Off the beaten path: How we reported a story about people living on an island in the San Diego River

After San Diego passed a controversial camping ban last year, I started to follow how it was affecting where people who are unhoused are living. The ban has significantly lowered the number of people sleeping on streets downtown, but it hasn’t reduced homelessness.  Every month in San Diego, more people lose housing than find it. 

One group of people who were living in the San Diego River bed encouraged me to speak with people living on an island nearby. 

After I figured out exactly where the island was, I started going out and introducing myself to people staying there. The first people I met were friendly but not interested in speaking with a journalist.  It took a couple of visits before I was introduced to Tim Moore. He’s been living on the island for 14 years and is looked to as a leader. If Tim invites you on the island, you are welcome there. 

Tim and I talked about his experience living on this piece of land in the river, and I told him that I was interested in learning more and coming back to photograph him and others. In that very first conversation he made it clear that island living was rough. “I don’t want to die out here,” he told me. 

He agreed to talk my pitch over with a few others and we exchanged numbers to stay in touch.

After meeting Tim, I spoke with inewsource reporter Cody Dulaney, who covers, among many things, housing and homelessness in San Diego. Once we got the clear from Tim, we set up a time to spend a day out on the island, interviewing people living there and documenting life with photo, video and audio. 

There were a couple of challenges throughout the day. When we arrived, it was during a full moon high tide following a rainstorm. The water was waist high in many places and higher than I had ever seen it before. The rainboots I used on earlier trips were not going to keep me dry. Cody, hardened from covering hurricanes in the southeast, had waders. He very generously carried my backpack filled with gear across to the island first, and then came back to give me a piggyback ride. We were warned to “watch out for the shopping cart” somewhere in our path under the water, but Cody tripped over it, and I ended up nearly waist deep in the river. 

Cody also got off on the wrong foot with Proper, a mixed breed dog who doesn’t like unannounced visitors. As they say, first impressions are everything, and Proper never got over theirs. It made it pretty difficult for Cody to walk around that section of the island for the rest of the day. 

Our discomforts though were insignificant compared to what people living on the island deal with everyday. I was able to drive home to a shower during low tide to rinse the river water off my legs. Several of the island’s residents showed us how their wounds became infected from their crossing regularly through the river without any way to clean off afterwards. Everything, including fresh water, was carried on to the island. Residents sometimes use river water to wash dishes or shower. Huge rats eat through food and tents. During rain storms the island becomes a dangerous flood zone. People lost their tents and belongings multiple times this past winter. There’s also the constant hum of traffic from the freeway overhead.

So why live out there? Everyone that we spoke to for the story gave the same main reason. On the island they can avoid interactions with the police. They don’t have to move every day or face a citation or arrest.

Throughout our reporting process, we were transparent with everyone we spoke to, not knowing what the repercussions of the story might be. There is a possibility that publishing this story could bring more attention from the city and law enforcement to the island. 

Knowing that risk, the people we spoke to still wanted to move forward. They hoped that sharing their perspectives and experiences in the story would lead to a more compassionate and nuanced understanding of their reality. 

In the story we published, we wanted to give readers as great a sense as possible what life is like for the island’s residents and a sense of who they are. We took care to add photos, video and audio elements in a thoughtful way. It’s the kind of collaborative storytelling we strive for at inewsource. 

We hope that resonated with you and you were able to journey there with us through our reporting.