Starting Thursday, Aug. 17, the city of Poway will enforce its ban on homeless people camping and storing personal property in public areas.
Homeless people will be referred to shelters that provide services on a contract basis, officials said.
The new ordinance, which was adopted by the City Council on July 18, applies to camping and storage of personal property in places such as parks, streets and alleys, public sidewalks and recreational areas. People will be cited for sleeping on public property only if they refuse an offer for an available shelter bed, said Poway City Attorney Alan Fenstermacher.
The consequences for violating the ordinance will not be a fine or arrest, but the mechanism for removing unlawful encampments with 48 hours’ notice and confiscating personal property by the Sheriff’s Department or other officials with 24 hours’ notice.
The city contracts with Alliance for Regional Solutions, a North County collaborative nonprofit, to provide shelter and homeless services outside the city.
There are several shelters — Operation HOPE-North County in Vista, Haven House in Escondido, and La Posada in Carlsbad — but Poway referrals would more likely be made to Interfaith Community Services in Escondido, said Miranda Chavez, director of the Social Services Department at Community Resource Center in Encinitas.
The problem is the lack of open beds, said Chavez, who chairs the Bridge to Housing Committee under the Alliance for Regional Solutions’ umbrella.
“We have a waitlist and a small amount of beds,” she said. “Very few shelter beds in North County are available.”
Poway officials said Sheriff’s deputies are not limited to only working with the Alliance for Regional Solutions to find beds.
In the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness’s 2023 Point-in-Time-Count, two unsheltered people were reported in Poway — down from 23 unsheltered people in the 2022 count.
Poway City Councilman Brian Pepin said he proposed the ordinance after hearing from two moms who said their children were walking past campers near Pomerado Elementary School and Meadowbrook Middle School on Pomerado Road going to and from school.
Beer cans were strewn around, a canopy popped up and chairs were set out, Pepin said. Over time, the group grew from two men to seven, he said.
When the moms talked to Poway Sheriff’s deputies about the situation, they were told the camping was legal as long as the men moved their vehicles within a 72-hour period, he said.
“That’s why I felt the need to take action quickly so kids wouldn’t have to walk past the encampment every day on their way to and from school,” said Pepin, who has three children ages 2, 6 and 7. “I have three young kids so it’s particularly important to me that children and families feel safe in the community.”
Pepin said he also sees the potential for homelessness to increase in Poway after the San Diego City Council’s ban on homeless encampments on public property went into effect the last weekend of July.
“This is a regional crisis and we need to do everything we can to address it,” he said. “I’m concerned we are going to see an influx of homeless with the city of San Diego taking an especially aggressive approach to encampments.”
Law enforcement officials are not expecting any increase in the number of unsheltered people in Poway from San Diego’s new homeless encampment policies, and they do not plan to increase staffing levels with Poway’s new ordinance, said Poway Sheriff’s Capt. Nancy Blanco.
Poway Sheriff’s deputies will seek voluntary compliance once the new ordinance goes into effect, Blanco said.
In Poway, deputies will offer homeless people resources and shelter space based on their specific needs, Blanco said. Some shelters assist in picking up a person or deputies can provide a courtesy ride to the requested location, she said.
“Deputies may unsheltered individuals and advise them of all the resources and shelters available to them,” Blanco said in an email.
The Poway Sheriff’s Department would only confiscate property if a person is arrested for a crime, Blanco said. The property will either be stored safely or taken with the person to a local detention facility, she said.
“The new ordinance is simply an additional tool for law enforcement to utilize in the event an unsheltered individual is ed during the course of their duties,” Blanco said in her email.
Each of the participating Alliance for Regional Solutions’ shelters have different eligibility criteria and levels of service but their overall goal is to provide unsheltered households with a bridge from homelessness to stable housing, Chavez said.
The Alliance’s shelters provide services such as safe overnight shelter, meals, showers, housing navigation and case management along with rental assistance, housing search and employment readiness and retention , Chavez said. But with limited availability for about 150 beds at the four shelters, homeless people in Poway may not be able to get a bed even if they want to, Chavez said.
It’s a critical issue, especially with the number of seniors who are experiencing homelessness, she said. Some organizations such as private nonprofits and churches are able to provide hotel vouchers for temporary hotel stays, but only on a limited basis, she said. The San Diego Rescue Mission is planning to open a shelter in Oceanside but that shelter would be specifically for people experiencing homelessness in Oceanside, she said.
Compounding the problem is a limited amount of affordable housing, Chavez said. San Diego County has less than a 2 percent vacancy for housing in general at the moment, she said.
Sometimes the only option for homeless people is to stay outdoors, according to Chavez. She said one homeless man told her recently that he couldn’t look for a job or housing since he was constantly moving and not sleeping at night. Other issues arise when encampments are cleared and important documents such as IDs, birth certificates and Social Security cards are thrown away, she said.
“They’re just moving them down the road,” Chavez said. “There’s no shelter beds and housing. What is the expectation for them to do?
“I don’t want to see people on the street,” she added. “I would love for them to be in a shelter to work with them and get them in a better space. But there’s just not enough shelter space.”
Poway resident Maria Hernandez, a steering committee representative of the Sacramento-based nonprofit Residents United Network, said there are limited housing options in Poway because most affordable housing units are full and have a waitlist.
“If there’s nowhere for them to go, how is that going to help them?,” said Hernandez, adding that homeless in Poway often stay hidden behind shopping centers, out of sight at a park or concealed in their cars.
“I just wish the city of Poway would take care of their homeless. The majority of people who are homeless in Poway are Poway residents and a lot of them have lived in Poway a majority of their lives. So why are we turning our backs on them?”
She said she would like to see more resources available than the food pantry on Twin Peaks Road, which has challenges for people without a car or a stove.
“A nonprofit could help homeless people or people who need help,” she said. “People are living paycheck to paycheck. Some people are homeless not because they’re mentally ill, drug addicts, or alcoholics. It’s because something happened in their lives. A lot of people are homeless due to medical bills or elderly are living on Social Security. It angers me and it hurts me.”
Pepin said he believes the ordinance will have an impact on reducing the number of homeless people in the city.
“Like these guys who were building an encampment next to the schools,” he said. “We’ve seen them get the message that you can’t have an encampment near a school in Poway anymore.”
