SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Spread the Pain Around

The San Diego City Council took a rhetorical step forward this week on the city’s growing problem with homelessness.

After a session remarkable for its promises of compassion and aid, the council agreed to begin the process of declaring a citywide homeless-shelter emergency. Such a move would allow officials to relax various city ordinances so that underutilized public facilities could be immediately transformed into emergency shelters.

Monday’s rhetoric was encouraging--particularly coming from a council that has taken a piecemeal approach to the problem in the past. But much more than words is needed. A key ingredient will be political courage.

A comprehensive solution almost certainly involves siting at least one homeless shelter in every district in the city. That means taking political heat from neighborhoods that place parochial interest over regional needs when siting decisions are made.

Is the council prepared to take that heat? That’s the question on the minds of homeless advocates throughout the city. We, like them, hope the answer is yes.

Currently, only about one-fifth of the estimated 7,000 homeless people in the city can be housed on a given night. Many of the shelters are clustered within a mile or two of each other in the eastern portion of downtown, a largely industrial area far from the view of the average San Diegan.

Dumping the homeless in that area has been all too easy. But that policy puts an undue burden on a section of town that’s struggling to come into its own as an arts corridor--and perhaps as home to a new City Hall complex and sports arena. Meanwhile, people in need in other parts of the city get little or no help. In the beach area, there are only 20 emergency beds available. And free food is offered just once a week.

Now, the council may finally be ready to insist that everyone share in the efforts to aid the homeless. That’s good. But such a goal can only be accomplished with strong leadership from the council--and flexibility within the community.