Two days before Thanksgiving, an oversized, red-and-black Eskimo camping tent caught my eye. Set up near the corner of Ninth Avenue and B Street in East Village, it was the same brand used at the O Lot. That’s the City of San Diego’s Safe Sleeping Program site for unsheltered people.
Why and how could a city-owned tent be anywhere but at the O Lot, a secluded land parcel near Balboa Park and the Naval Medical Center?
Seeking clarification, I sent half a dozen emails to city agencies. The Downtown San Diego Partnership (a service provider at the O Lot) replied: “Since the operations of the O Lot site are administered through a City of San Diego contract, would you mind sending this to the City of San Diego’s communications department for the opportunity to respond?”
Neither the city’s communications department nor the mayor’s office’s comms team responded.
My next option: Go to the O Lot. It’s out-of-the-way and not easy to find. After two false starts, I found the hilltop gate that leads to the site. I asked the security guard at a booth how to get to the O Lot. And if I needed to sign in. He shook his head and pointed down a steep hill.
Down at the site’s check-in desk, I met a burly man in a straw hat and introduced myself as a media member. He refused to take my card or tell me his name. He left and came back with a supervisor on his cell phone.
I had a speaker-phone conversation with Tara Stamos-Buesig, founder and executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego. HRCSD is a city-contracted service provider here.
“Is the O Lot missing a tent? I asked.
Stamos-Buesig referred my question to Dreams for Change, another service provider. She gave me (what turned out to be) a wrong phone number. I was sent on my way. The burly guy advised me not to talk about anything I’d seen or heard here today.
After getting home, I found and emailed Dreams for Change director of marketing and development Kelly Spoon. She replied quickly: “…I am also very curious how you managed to get all the way down on site past the City’s security and the sign that says Staff and Client Access only; no trespassing. All media must be coordinated prior to entering the site. It is on a large a-frame on the road at the top before coming down the road.”
I wrote back about my interaction with the security guard, and how no agencies were responding to my queries. And asked: “Is inventory done at the site? Did a tent go missing and if one did would it be obvious?”
Shortly thereafter, Spoon sent me a brief confirmation text: “Yes, one of the tents was taken from the site, and it has been returned.”
Transparent communication is easy if you take a cue from the old Nike slogan and “Just do it.”
The implications of a wayward city-owned tent are anecdotal at best; systemic at worst. Somebody snuck a tent out. What else is going in and out that isn’t being monitored? Is this the tip of an iceberg?
Earlier in November, a resident was found dead inside a tent at the city’s other Safe Sleeping Site (at 20th and B streets in Golden Hill). A media report says the individual died in September. The incident went unreported for over a month.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn pushed for and passed the Unsafe Camping Ordinance. Passed on June 27, 2023, it prohibits tent encampments in all public spaces throughout the city (if shelter beds are available).
The DSDP’s monthly count of tents in downtown San Diego has decreased since the summer. Though, Regional Task Force on Homelessness data shows the number of people entering homelessness continues to outpace those leaving the streets.
Along with the city’s first two Safe Camping sites (20th & B’s 133 tents; the O Lot’s 400 tents) a third, bigger site is on the table for Point Loma. Implementation of that H Barracks plan is likely still a (post-2024 election) year away. Yet even now, the proposal has drawn heated rebukes from the Point Loma community.
One takeaway: You can’t convince every NIMBY-minded homeowner to embrace safe camping sites. Can the government present a more compelling argument for them? Sure, starting with public officials not hiding from questions about a missing tent that might draw even the slightest hint of negative press. SDSun
