From encampment to housing: Coordinated effort in Oceanside first of its kind in county

by Gary Warth

Clearing homeless encampments typically means a game of whack-a-mole, with people from one site displaced to another or, at best, agreeing to a shelter stay or a hotel voucher.

That approach could be a thing of the past with the launch of a new approach in Oceanside, where people in an encampment are moving directly into housing, a first in the county through a collaborative effort among the  Regional Task Force on Homelessness,  the City of Oceanside and the City of Carlsbad.

With backing from the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund, the city is finding homes for up to 70 people living in an encampment and has plans to house almost 200 people in all.

And that’s just the start. The Regional Task Force on Homelessness has received an Encampment Resolution Fund grant to launch a similar effort in Lemon Grove, and the city of Vista also has received a grant and is working with the RTFH on its own encampment effort.

The Oceanside project was launched in April after six months of planning and coordination with several groups and nonprofits. In an encouraging early sign, almost everyone in the encampment is willing to be housed and accept support services for two years, dispelling the assumption that homeless people shun any offer for help.

“We jumped at any help that was offered to us,” said Rhonda Dougherty, who had been living at the Oceanside encampment since September with her husband, Levi.

While it is true that people experiencing homelessness may turn down offers for help, there can be complicated reasons at play. A homeless individual may have trust issues with the person making the offer, for instance, while other times the offer simply may not be the best fit.

The Doughertys admit they once had turned down an offer for a shelter, but that was because it meant they would have to be separated, which was a deal-breaker.

“That’s our only issue with accepting help,” Rhonda Dougherty said. “We would have accepted it if somebody said, ‘We have a shelter and you guys can stay together.’”

The right solution finally arrived on April 29, when the couple moved into an apartment in North Park.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Rhonda said, sitting on a couch with Levi and their pitbull, Rex.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development granted Oceanside $11.4 million from the state’s $855.5 million Encampment Resolution Fund last October. The fund was created in 2021, and previous grants have been used locally to clear encampments in Carlsbad and San Diego.

As of December, about $534 million from the fund had been allocated through a competitive grant program and $258 million of that has been spent.

Initial funding rounds were used to just clear encampments, but in recent rounds the state has asked applicants to say the number of people they expected to move from encampments into interim or permanent housing. 

As part of Oceanside’s grant agreement, the city aims to house 196 people and provide 350 people overall with services to overcome homelessness and become self-sufficient.

Oceanside was the lead applicant for the funding with Carlsbad as a partner, and in coming months encampments will be targeted in both cities over seven zones along the state Route 78 corridor between Interstate 5 and Oceanside’s eastern border with Vista. 

First up in mid-April was the Buena Vista Creek encampment, where about 60 to 70 people have been living. 

“We’re hoping eventually to make this the model for how encampments and just general homelessness are addressed in Oceanside citywide moving forward,” said Oceanside management analyst Sofia Hughes, the project lead for the encampment resolution. 

At the entrance of a trail leading to the Buena Vista Creek encampment, Hughes and three city outreach workers have set up a temporary station in the parking lot behind the College Plaza mall just south of SR 78. 

People from the encampment can get haircuts and wash up at the mobile Humanity Showers trailer while Hughes’ team and members of other participating organizations work nearby at tables and chairs under canopies.

Over months of planning, the RTFH connected Oceanside with several organizations it has been working with, including The Impact Group, a consulting firm that created a by-name list of homeless people in the area.

“The by-name list gives communities a little bit more understanding of who those folks are in terms of what are the challenges, what are the barriers, and how do we help each one of these folks mitigate those challenges and barriers to get them back into permanent housing,” said Kris Freed, managing partner with The Impact Group.

People’s names and information gathered from interviews are kept in colorful folders on file at the station where Freed and a partner work to track each person’s progress.

The on-site work at the creek site is set to conclude by July 15. New arrivals to the encampment will have to leave to make way for crews who will restore the Buena Vista Creek to its natural state, but that does not mean they will be forgotten.

Freed said anyone still at the creek will be offered shelter or other services, and they will be included in the by-name list.

“As we move to other encampments and we run into them, we can say, ‘Oh, we know who you are, we have some information on you,’” Freed said. “We know some of the things that you need to be connected to. Now we can dive in and just really focus on housing.”

Placing people in housing is not the final step, Hughes said. Follow-up services will provide employment assistance, sobriety treatment, counseling and mental and physical healthcare.

“A lot of people living in the encampment haven’t lived indoors in years, and we want to make sure that we are not traumatizing them by throwing them into a box and abandoning them,” Hughes said. “We want to make sure that they have what they need to succeed, to be stabilized, to learn the skills that they haven’t had the opportunity to learn and get used to being indoors again.”

Self-empowerment is another cornerstone in the program, she added.

“Whatever their life is going to look like after this is up to them, and we’re just here to make sure that we can connect the dots in between,” she said.

Walking along the trail and into the encampment area, Hughes passed a couch next to a tent and another camp with a small structure before coming to a spot with a makeshift but sturdy bridge over the flowing creek.

“There’s some impressive infrastructure here,” she said.

A group of men at one tent site barely looked up as Hughes passed, having grown familiar with the people visiting the area in recent weeks.

Outreach workers know building trust is crucial in getting people to take the first steps out of encampments, Hughes noted.

“We’re not the police,” she said. “We’re not saying, ‘You’ve got 48 hours to leave, and we’re going to throw your stuff away.”

The Oceanside-based Convicted 4 Christ nonprofit helped pave the way for the encampment resolution through frequent interactions with people at the site.

“Over the last nine months we’ve developed a lot of relationships with the people in these encampments,” said Michael Aplikowsky of Convicted 4 Christ.

Volunteers with the group provided water and snacks to people in the encampment and organized a wound-care unit to treat injuries and ailments. They also offer men stays in two homes they operate.

“We try to develop relationships so that people can begin to trust us, and in that process maybe seek the help that they might need to change their circumstances,” Aplikowsky said.

While everyone in the encampment has their own story, Aplikowsky said many share common issues with addictions and mental health.

“In this particular encampment, people have been entrenched here for a while, so change is a difficult challenge for them,” he said. “And there’s a lot of people that have just given up hope in some ways. I think by coming in with this project, with this program, we’re bringing some hope into this area.”

After establishing relationships with people in the encampment, Hughes said the next step is preparing people for a move. That could involve getting documents such as driver’s licenses, state identification and Social Security cards that may be required by landlords.

Because acquiring those can be a lengthy process, priority is given to people who already have them on hand, Hughes said.

The project also worked with Ed Boyte, founder of The Listening Group, a consulting firm that coaches and trains communities in diversion technicians, conflict resolution and solving housing problems.

Through that partnership, outreach workers were trained to have conversations with people in encampments about possible resources they may already have to divert them away from the homelessness response system.

Meanwhile, the group Brilliant Corners has been working with local landlords to find housing.

Originally launched in San Francisco about 20 years ago, Brilliant Corners has been in San Diego County since 2020 and so far has found housing for 1,200 people, said Leeanne Ward, a senior housing coordinator with the program.

Brilliant Corners has about 500 participants in its flexible housing pool, Ward said, explaining that properties are acquired at fair market value and landlords agree to rent them only to clients in the program.

The organization works to ensure smooth relationships with landlords by providing their tenants with whatever special services they need, which may include mental health care or conflict resolution. Brilliant Corners also offers to repair damages to units and guarantees consistent payments as incentives to landlords to take in the tenants.

“We work with the landlord to make sure that everything is kosher and going well,” Ward said. “So let’s say someone receives a three-day, pay-or-quit notice. It is our job to step in so that the participant isn’t in jeopardy of receiving an eviction. Our goal is to help them stay housed.”

Ward said tenants go through the same rental process as others and have to meet certain criteria, but property managers tend to be flexible.

Escondido-based Interfaith Community Services is providing outreach workers and early case management, and Carlsbad has contracted with Encinitas-based Community Resource Center to manage the project’s rapid-rehousing component. Participants also include the Humane Society to care for pets living in the encampment.

Back in North Park, the Doughertys and their dog Rex were settling in on their first day in their new home, looking forward to a shower and a warm, clean bed.

Rhonda admitted that after months in an encampment, this would take some getting used to.

“It’s really weird,” she said. “There’s really a lot of mixed emotions. I’m so happy, but I’m really nervous at the same time.”

While many people in encampments are considered chronically homeless and have been unsheltered for years, the Doughertys lost their home just last September. The two had been living with Rhonda’s step-mother and her new husband, and at one point they had to leave.

“It’s a long story,” Rhonda said about what led them to move out. 

Levi said he had been down on his luck before, but always had friends and a support system. But now, the couple were actually homeless for the first time in their lives.

They set up camp on an Oceanside hillside, but left after a violent attack sent Levi to a hospital with stab wounds to his underarm, hand and neck.

“He was going to burn us alive, too,” Rhonda said about the man who attacked them both.

“He told us to leave his mountain and leave Oceanside,” Levi said.

The couple moved to the Buena Vista Creek encampment, where they felt there was safety in numbers. Life was still hard, however.

“ People steal your stuff all the time,” Rhonda said. “And if it rains, you lose everything.”

Life in the encampment felt like a dead end for the couple, but they couldn’t see a way out.

“Being homeless, how do you get a job when you can’t take a shower?” Rhonda said. “It’s so hard.”

“We were just taking it a day at a time and trying not to think ahead, because it just stressed you out,” Levi said.

When Aplikowsky approached the couple earlier this year to tell them about the encampment resolution project, they were intrigued but skeptical.

“I’m like, ‘Yeah, cool, but I don’t really believe him,’” Levi said. “You know, people say things. Most people are fake.”

But this wasn’t fake, and there were no strings attached. By then, the couple had entered a rehab program on their own to get off drugs, and they were eager for a change.

“We want a good, sober life,” Levi said.

“I can’t speak for everybody else out there, but we’re already wanting this life, not that life,” Rhonda said.

The two are looking ahead to a better life, which they said will include jobs and a reunion with their son.

“And we’ll have counseling and whatever is going to help us to be productive members of society and do the right thing,” Levi said.