It appears that East Village residents in Downtown San Diego may have just won a great victory. I was told today by a reliable source that sits on the board for the homeless shelter that the new shelter proposal site is not in the East Village. It will most likely be in an undisclosed (for now) non-residential neighborhood outside of downtown in an existing commercial building.

The best part to this is that once the new permanent shelter opens, the city ordinance that allows homeless to sleep on public property will be lifted. Right now, if homeless people are sleeping on public sidewalks in downtown San Diego, the police can’t do anything about it. Once the shelter opens, the police will be able to make the homeless pick up camp and move along to the shelter.

This is a huge victory for the East Village and Petco Park neighborhoods because of the high concentration of homeless that congregate in those areas. There have been many complaints from local residents in these areas regarding the homeless using the streets and sidewalks as their bathroom as well as getting involved in physical fights with each other.

The timeline for completion is still up in the air, but I definitely see this as good progress for our city.