By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — From my point of view, Jewish Family Service, the Leichtag Foundation, and the Encinitas City Council are to be commended for their humanitarian outreach to families who have lost their homes but who have retained their vehicles.
Last Wednesday, the five-member council decided to permit JFS to operate for another six months an overnight parking shelter for 25 vehicles, thereby guaranteeing safer conditions for the unfortunate families who otherwise might be vulnerable to random attacks or attempted break-ins while they are sleeping.
Vehicle owners who are pre-screened to use the locked parking lot located in the interior of the 67.5- acre Leichtag property off Quail Gardens Drive are required to arrive there before 6 p.m. and depart the following morning before 7 a.m. Food and restroom facilities are available at the site, and most importantly, the families are treated with the dignity that all human beings deserve, whatever our economic circumstances.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the vocal opposition that greeted the project at its inception in 2020 has quieted down somewhat, but was still in evidence at last Wednesday’s council meeting. One constituent complained that rather than being a facility to help Encinitas residents, the homeless parking lot was becoming a regional facility. Further, she said, its operation was inconsistent with the city’s ordinance banning people from sleeping in their cars alongside the coast.
As I see it, there is a difference between recreational beach goers hogging premium parking spots along the coast by camping in them overnight, and homeless people parking on a farm lot well away from the street to keep their families safe. As for the lot becoming a regional facility, one member of the City Council responded that it was intended not only to help residents but also people who have jobs in Encinitas.
Personally, I don’t see much difference between families that have become homeless in Encinitas and families that might have suffered the same fate while living in neighboring Solana Beach or Carlsbad. The argument that taxes paid by Encinitas residents should exclusively be put to use for the benefit of other Encinitas residents is one that unnecessarily divides North County residents into “us” and “them.”
Another constituent argued before the City Council that such a facility does not belong in a residential area like Encinitas, but should be relocated to some other area. This, of course, is a classic NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) argument, in which homelessness is considered someone else’s problem, rather than one all of us should seek to alleviate.
Implied in the objection to having the facility in a residential area is the assumption that it will cause an increase in crime. However, at the meeting, a sheriff’s spokesman said there seemed no connection between the parking lot and a regional increase in the crime rate.
While I disagree with the opponents of the Homeless Safe Parking Program, I do not condemn them because I understand that their concerns are born of fear of the unknown. To their eyes, families who live in cars are very strange and perhaps a little bit scary — even if they are the same people who had lived in nearby houses or apartments before they fell victim to a failing economy.
It would behoove the critics of this program to seek permission to visit the parking lot in question and to mingle with the families who are down on their luck. They would find that the homeless vehicle owners are primarily concerned with keeping their families safe and intact while they look to improve their circumstances.
The opponents might learn that, notwithstanding the differences in their circumstances, they and the homeless car-owners have very much in common.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Mr. Harrison,
Putting your condescension aside for a moment, let me tell you some truths about the Parking Lot. This scheme was concocted by the city of Encinitas, JFS and Leichtag behind the backs of residents. Only when it was found out did it become contentious. The $256 thousand dollar HEAP Grant does not allow for screening or discrimination. It does not allow ‘locals only’ either. Only $5 thousand or the $256 thousand dollars is actually spent on the homeless. 90% is going towards operations and administration fees and costs. Look it up. It’s all there if you cared to tell the truth.
The neighborhoods surrounding the Parking Lot have seen an uptick in crime, not AT the Parking Lot, but because of the amount of vagrant homeless who have moved into Encinitas and claimed our city their territory. Drug overdoses and deaths are the new norm. Three deaths that I know of and countless overdoses. Kids are seen traveling to homeless camps in canyons to buy drugs. Theft, robberies, stolen bikes, needles and excrement. That has now become a part of the sights when visiting Encinitas. All since the Parking Lot was approved.
The Homeless Parking Lot takes in a handful of cars every night. The numbers are low and the successes are few. It’s the homeless explosion that has happened outside the Lot that has citizens concerned. And contrary to your condescending opinion that it’s ‘scary’ to residents because they don’t understand it and that we’re NIMBY’s, you come and live in a neighborhood where there are random car thefts, people entering your home without permission, strangers banging on your door to be let in to your home in the wee hours of the morning and spying drug deals on the corner of Encinitas Blvd and Saxony Road. Then you can preach to the rest of us who worked hard to live here, or who are raising children, or who are aging and gullible.
Mayor Blakespear and JFS have done very little for the homeless. Their policies of letting strangers sleep in parks, culverts and canyons is not compassionate. It’s cruel and it’s hypocrisy.
So please spare us the accolades and actually get involved and fix the problems created by bad policies, then you can take a bow and actually pat someone’s back for an actual achievement.
Cindy Cremona
Encinitas, CA