San Diego Homeless Encampment Ban Pushes Many Further Away From Services

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, March 6, 2025…

• More and more tents are popping up along the sides of San Diego freeways, on state property managed by the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans. City leaders call it a growing problem. 
• The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the University of California for possible workplace discrimination. 
• Leaders in Fremont have revised a controversial ban on homeless encampments in the city.

Along Freeways, Homeless San Diegans Are Further From City Sweeps And Medical Care

Neon green signs taped to fences and signposts tell homeless San Diegans they have 24 hours to clear their encampments. Aldea Secory, who has been homeless in San Diego for the last five years, said she’s gotten used to it. “Every other day, pretty much, they make us clean up and move,” she said.

She and her husband tried keeping the area around their camp clean. Police and other city staff were still moving them three days a week, she said. So they moved, crossing a fence from city to state property the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, maintains. They found they could stay there for longer periods of time. “We were on the side of the freeway for, like, a month down by 17th Street,” Secory said. “That was okay, you know? And then more people started to come.”

San Diego has prohibited tent camping in public spaces for more than a year. Now, city leaders say tent encampments near freeways are a growing problem. Outreach workers with the Father Joe’s Villages Street Health Program say it’s more difficult and more dangerous to reach patients there.

This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between the California Newsroom and CalMatters. You can find the first installment in that series here.

Justice Department Investigating University Of California Over Antisemitism Allegations

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the University of California for possible workplace discrimination. The DOJ says its investigating whether the UC allowed “an antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses.”

“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

Pro-Palestinian protests took place at several UC campuses last year in conjunction with the Israel-Hamas war.

Fremont Backs Down After Proposing Ban On ‘Aiding And Abetting’ Homeless Encampments

Fremont’s city council has revised a new city camping ordinance, removing what had become a controversial clause — first reported on by CalMatters — that could have punished those  “aiding and abetting” encampments.

“We’ve listened to and empathized with a multitude of community members,” said Councilmember Kathy Kimberlin at Tuesday’s meeting, where the council voted 6-1 to jettison the clause. “Clarifying this ordinance is especially important for us. For decades, I think all of us… have worked with and supported the critical work of our non profits and our faith-based organizations, who often work with government and often do what government cannot do.”

The ordinance makes it illegal to camp on streets, sidewalks, parks, and other public property, part of a statewide shift in homelessness policy following a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court case. What separated it from other efforts was explicit language that would make anyone “causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing” an illegal encampment guilty of a misdemeanor. Local homeless advocates feared this could be enforced against  workers and volunteers providing aid to unhoused people in Fremont.