Chula Vista votes to ban homeless encampments

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Chula Vista officials unanimously passed the homeless encampment ban, following the lead of several other cities.

Passionate comments could be heard from the Chula Vista City Hall Tuesday as residents rallied to support the ban.

“Shove the homeless tent, big pile of shopping carts…why don’t you arrest them?” said angry one resident.

Chula Vista and National City are joining the cities of San Diego, Escondido and San Marcos by banning urban camping in their areas. This comes after a struggle with homeless encampments that have flooded streets and parks.

In Chula Vista, Mayor John McCann said after the Supreme Court ruling relaxing hurdles to homeless enforcement, the city is taking advantage of the new ways to get homeless people to comply with assistance.

“When we take someone off the streets, we give them an option to have a bed. We have a shelter with beds and we have other places to put them,” said McCann.

The mayor said he’s hearted by cities cooperating, working as a united force to deal with the homeless population. Now, the McCann said we will start to see a real shift in the visible homelessness population.

“We also need to be able to have some leverage to be able to remove them in order to be able to protect our vulnerable community members and small businesses,” the mayor continued.

Now the question is: where will the homeless who refuse help go?

Other cities across San Diego are all also considering camping bans as they watch the homeless population start to move around the county.

McCann said he will not let his parks get taken over again.

“We need this ordinance implemented to be able to reopen Harborside Park,” he explained.

The ordinance is set for a second reading at the next city council meeting before it goes into effect.

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