SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The homeless crisis in San Diego is a topic where almost every politician seems to have a solution but most believe the crisis has gotten worse. On Wednesday night, Mayor Todd Gloria put a lot of the blame on other local governments.
"It is also long past time for the county of San Diego to fulfill its responsibility on addressing homelessness in the region," Gloria said.
In his State of the City address, Gloria said others need to play their part in getting people off the streets. Specifically calling on the County of San Diego to provide detox beds for people with substance use disorders - or other behavioral and mental illnesses.
"Anytime you see a person on the street suffering from extreme mental illness or addiction, you think of the County of San Diego and ask them: when will they step up to provide the services needed to end this crisis?" Gloria said.
Board supervisor and former councilwoman Monica Montgomery-Steppe says the Mayor was blame-shifting.
"We're not going to take what the mayor says and put his interpretation and narrative upon what the county's responsibility is," Montgomery-Steppe said.
Montgomery-Steppe believes the county has fallen short in some ways but says so has the city.
"Has the County created enough detox beds to respond to the needs of our homeless communities?"
"Obviously we don't have enough beds, we have not met the need," Montgomery-Steppe said. "We will continue to work towards meeting that need. But I think all of us from every single government entity from the region can say we all can do better, we all can do more."
Donnie Dee, the President and CEO of San Diego Rescue Mission, agrees.
"What is lacking most in our approach to homelessness?"
"A coordinated effort," Dee said. "What this crisis needs is better collaboration between service providers and the cities. I think the mayor is the key to that."
Dee is hopeful the mayor can lead the effort for a regional approach to homelessness and says the county needs to pick up the pace in its response.
"Anything short of that and we're going to continue talking about our homeless crisis for many years to come," Dee said.
In response to Montgomery-Steppe, the Mayor's office sent 10News a statement that reads in part: "The County government has the responsibility to provide health and human services in our region, and it receives funding from the State to provide these services.
"The City has been at the table in full collaboration, but we continue to experience a lack of urgency from the County of San Diego in getting these very sick people the help they need – and it’s been like this for years now. Time is up. As the Mayor said in his State of the City address, every dollar the City of San Diego spends responding to the lack of action from other cities, the County, or the State is a dollar not being spent on fixing our roads, upgrading our stormwater systems, or supporting public safety."
