The county has now twice passed catastrophic legislation without first consulting the local community. These most recent efforts have, predictably, met with disastrous results on the ground.
Download The Guide for Gaining Support for Homeless Solutions in Spring Valley
By Rev. Steve Babbitt
For the past two years, the County of San Diego has been working hard to "solve homelessness" exploring a number of one-size-fits-all solutions that sound simple enough. Some ideas are excellent, but others are, sadly, likely to fail. One of the most controversial lately has been to quietly place mass sleeping cabins among residents in Spring Valley neighborhoods (not Lemon Grove, as anyone who lives here could tell you) – without consulting key residents and community leaders first.
I should point out that I have nothing but respect for both Supervisors Nora Vargas and Monica Montgomery Steppe. I have, up to now, been supportive of their efforts to end homelessness. They are not to blame here. They are under pressure from constituents in other areas who want a fast, easy solution to get people off the streets. Unfortunately, there is no "fast-easy" solution to the very complex human problem of homelessness. One-size-fits-all solutions don't work, only one-size-fits-one.
Tragically for all of us, the way the sleeping cabins project has been handled so far is an example of a perfect failure to communicate. As a longstanding community leader, after the last community meeting, I now think it is a dead project – or if the county somehow manages to ram it through anyway, it will serve as a thorn in the side of the Supervisors and a rallying point for community outrage as long as it exists.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
There are wonderfully promising potential homeless solutions in Spring Valley that could serve the homeless, the community, and the supervisors.
But before I explain that, I think you need to know two things about me. I am not sharing these things to toot my own horn, but only to hopefully demonstrate a little bit of credibility.
First: I love Spring Valley. Second: I love helping the homeless.
First: I love Spring Valley.
For the last 25 years, I have lived, worked, raised a family, and own a home in Spring Valley – one block from the proposed sleeping cabins. I have made it my goal to serve the community whatever way I can: as President of the Spring Valley Citizens Association, on the Responsible Property Management Board, as chair with the District Attorney on the Public Safety Subcommittee of the Spring Valley Revitalization effort, and as a Trustee on our local School Board. I currently serve on our local parks advisory committee as well as on the board of the La Mesa Spring Valley Hope Alliance.
There's a lot more, but I only share these so that you might believe this: I love my community. I don't believe in standing up and yelling at public meetings without working hard to make a difference first – and for the last 25 years, I have chosen to get out and do what I can to improve the lives of my friends and neighbors in Spring Valley. Bottom line: I love Spring Valley, and I hope my actions show that.
Second: I love helping unsheltered people get back on their feet.
I've worked with unsheltered people one-on-one every day for more than thirty years. I have learned what works and what doesn't. I started volunteering at a soup kitchen in Ocean Beach as a college freshman at Point Loma Nazarene University in 1991. I even wrote an award-winning essay for the Union-Tribune on the subject.
For a brief period after college, I was unsheltered myself. I've spent three nights in homeless shelters – and I will never forget the help I received. Even then I kept volunteering to help my unsheltered friends get back on their feet. Later, as a local church pastor, in Spring Valley, I continued to work with hundreds of unsheltered people, getting to know them by name, and helping them get their lives back.
At my current assignment as Senior Pastor at Spring Valley Community Church, we feed more than 100,000 hungry men, women and children every year – and are happy to currently partner with the county to host a beautiful, safe parking lot for unsheltered families transitioning into permanent homes.
For years, my wife, children, and I have continued to take unsheltered individuals into our home so they can share our table and belong as a part of our family on their way to living a healthy, productive life. Love works. I do not have a degree in "homelessness solutions" – I am just a guy who wans to make a difference. By now, though, I feel like I might know a thing or two about what works and what doesn't.
Why Sleeping Cabins Won't Work...
On a grassroots level, the county has failed big time with sleeping cabins in Spring Valley. It's not irreparable, but they really made a huge mistake by underestimating the heart of one of the largest unincorporated communities in California. My neighbors have finally figured out that if we let the County push this through, they can push anything through. Therefore, we now must remain united against the sleeping cabins project for three reasons:
1. No Local Control
Any project with such potential for negative local impacts must have some level of local control. We need to be able to have a say in how any solution is designed, built and operated so that our children and property are safe. Right now, sadly, there is no local say on any level in the sleeping cabins project. It was, once again, slipped through in a hastily put together Board of Supervisors vote. This is what we call "ramming it down our throats." Sleeping Cabins – and their elected advocates – have turned a corner where they will now face nothing but local opposition because they failed to take into account the need for some level of local control.
2. No Local Benefit
The sleeping cabins would solve a huge problem for everyone else in San Diego County, but place a massive burden on the hard-working, blue collar families of Spring Valley who clean their yards and homes. Whatever jobs the sleeping cabins created would have been contracted out to outside companies with employees who live elsewhere. While the rest of the County benefits from a dumping ground for "undesirables," the residents of Spring Valley are being asked to once again take it on the chin with no talk of local reparations. Without a defined local benefit, such as a real commitment to local jobs, a neighborhood beautification zone, or a special rebate district, the County should, from this point on, expect nothing but vocal opposition to sleeping cabins.
3. No Lasting Results
Finally, and most importantly, sleeping cabins will simply not help unsheltered people get their lives back. Why? Because they do not provide the one thing that is most needed in the healing process, and that is dignity.
Did you know that mental illness is now proven by science to be highly contagious? Anxiety and depression, two significant killers, are passed on in any group of people. If we place 60 depressed people inside a fenced yard and ask nothing of them but to lie around with nothing to do, will their depression get better or worse? How about addiction or suicidal ideation? While it may be politically convenient to round up undesirable people to live in a fenced camp, history shows us where that leads. California has had its internment camps – it's time we moved past that kind of evil. When will we learn that people need dignity to thrive? There is no dignity in a permanent sleeping cabin encampment.
What Will Work ... A Holistic Senior Shelter
I was told by a county official recently, "Steve, we have to do something!" That is true – the burden is extraordinary. But it only makes sense to spend taxpayer dollars on a "something" THAT WILL ACTUALLY WORK , and not an unproven project like sleeping cabins that promises to only make things worse for everyone involved.
What we need is a solution that will provide dignity and hope for its participants, as well as local benefit and local control.
Until a few months ago, the county was planning on converting existing, unused space at our community church into a holistic supportive senior shelter. The shelter would have been discreet, beautiful, and met all three of the Local Benefit, Local Control and Lasting Results criteria above. But then Governor Newsom infamously dangled the short-lived carrot of "free" sleeping cabins, and the county understandably switched gears and put the supportive senior shelter on the back burner. Who could blame them? Free sheds!
But they're not free anymore. The proposed sleeping cabins would now cost taxpayers $11 million to install, and $3 million a year to run. That is $183,000 per teensy little shack with only a bed and no running water. We could build luxury condos for less! Talk about waste.
Some of my neighbors might accuse me of being too optimistic, but I have not given up on Spring Valley as a community where homelessness could not merely be "addressed" by the county as a whole, but solved for everyone involved. I believe there is a very bright path forward where we not only meet the needs of unsheltered families, but where residents of Spring Valley can be honored tangibly for their roles, and our county leaders can be praised for solid community leadership.
The Spring Valley holistic senior shelter – with local control, local benefits, and lasting results – is worth another look. It would be cheaper, better, and a win-win-win for the community, for the County, and more importantly for the unsheltered men, women and children who deserve a better solution.
To our honorable Supervisors, it is not too late to turn this around – but time is running out. I'm available at 619-277-2671. I'm here. I want everyone, including you, my neighbors, and my homeless brothers and sisters, to win.
We should talk.
Rev. Steve Babbitt
Senior Pastor
Spring Valley Community Church of the Nazarene
Followup note 8/7/2024: Since this was originally posted on July 17, 2024, both Supervisors (Districts 4 and 2) have reached out to talk, and dialogue is underway.