Mondays Are Moving Day For San Diego’s Homeless

police cars roll up on 17th Street east of Petco Park it's 7:00 in the morning on a Monday the sidewalks are a sea of tents officers and city workers begin making the homeless pack up and move out no no reason the 160 or so people who live on the street knew the cops were coming the city posts warning signs days in advance the sweeps have happened every week for three months this is where I stay I'm homeless I'm on paper as homeless my people know I'm homeless brother shine and his fellow homeless neighbors pile their belongings on carts they balance mattresses and containers on top of their overflowing loads some pole pets on leashes city workers then use shovels and rakes to clear away belongings and trash left behind the urine and feces that stained the sidewalks and Street remain I got to clean up every Monday and come right back like I've been doing it's just a hassle the homeless head to the Neal good-day Center on 17th near K Street the center operates during daytime hours and is partly funded by the city it provides bathrooms and has mail and laundry services for people who live on the streets on mondays the center's patio overflows with stuffed carts it's not all bad just cuz it looks like that we're not roaches or ants out here you know we're humans just like them Steven Hillard says the center provides a safe spot for a few hours until police and city crews leave you going there fall asleep catch up on a lot of things in there by late afternoon the homeless returned they wheel their belongings back and settle in for another week what kind of sense is that mussels that don't make a lick of sense to brother shine and they don't make a lick of sense to a lot of people and not knowing about a thousand unsheltered people live downtown the regional task force on the homeless says the number has gone up 52 percent in the past two years the increase has occurred at a time when the county's overall homeless population has gone down 17th Street in the East Village is a popular spot for the homeless it's near a hub of public transportation buses and trolleys and charities that try to help the homeless and I goes there go to sleep and I'll go was here to go eat just blocks away is Petco Park where the all-star game will be played next week and near the Convention Center in gaslamp quarter hotels that will host the Comic Con throngs later this month advocates for the homeless say the weekly sweeps are an effort to hide the city's downtown homeless problem before out-of-town tourists arrived they say that's the same reason jagged rocks suddenly appeared along a freeway underpass in the same area cleaning up the area is obviously a good thing but displacing people week after week after week when he just comes back again you would think you would want to try something else rather than deploying a massive amount of city resources and wasting those resources Michael McConnell is there every Monday for the sweeps he says city officials have created bad policies that are making it harder for people to get out of homelessness this other ticket that was for me not waking up brother shine says falling asleep in the wrong place at the wrong time gets you a ticket he's gotten to both for encroachment and both in the last month he says they're his first tickets and he's lived on the street for ten years he was also issued a stay away order I talked to our officer about the situation I said we are actually where can I go he said I can go to a park up but you can't take your tent others have similar stories last month I was arrested three times three weeks in a row and the cops came by and busted u-turn and came back and gave me a ticket for a coachman you know I was sleep on my bucket I don't really know where to go to court or anything like that and I don't know what they expect me to do about it I don't have a job and I'm not on unemployment don't have an income I don't think they have debtors prison here do they police lieutenant West Morris patrols the East Village he says it's illegal to block a sidewalk or a street whether it's to sleep there or pitch a tent or park a cart Morris says officers first give verbal warnings and offer help if that doesn't work citations are issued he says the process isn't new our enforcement the regularity our posture our progressive enforcement that's really stayed the same it really hasn't changed over the last year I can't really cite one way or another it's really pretty much stayed the same the regional Task Force says what's different is more tents and tarps nearly 70 percent more than last year homeless advocate Michael McConnell says the scene downtown is the result of a broken system we know we need more permanent housing we need more affordable housing but we also need supportive services to match up with the housing and we need a better way to connect people up with the resources that are available on 17th Street it's late afternoon and brother shine and his associates as he calls them are hunkered down on the sidewalks I blessed a lot of people Ronny I don't want actually for nothing I'd say when you need anything coming to brother shine and he knows come next Monday the police cars will arrive again and they'll be asked to move along Susan Murphy KPBS news

Channel: KPBS Public Media

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Id: pWl2DrQxZAs

Length: 5min 19sec (319 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2016