cooperative, but there also were arrests in the days after the crackdown.

Bob McElroy, president and CEO of the Alpha Project, which provides housing and other services for the homeless, said the eviction caught him and his crews by surprise. On Thursday, he said he still didn’t know where everybody had gone.

The homeless didn’t disappear from downtown, however. The sidewalk outside the Neil Good Day Center on 17th Street was bustling with homeless people and shopping carts filled with their possessions Thursday.

“People are allowed to walk and use the sidewalk,” Wahl said. “It’s not quarantined.”


Wahl also said the crackdown was focused on areas with the highest density of tents, but other areas were left alone. On Thursday, tents still could be found on Commercial Street near 17th Street, on Newton Avenue and 16th Street and other places.

Herera-Mishler said he has seen the homeless population in Balboa Park grow over the past two weeks when crackdowns on some homeless camps downtown began.

“I saw three homeless people sleeping when I was giving a tour,” he said, adding that he’s seen people in front of the Casa de Prado Museum and Mingei International Museum as well as in canyons around the park.

Herera-Mishler said he’s most bothered that there are no services for homeless people in the park, as there are downtown. However, the city recently opened more park restrooms 24 hours a day.


Quarlo McSwain of the Alpha Project regularly checks on the homeless people in some downtown areas, including the park behind the Convention Center.

“We have some regulars, but not that many,” he said about homeless people in Embarcadero Marina Park South. “Since Monday, we’ve had about 15. ”

Among the people at the park was a man who gave his name only as Jackie. He said he and some friends, who on Thursday had set up a new site complete with solar panels for electricity under a gazebo at the bayside park, had been staying around 17th Street until police arrived Monday and began arresting people.

“They pulled up ... they took one of our friends to jail,” he said. “It’s been really bad lately, and honestly I think the police have a chip on their shoulder because 10 of us got together and we have a civil action lawsuit against the city. Ever since then, they seem to be on a mission.”


Jackie was referring to a lawsuit filed in July by attorneys Kath Rogers Scott Dreher, who are arguing that the city has unfairly been ticketing homeless people by using a law intended to prevent businesses from encroaching on the right-of-way with trash cans or planters on sidewalks.

Wahl said encroachment citations have increased by about 65 percent in the East Village area where police have been connecting people with services or evicting them for cleaning.

Since January, police have given out about 30 tickets a week for encroachment. Between Sept. 11 and Thursday, which is when officers stepped up enforcement, tickets have increased to about 50, he said.

“We understand how difficult that is for homeless people to pick up and move, but this is a matter of life and death,” the lieutenant said.


Those numbers do not include other arrests police make while clearing an area, such as arrests for an existing warrant or drug-related charges. It also doesn’t include occasions when a homeless person is taken to a mental-health facility, which does involve handcuffing the individual, Wahl said.

He said police are also continuing to talk with the homeless community about available shelters and services. They have seen a slight uptick in the number of people who are asking to be connecting with services, from about 15 percent to about 18 percent.

Anthony Brown, another homeless person at Embarcadero Marina Park South, said he also moved from 17th Street because of the eviction Monday.

“There were about six (police) cars, and they told everybody they had to leave that area,” he said. “Nobody knows where they all went. They all just seemed to have gone underground. People camp wherever they can now.”


Reporter Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this article.


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