Oceanside foots largest homeless camp cleaning bill in North County

Oceanside is set to pay an outside contractor nearly $1 million next year to clean trash related to homeless encampments. 

The Oceanside City Council unanimously approved a contract amendment earlier this month that will pay an additional $970,000 to Singh Group for cleaning encampment-related trash. It’s a continuation of a yearslong agreement with the company: The city has spent $4.2 million on contracts with Singh Group to clean encampments over the past four years, and staff have praised the company’s work. 

The payment accounts for about 10% of the city’s total homelessness budget, much of which comes from a state grant. It’s more than the city spends on things like housing navigation and outreach. 

Kirk Mundt, the head of Oceanside’s code enforcement division, said it’s just one part of the city’s homelessness plan, and the ultimate goal is to get people into permanent housing. He said that cleanup was critical for public health. Crews works five days per week and cleans things that can otherwise become rodent infestation near homes, environmental effects from a battery near a riverbed, people stepping on glass bottles, and chemicals in containers.

“We have trash that’s being dumped out of in environmentally sensitive areas, how do we get rid of it?” Mundt said. “That’s what this contract does.” 

City spending 

Homeless encampments have been a growing concern in California in recent years, and local governments have taken varying approaches, from penalizing people to spending more on services.

Most California cities use general fund dollars — the money in a government’s main operating fund for day-to-day operations — to address encampments in their communities. Several cities have also adopted bans on camping in public to try to prevent homeless encampments, although research has shown such bans are ineffective in reducing homelessness.

Oceanside’s homelessness spending stands out among North County cities. 

It had a $9.3 million homelessness budget for this fiscal year, which ends June 30. More than half of that is funded by a state grant awarded to Oceanside and Carlsbad to find homes and services for people in camps along the State Route 78 corridor. 

Oceanside’s biggest homelessness-related expense is for its Navigation Center, a homeless shelter operated by Interfaith Community Services. Information that the city provided inewsource shows its encampment cleanup contract would cost more than other programs: This year it projected spending less than $470,000 on its Homeless Outreach Team; $620,000 on homeless diversion and prevention; and nearly $215,000 on “homeless strategies/solutions.” 

Other North County cities are smaller and mostly have a lower population of unhoused people. All spent under $100,000 on encampment cleanup. Four cities told inewsource they did not track the spending at all. 

Oceanside had the second-highest number of unhoused people among North County cities in the latest annual the Point-in-Time Count, which attempts to count the number of unhoused people on a single night in January across government agencies nationwide. 

Oceanside, which has about 170,000 residents, counted 207 unhoused people this year.  Escondido, with 146,000 residents, counted 281. 

Escondido uses city crews to do encampment cleanup services and does not contract out for the work, spokesperson Mike Thorne said. He did not provide the specific amount the city spends on these services in time for publication. 

Carlsbad has a contract with the company Urban Corps for a crew three days per week and occasional large encampment clearance. The city spends just under $100,000 per year on that, spokesperson Sarah Lemons said.

Encinitas spokesperson Alex Saint said the city has different options for cleaning encampment‑related debris depending on the location. The city has a Private Property Clean-Up Assistance Program, which includes an $84,000 contract with Can-Do Maintenance, Inc., for as-needed citywide graffiti abatement services. Saint did not provide a total amount the city spends on encampment-related trash in time for publication. 

San Marcos, which had zero unhoused people in this year’s count, has an as-needed homeless encampment abatement and clean-up services contract with local company Bio-One.  The city has budgeted $100,000 this year.

Spokespeople for Del Mar, Solana Beach, Poway and Vista all said the cities do not track spending specific to homeless encampment cleanups. 

Poway spokesperson Rene Carmichael said the city “isn’t known for having a homeless population” but that it has an ordinance that governs camping and storage of personal property in public areas and provides the framework for how a situation would be handled with sheriff’s deputies. 

San Diego, by far the largest city in the county with 1.4 million residents and 2,820 unhoused people, spends significantly on cleaning homeless encampments.

San Diego uses money from its CleanSD homelessness-related budget of $10.5 million, with up to $400,000 expected to be reimbursed by the state. The city conducts abatements five days a week to mitigate public health and safety concerns, maintain access to public spaces and keep communities clean and safe, city spokesperson Matt Hoffman said. 

The city has several contracts with outside groups for different types of waste, including a $3.5 million agreement with Urban Corps; $2.2 million with Clean Harbors; $500,000 with Alpha Project; and $25,000 with the San Diego River Park Foundation. 

Hoffman said that the core purpose of an abatement is to address public health and safety conditions. 

“There is a clear relationship between the frequency of abatements, sanitation efforts, and the spread of communicable diseases,” Hoffman said. “In addition, abatements address broader health and safety concerns, including blocked ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] access, environmental impacts, and risks to surrounding communities.”