VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – The City of Vista is the latest in a handful of communities in the county to pass an encampment ban.
It’s something that has some people living on the streets worried of what’s to come.
“And get scary at night,” Dianna Barrera, Homeless in Vista
Barrera’s scooter may not be as intense as a motorcycle.
But her 12-year experience living on the street is.
“Well when somebody is going around yelling and screaming about killing people, yeah when you’re trying to sleep; yeah it’s gets scary. I had one guy before threatening my life,” Barrera said.
Dianna told ABC 10News she uses her scooter to get around due to a bad back.
But there’s one more thing she’ll have to carry on her mind, Vista’s homeless encampment ban.
Which the City Council’s decided on Tuesday night to enforce the ban that hasn’t been since the pandemic.
“Oh, it does make me worried because those people need a place to stay tool just like me. I got a notice again about where I was stay that I had to move,” Barerra said.
“So we have been actively trying to put pressure on the encampments and we start with an offer for shelter,” Mayor John Franklin of the City of Vista said.
Just on Tuesday, ABC 10News spoke with a woman who accepted shelter from the city while the mayor was there.
But their Buena Creek Navigation Center was full, so she was sent to a shelter in Oceanside.
ABC 10News asked Franklin where are the homeless are supposed to go considering the sidewalks are no longer option with Vista’s encampment ban
“Well, you’ve got me on the fact that our shelter was full yesterday. But don’t act like that means our shelter has been full since March because it hasn’t. We have consistently had bed availability. And our pledge is that will have bed availability,” Franklin said.
Now, Franklin told ABC 10News, from March 4th to August 5th, the shelter’s been at full capacity 5 out of 163 days.
As we reported, there are 170 unsheltered people in Vista according to the latest Point In Time Count.
“We wish that our 170 people said yes to shelter today and that’s the problem we were trying to solve,” Franklin said. “The problem is not that have the money to pay for shelter beds. The problem is that people won’t use the beds when they are available.”
