H Barracks – More Homeless Schemes That Make No Sense
This past February 26, hundreds of residents who reside in Point Loma and surrounding communities attended a town hall meeting to review the current mayor’s plans to bring upwards of 1,000 homeless individuals to the site of H-Barracks. The location is right next to the San Diego International Airport, across the street from Spanish Landing, next door to hotels and in close proximity to Liberty Station.
The current mayor’s plan is to house individuals in tents with varying degrees of issues, including those with mental health challenges, individuals with alcohol and drug addiction, criminals who prey on others, and families and individuals who are experiencing financial hardships.
If this isn’t a crisis management 101 test, I don’t know what is.
Those who are told of this proposal immediately ask the question, “Why in the world does the mayor thinks this makes sense: housing that many people on a site that is extremely small, with no existing services, and filled with environmental waste?”
There is nothing humanitarian about this concept. And it’s extremely dangerous to the surrounding communities, saying nothing of the individuals that are housed there in tents.
The United Nations (UN) recently gave a report on the acceptable living conditions for refugee camps. It specifies 376 square feet per person. Barracks H with the 1,000 safe parking tents/sites would be more than double the UN recommended density for refugee camps. It would be considerably less than 168 square feet per person.
Additionally, due to its proximity to the airport, hotels and Liberty Station, the people living at this site are likely to visit the surrounding establishments. What’s to stop them?
This means putting additional strain on the airport personnel, hotel personnel and the streets and neighborhoods closest to the H Barracks site.
In other words, let’s create total chaos with no logical or rational reason for the H Barracks site to house a portion of San Diego’s homeless population.
Which by the way, is only a small portion of those currently experiencing homelessness. The number is rising daily and is probably close to exceeding 8,000.
This is another band aid approach of the current mayor who lacks vision and the expertise to truly understand the problem and ways to address it.
The Point Loma leaders who held the recent town hall meeting are encouraging others from San Diego to get involved and learn more about what is occurring in their community by visiting ProtectPointLoma.org.
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