San Diego County has given initial approval to a narrow ban on homeless encampments in unincorporated parts of the region, becoming the latest local government to boost penalties for sleeping outside since the nation’s top court gave leaders more leeway to clear streets and sidewalks.
However, the measure only allows sheriff’s deputies to ticket people whose campsites pose an “imminent risk of death” or “serious injury,” particularly when it comes to the spread of “communicable disease” or wildfires.
Even having a lighter in a tent, regardless of whether it’s lit, is forbidden.
“We don’t want to penalize people for being poor,” Supervisor Joel Anderson, who has long pushed for many of these changes, said Wednesday. “But on the same token, we don’t want to allow people to burn down neighborhoods or put their own lives at risk.”
The Board of Supervisors’ vote was notably unanimous — the body is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans — at a time when other proposals have been put on hold until South County residents can elect a tie-breaking fifth supervisor in July.
The ordinance must be voted on again May 20 to become law. The rules would then take effect in 30 days.
A county camping ban has been discussed since at least late 2023. At the time, a federal court ruling said officers generally couldn’t kick people off public land if there was nowhere else to go, which effectively froze a wide range of enforcement. The region’s shelters are frequently full and East County especially has few options.
Those limitations went out the window last year when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that cities may clear tent camps regardless of shelter availability. Since then, Chula Vista, National City and Encinitas have either ed new ordinances or expanded enforcement of old ones.
San Diego County was never going as far as it could have.
An earlier draft of the proposal said a homeless person who wasn’t starting fires could still be cited if they were offered, and then refused, an “available and accessible” shelter bed. The “accessible” part was key: A top bunk wouldn’t have counted, for example, if the homeless person in question was in a wheelchair. Even then, there additionally had to be “sufficient shelter for all unhoused individuals living in the unincorporated area” for any tickets to be handed out.
That could have been a tall order. Last year’s point-in-time count found around 200 people living outside or in their vehicles within unincorporated communities, like Fallbrook and Ramona, where there are often zero shelters. The county does have a voucher program that rents hotel rooms for homeless residents, yet that too is regularly at capacity, and officials have abandoned shelter projects in Lakeside, Spring Valley and Santee after neighbors objected. (The county now hopes to build dozens of small cabins in Lemon Grove, although that effort is facing similar pushback.)
Nonetheless, supervisors decided after an hourlong discussion Wednesday to only authorize citations when there’s a public safety risk.
First responders estimate that about a tenth of all blazes in several East County cities have recently involved homeless people, and the suspected share in the city of San Diego is even higher: nearly 20%. Yet the true scope of the problem is unknown as those numbers are sometimes just educated guesses and Cal Fire, which works in unincorporated San Diego County, doesn’t publicly track when fires begin in encampments.
The ordinance applies to property that is managed, but not necessarily owned, by the county.
It’s not yet clear where enforcement might be focused. The board is scheduled to consider what areas face the highest fire risk on May 20.
There were surprisingly few public comments during Wednesday’s hearing. Camping ban proposals often draw large crowds, which can include both homeowners angry about nearby tent camps and advocates for homeless people concerned that new restrictions might criminalize poverty.
The low turnout could have been affected by the fact that the hearing was delayed a day after Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting went long. In addition, county staffers had already engaged with people from the Homeless-Experienced Advocacy and Leadership Network, and those discussions resulted in a proposal that was far less sweeping than some in other municipalities.
The two of the public who did weigh in Wednesday were largely in favor of the measure. “Allowing people to remain in squalor is not comionate,” said Mary Davis.
