San Diego's camping ban may push homeless people to the riverbed, where encampments have been rising

[justaprogressive]

If you look down at the San Diego River from a bridge or sidewalk, only greenery may be visible. Much of the land, from East County to Mission Valley, is obscured by thick foliage.

At a public meeting in Santee earlier this year, one resident expressed bafflement that anyone was supposedly camping near the water.
Yet descend even a few feet, and miniature towns can appear.

The foundation counted 95 active encampments by the river at the end of July, right as police began enforcing San Diego’s camping ban. That was more than double the total in late 2019, before the pandemic appeared to trigger several increases of people living along the main waterway or in connected tributaries throughout San Diego and Santee.

An encampment may comprise a single tent or multiple hand-built structures spread around a 25 meter area, meaning several people may live at each site.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2023-09-03/san-diego-camping-ban-homeless-riverbed-encampments

[2naSalit]

1. The riverbed in Santee...

Knew it well. When I first moved to the state I went to live with my mom as a teen, she lived on the edge of the riverbed, floods would reach her back yard. Also, it was a very busy motocross network, very few found it a place to camp out and we didn't have the homeless population that now exists.

In the mid-late 1980s massive development took place in and around the riverbed and a homeless population started to show up, we didn't go to the river, sometimes nothing more than a trickle, to catch crawfish and just hike around like we did ten years prior. Since the late 80s there has been a growing population of homeless along the riverbed where groves of willow make for fairly decent cover. But it's much worse than just the riverbed in east county, the entire length of the riverbed from Lakeside to the ocean and all along the jetty, the dog beach... all places where you could park, are filled with every variety of Clampett inspired cars, vans, RVs and tents, looks like some event might be going on but it's just homeless people trying to exist in a hostile social environment.

California is definitely not a good place for poor people.

[kimbutgar]

2. It's not just California, I've seen the homeless problem in Arizona recently

A Montana Town Faces a Homelessness Problem Similar to San Francisco and L.A.
Missoula’s parks are full of people in tents. Moving them is hampered by a court ruling that has frustrated many leaders in the American West.


I tried to eliminate the paywall with no luck but I read the whole article yesterday free.
So try the link for one free read.

https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/a-montana-town-faces-a-homelessness-problem-similar-to-san-francisco-and-l-a-eba26824

[Skittles]

3. when housing becomes unaffordable

WTF do they think is gonna happen?