OCEANSIDE —
An Oceanside City Council member’s call for “emergency action” to remove the growing homeless camps from city sidewalks failed Wednesday, after elected officials reviewed efforts already underway and agreed to stay the course.
“A tent is not a home,” said Councilman Christopher Rodriguez, who asked for city staffers to return in 45 days with a plan to get unhoused people off the streets. “We must stop trying to make homelessness comfortable for people.”
A Feb. 28 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune, later published in the Los Angeles Times, about an encampment of new tents on a side street near Oceanside Boulevard brought increased attention to the city’s homeless situation. A longtime homeless man, Rodney McGough, organized an unusual effort to keep the tent site clean and to get help for the occupants.