Downtown workshop focuses on homeless issues

OCEANSIDE — Concerned about an influx of homeless people in Oceanside, downtown residents and business owners gathered for a workshop with police on Tuesday to discuss ways to deal with the problem.

The meeting, held at the Star Theater on Coast Highway and attended by about 200 people, was organized by downtown business and visitors groups after repeated complaints from business owners about illegal camping, aggressive panhandling and other issues associated with the homeless.

Oceanside Capt. Fred Armijo said the department has implemented several strategies in recent months to try to deal with the problems including special crime-suppression patrols, working with code enforcement to eliminate illegal encampments, and deploying a Homeless Outreach Team to connect vagrants with social-service programs.

Still, he said, police alone can’t solve this problem.

“Our role is a sliver,” he said. “We’re trying to reach out and branch out with our Homeless Outreach Team but it is a societal issue. Our resources are very limited in trying to bring about a solution.”

Armijo said business owners and residents can help reduce vagrancy problems by banding together and adopting certain practices, such as not giving food to panhandlers and instead working with agencies that feed the hungry. He said business owners can also help by reporting crime and suspicious activity.

Merchants should also make sure their businesses are well lit, have good visibility from the outside and have few areas where people can hide from view. It’s a concept police call the “broken window theory” that says disorder and vandalism attracts crime and anti-social behavior, police said.

Beach area resident Nick Ricci, who said his home was burglarized by a transient last year, said the city needs to be more involved by bringing social services organizations together to better address the problem. He said some of the homeless are attracted to the downtown area because well-meaning churches and individuals bring them food there.

“Churches come to Buccaneer Beach and feed them out of compassion,” Ricci said. “I get that, but they’ve enabled these individuals to continue in this lifestyle. They’re not helping them.”

Rick Wright, executive director of MainStreet Oceanside — one of the organizations that sponsored the workshop — this problem isn’t just happening in Oceanside.

“It’s statewide,” Wright said. “All our other Mainstreet cities are struggling with this.”

Police officials said Oceanside is especially attractive to the homeless because of its weather and central location.

“If you draw a one mile-radius circle from here, you are going to find a pier, an amphitheater, beaches, community center, parks, library, government facilities, motels, hotels, (and) a major transportation hub — these are draws not just for the tourist community but for others to come,” Armijo said.

In addition to Mainstreet Oceanside, the workshop was sponsored by Visit Oceanside and the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. Wright said the groups will continue to work together to raise awareness.

“We’ll have to keep pushing the issue forward in any way that we can. I’m really proud of Visit Oceanside, the Chamber and Mainstreet for working together as a group on this.”