Chula Vista City Council voted to temporarily close Harborside Park for health and safety reasons for 90 days, with the option to extend the closure, and providing $350,000 from the General Fund to build a fence around the park, on Aug. 24. The park was closed on Aug. 31, and the unsheltered individuals there were removed from its premises.
This came after the park was scrutinized as being overtaken by the unsheltered, reported drug use, increased crime rates, and its close proximity to Harborside Elementary School. On Aug. 30, homeless advocates gathered at City Hall for a press conference opposing the City’s decision and pushing out unsheltered individuals from the park in the middle of the largest heatwave of the year so far. The press conference included Community Through Hope, Lived Advisors’ John Brady, @HomelessnessSD’s Michael McConnell, and other homeless advocates.
Chula Vista based Community Through Hope Executive Director Sebastian Martinez attended the press conference and was at the park Wednesday morning as the city shut it down. He said the press conference was designed to uplift the voices of unsheltered individuals who tried to sue the City to get the closure of the park stopped, contending the City was not providing any real resources, and that they were being displaced in the middle of this current heatwave.
Approximately 20 unsheltered residents signed their names to the injunction. Several other unsheltered residents declined to add theirs due to concerns of retaliation or because of trauma due to prior criminalization, according to the press release.
“The City missed a great opportunity to invest in real resources with comprehensive case management, possible enacting a temporary shelter, and then working through the individual issues of the folks at Harborside Park because when you can get that many folks congregating in one area, it is much easier,” he said. “To do those kinds of services as a provider, it is helpful to know where folks are. So, that is one of the reasons we were against the closure. Now those folks are displaced, so if PATH or another agency was working with them, they probably do not know where to find them.”
Martinez said these things take time, and that the big concern with Harborside Park had to do with drug use, and there were no drug and detox beds available like the City had said.
“Folks were not able to get into treatment,” he said. “Actually, when I went there this morning, the majority of folks already knew there were not going to be any services provided and left so not to be harassed by law enforcement.”
Martinez said in the bigger picture, even if the city had been able to provide housing and assistance, that affordable housing in Chula Vista does not exist.
“In shorter term, if there had been less of a reactive response from the City, and they had taken time to say the parent’s concerns were valid, and we cannot just displace. Evicting 75 people in the middle of this weather, some kind of temporary shelter or parking lot, or camping zone could have been allocated, those folks could have been removed and then their needs addressed,” he said. “But in this case, it was so reactionary from the parents. This is not going to help anything. When I was at the park, folks just moved into the residential areas and onto the sidewalks. My team was passing out nutrition and kids were walking by these folks even more because now they have nowhere else to go expect to the side of the street.”
Martinez said CTH had a team out there Wednesday morning trying to find out where the unsheltered were moving to, and its South Bay Street Medicine team went out on Thursday to establish where they were, and brought resources, nutrition, access to hygiene and wound care.
“The timing could not be more of a disaster,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the one thing that struck him that was important was while he was there about four hours on Wednesday morning, from beginning to end, that no city official was present.
“It would have been nice to see [council member] John McCann, who brought this to Council. To see [deputy mayor] Andrea Cardenas, whose district this is in, to attend this kind of event. It was a historic day in Chula Vista. That park has been a home to unsheltered folks for over a decade. It would have been nice if they had at least taken in what their policy decisions affected.”
Chula Vista resident and homeless advocate Mandy Lien said they specifically chose City Hall for the press conference because the reason the city is in this situation with the unsheltered, and the City has been “woefully negligent” in dealing with this crisis for years.
“At the very least, the City has been put on notice that there are people who care about these individuals, and we will help empower them to the best of our ability, to stand up for their rights,” she said. “Chula Vista, being the second largest city in San Diego County, Chula Vista has no shelters for homeless individuals. There is literally no where for them to go in that city. By them doing this eviction, threatening to criminalize them, putting up this fence, it violates Martin v. City of Boise. Technically, they are not supposed to displace people unless they have shelter beds for them.”
The City issued a press release Aug. 30, stating the City and 12 nonprofit agency partners would promote housing, social service, detox, and other support services for the unsheltered individuals on Aug. 31.
According to the press release, “during the 90 day closure period, the City of Chula Vista will increase community outreach to engage with Harborside Elementary and the Chula Vista Elementary School District, residents, business owners, social service providers and the County of San Diego (HHSA building is adjacent to the park) to determine options for long-term solutions for the site. The first meeting will be held September 21.”
