CARLSBAD, Calif. (KGTV) –The Carlsbad City Hall was packed on Tuesday night as residents and others listened and voiced their thoughts on an affordable housing complex on Oak Avenue and Harding Street.
According to the City of Carlsbad, Windsor Pointe offers affordable housing. Half of the units are for low-income veterans, their families, and homeless veterans, and the other half are for unhoused individuals experiencing mental illness.
Some people signed up for public comments to speak against the facility that opened in the Spring of 2022.
“We have seen residents arrested, littering and, experiencing mental health crises and exhibiting aggressive behavior all along Camilla Place. Clearly the incidents that are occurring inside the facility are spilling out into the neighborhood,” one speaker said.
Denis Jensen, who lives near Windsor Pointe, hopes the facility is moved or closed.
“There have been over 762 first responder calls needed at the facility in the first two years alone. That’s how our lives have changed. It is a menace,” Jensen said.
Some advocates for the homeless community support this type of housing amid this controversy in Carlsbad.
“People need to realize that not all homeless people are bad people. We’re not. We’re not all crazy. We’re not mentally ill,” Rachel Hayes, a homeless advocate, said. “We need people in housing. We have a housing crisis, not a homeless crisis.”
Carlsbad’s police chief and housing and homeless services director updated the city council on the facility and actions to address public concerns with Windsor Pointe.
The staff report shows Carlsbad Police has seen a significant spike - 762 calls for service - since the facility opened in 2022.
It states a high percentage of the calls for service - 44 percent - are mental health-related.
Those numbers also show over half of the calls for service came from seven of the 48 units at Windsor Pointe.
Data detailed 19 people were arrested, with nearly half of them, 8, being guests, not residents of the facility, with some of them being domestic violence and drug-related.
But the police chief said, when asked about claims made by those who spoke during public comment, that arrests for attempted murder and a sexual assault - both allegedly committed by guests - did occur in the past.
City staff said in the report it and the facility have been working to address the community concerns.
The City is also suggesting more onsite security and enhancing the level of services provided to those at the facility, which continues to do so.
