By Brian Myers
San Diego’s homeless epidemic has become more noticeable in City Heights. Bikes carrying trailers of belongings are parked outside the City Heights Library and groups of people with bedding and bags sleep under trees at the Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park.
District 9 Councilmember and Council President Pro Tem Marti Emerald says this may be because the homeless population is getting displaced from more affluent and gentrifying neighborhoods like Downtown and the East Village.
“Homeless are being forced out and into neighborhoods where they really didn’t gather much before,” said Emerald.
To help this growing population that is often told to just move along, Emerald is proposing to bring in the Alpha Project to serve her neighborhoods with City Council Community Projects, Programs and Services (CPPS) funds.
The Alpha Project provides comprehensive support services to homeless population including community outreach. Outreach teams search for homeless individuals and develop relationships to create trust and facilitate the process for someone to obtain support services and permanent housing.
This is the kind of service that Martin, a homeless man in the City Heights area, says will benefit the homeless.
Homeless services are provided by various providers and their services differ with each establishing their own set of rules to be followed. It can be a difficult trek for those with few personal resources.
“They need to come out here and let people know,” said Martin.
Outreach teams will enter District 9, “going block by block and into the canyons,” said Emerald. “To make contact with homeless men and women and try to convince them to come in and work with programs, get the help they need, so that they don’t have to live in canyons, or parks, or doorways.”
Funding for the Alpha Project in District 9 is set for formal approval after the city council’s August recess, according to Emerald.