OP-ed by Shoreline Community Services Intern, Natalia Garza
Published 8/18/2026
Growing up, many of us were taught that homelessness results from personal failure: poor life choices, lack of effort, or overall unwillingness to work. However, I’ve learned through my experience volunteering with San Diego’s unhoused community how false this perceived narrative is and how it overshadows the real forces and barriers that contribute to the large margin of homelessness in our city. People experiencing homelessness face a multitude of external barriers that make escaping it extremely difficult.
Many public misconceptions that follow the topic of homelessness, such as “people choose homelessness,” “they don’t want to work,” or “they are struggling with addiction,” create such a large rift between the housed and unhoused populations. These false narratives exaggerate differences and actively erase the reality of the situation. In my experience, volunteering for the past 3 years at Shoreline Community Services’ drop-in resource center, The Compass Station has helped me develop a deeper understanding of their position and experience. Interacting face-to-face with this community has taught me firsthand about the similarities we share. Though without shelter, many of the unhoused community have phones, cars, and even jobs, yet are part of this population since they experience barriers unique to the rest of society. What separates them from the rest of the city isn’t a lack of effort or a lingering addiction; it’s simply the presence of barriers most people in the housed community will never face.
One of the most impactful of these barriers is zoning laws. In San Diego, zoning laws determine what type of housing can be built and where. Historically, zoning has been linked to the segregation of low-income communities through prioritizing the development of single-family homes while ignoring the high demand for affordable multi-family housing. These actions have resulted in a limited supply and have pushed low-income residents into increasingly unstable situations.
Because San Diego’s geography restricts outward expansion, they often turn towards building upscale housing units in existing neighborhoods instead of expanding affordable options. These actions are compensating for the lack of expansion of wealth through building higher-valued property, which is most commonly practiced in other cities. However, the pattern contributes to the displacement, the raising of rents, and the shrinking number of places where low-income families can realistically live.
It’s important to note that California’s housing crisis affects all residents, but its consequences are more heavily borne by low-income communities and unhoused residents. These populations feel the impact most intensely, especially when a lack of affordable housing results in them living in their vehicle as their last option for shelter. Today, the vehicular homelessness population in San Diego consists of 14% of the total unhoused population, which is the group most heavily affected by vehicle ordinances.
Before 2019, people could legally park on most public streets if they followed the law and were aware of the legal restrictions, the most commonly enforced of which is a 72-hour parking limit. The laws became more restrictive when the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance (OVO) and Vehicle Habitation Ordinance (VHO) were passed, making it exceedingly difficult to legally sleep in a vehicle anywhere in the city. These laws were often poorly communicated and inconsistently enforced. Additionally, with the lack of safe parking locations, people were vulnerable to fines, towing, and loss of their only shelter. Essentially, deepening their financial burdens and adding criminal actions to their record.
These policies did not aim to solve homelessness; they were punishing and criminalizing those who were surviving it. It wasn’t until a 2024 class-action settlement, that will be enforced through October 2027, determined that police cannot cite someone for vehicle habitation unless the city can prove a viable and available alternative. This decision is a major step towards ending the criminalization of unhoused people who rely on their vehicles as shelter, as well as pushing the city to explore real and accessible solutions.
For those of us working directly with San Diego’s unhoused community, this settlement is a reminder that policy can either work to deepen homelessness or help dismantle it by addressing the root of the problem and not the symptoms. It reinforces what we see every day: homelessness is not a personal failure; it’s the result of systems that need change.
Works Cited
“Housing Zoning Update.” San Diego County, www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/pds/longrangeplanning/housingzoupdate.html.
“Causes of California’s Housing Crisis.” Housing California, 2024, https://housingca.org/policy/focus/causes/.
Stone, Scott R. “San Diego 101: Why Is It so Hard to Build Housing?” KPBS, 31 July 2025, https://www.kpbs.org/news/economy/2025/07/31/san-diego-101-why-is-it-so-hard-to-build-housing.
“Mayor Gloria Launches New Initiative to Build Housing for Families and First-Time Buyers.” Inside San Diego, City of San Diego, 2024, https://www.insidesandiego.org/mayor-gloria-launches-new-initiative-build-housing-families-first-time-buyers.
Romero, Dorian. “Enforcement of San Diego’s Ban on Living in Vehicles Changes under Settlement.” NBC 7 San Diego, 31 July 2025, https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/enforcement-of-san-diegos-ban-on-living-in-vehicles-changes-under-settlement/3648407/.
Stone, Scott R. “Settlement Approved in Lawsuit Challenging San Diego’s Vehicle Habitation Laws.” KPBS, 15 Oct. 2024, https://www.kpbs.org/news/2024/10/15/settlement-approved-in-lawsuit-challenging-san-diegos-vehicle-habitation-laws.
“Unsheltered Homelessness Drops 11% Across San Diego Region as Investments Show Results.” Regional Task Force on Homelessness, 2024, https://www.rtfhsd.org/unsheltered-homelessness-drops-11-across-san-diego-region-as-investments-show-results/.