San Diego City crews clean up homeless camps along freeways

City crews are cleaning up homeless encampments in areas of downtown San Diego that were previously out of reach.

The city has prohibited tent camping on sidewalks and other public property since 2023. After the city began enforcing the ordinance, some unhoused residents or even months at a time if they moved to state property along freeway onramps and under overpasses.

That has meant city outreach workers have had less contact with people who might be open to accepting help, said Franklin Coopersmith, the city’s deputy director of environmental services.

“If someone is left somewhere for months at a time, they build an area, they build a community,” he said. “It's really hard to get people to say, ‘Hey, would you like to drop all of that right now and come to a place that you don't kno