Since 2021, Mayor Gloria has more than doubled the number of options people have to get off the streets and into programs that can help end their homelessness. This includes traditional shelter beds as well as Safe Parking and Safe Sleeping programs. 

To ensure the City is serving particularly vulnerable populations, the Mayor opened shelters with particular emphases on serving seniors, women, families, LGBTQ youth, survivors of domestic violence, and, in a partnership with the County, those who struggle with substance abuse and mental health challenges. 

Many of the sites that become available for use as shelters can be used only temporarily, for a variety of reasons. With several shelters approaching their useful life, in 2024 the Gloria administration, working with the San Diego Housing Commission deftly replaced hundreds of beds that would no longer be available with a patchwork of new locations and interventions. 

In 2023, Mayor Gloria launched the Safe Sleeping program with more than 530 City-provided tents at two locations on the outskirts of Balboa Park, a program that is serving as a model for other cities. In 2024, the Safe Sleeping Program was expanded to 765 tents. This offers a vital non-congregate option to the shelter system that is reaching chronically homeless individuals and connecting them with vital services, often for the first time due to reluctance to access services..  

Mayor Gloria expanded the Family Reunification Program -- a hybrid outreach, services, and rehousing program -- which reconnects people with their families, friends, or loved ones willing to provide stable living environments. The program has had a 98% success rate in the number of people exiting to positive housing situations.  

In 2022, Mayor Gloria expanded an existing Safe Parking lot in Mission Valley to 24 hours a day to accommodate the daily schedules of people sleeping in their cars. In 2023, the Mayor created a fourth Safe Parking location at the City’s Rose Canyon Operations yard. There are now 206 Safe Parking spaces and 18 trailers for families experiencing homelessness across four locations. 

In spring 2025, Mayor Gloria will open a fifth Safe Parking location at the site known at H Barracks near San Diego International Airport, nearly doubling the total number of spaces. 

To reach people where they are and build trust among a population of people who tend to be wary of government intervention, Mayor Gloria in 2021 launched and then expanded the City’s Coordinated Street Outreach Program.   

Sponsored and passed SB 1361 (Blakespear) which exempts local homeless service contracts from CEQA. Giving local agencies another tool to expedite administration of life-saving services, to our most vulnerable neighbors.  

As Chair of the California Big City Mayors, Mayor Gloria led the charge to help protect the City’s most critical source of homelessness funding, Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention program (HHAP) from potential cuts.  

Because it’s permanent housing that ultimately ends homelessness, Mayor Gloria as made producing more affordable housing a top priority. This effort includes: 

Bridge to Home: This initiative allows the City to invest directly in the production of affordable housing by providing gap financing assistance to home builders. Through four rounds of funding, the City has helped get 22 projects across the finish line, resulting in nearly 2,000 affordable homes, including 400 set aside for people experiencing homelessness. 

Homekey: Under the Gloria administration, the City has leveraged this state program to convert four additional properties to permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. The City’s Homekey portfolio now includes six projects totaling more than 600 homes. 

Housing Action Packages: Mayor Gloria has secured City Council approval of two packages of policy reforms aimed at making it easier to build more housing. One of the many reforms contained in these packages was a measure to incentivize construction of single-room-occupancy housing projects, which are often the least expensive housing option for those at risk of homelessness. 

In all, nearly 5,000 people have been connected to permanent or long-term housing directly from City-funded programs during the Mayor’s first term. 

With all of these new options for getting people off the streets and into care, comes an obligation for people to use them. In 2023, Mayor Gloria secured City Council approval of the Unsafe Camping Ordinance, which bans tent encampments in all locations throughout the city if shelter space is available and in certain sensitive locations regardless of shelter availability. In 2024 alone, the City removed 6,473 encampments under the Unsafe Camping Ordinance, ensuring safer and healthier public spaces and putting many of the people in the encampments on a path to safer shelter and housing. 

During the past few years, the State of California has made funding available, on a competitive basis, for cities to remove tent encampments and move residents living in them into long-term housing. The Gloria administration has secured three of these grants to resolve encampments in East Village, along the San Diego River (in collaboration with the County) and along the I-15 corridor. As a result of these programs, the City has placed more than 100 people into housing. 

Treatment services for mental illness and substance abuse are the responsibility of the County of San Diego. However, Mayor Gloria has advocated persistently to expand access to behavioral health care. These efforts include: 

In his 2022 State of the City address, Mayor Gloria called on state leaders to pass legislation creating CARE Court to provide another pathway for people struggling with mental health issues to access care. That year, the Mayor championed the legislation, Senate Bill 1338, that was ultimately successful. CARE Court is up and running in San Diego County.   

In his 2023 State of the City address, Mayor Gloria led the work to reform the state’s conservatorship laws to allow more severely mentally ill Californians to receive live-saving care. The Legislature passed Senate Bill 43 later that year. After San Diego County supervisors voted to delay implementation for one year, the program is now starting. 

In 2024, after California voters approved a $6.4 billion bond measure to fund more than 11,000 new treatment beds statewide, the City of San Diego streamlined its permitting process for siting behavioral health facilities to make it easier for people to access life-saving care.