NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (KGTV) – National City is the latest city in the region toban homeless encampments on city streets.
The City’s Mayor Ron Morrison told ABC 10News many of those living on the streets end up on or near the freeway.
"What was the state going to do because a majority of our homeless is on state property. You're driving through National City we've got three freeways that go all through our city and that's all state property,” Morrison said.
ABC 10News drove around National City for hours trying to talk to those in encampments along the city's highways.
We saw a few encampments along the highway and the remnants of some that were left behind from last month.
While no one wanted to go on-camera, one man told us to no shock, it's a harsh life.
We even saw some National City Police checking on an encampment off of I-5 South.
Thursday, ABC 10News reached out to Caltrans asking if we could talk to them about the encampment situation the portions of the highway that cut through National City.
Caltrans said, “Since January, Caltrans has removed 22 encampments in National City on I-5 from Division St to the SR-54; 20 encampments in National City on I-805 from Delta St to SR-54; and 14 encampments on SR-54 in National City. Caltrans is concentrating on geographic clusters rather than spreading over the county. Two weeks ago, Caltrans spent 2 weeks in National City and is returning the week after next. Next week Caltrans will be concentrating on Chula Vista.”
The latest numbers show 174 people living on national city's streets.
But Morrison said many aren't from his city.
"Most of this was pushed out of Downtown San Diego actually,” Morrison said.
ABC 10News reached out to the City of San Diego regarding this claim.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in a statement, “San Diego has long shouldered far more than its share of the burden of addressing homelessness. It’s time for other cities to step up with shelter and services to do their share to solve what is and has always been a regionwide problem."
