A complex blend of economic and mental health maladies fueled an explosion in the South Bay’s homeless population.
By ESTEBAN PRECIADO
Frank gazed at the ground as he spoke.
He was used to people not listening.
“There’s a lot of homeless people that are desolate and lost,” he said.
“There are a lot of people like me that have stood on the edge of cliffs and thought about taking the big plunge and letting it all go.”
Yet most push on.
Dusted across bustling roads, trolley stations, alleys and crevices of the South
Bay, the homeless persist.
There are more every day, some visible, some not.
From la frontera in San Ysidro to Division Street, from the bay to the 125
tollway, the homeless population of the South Bay is swelling. Lands within the
Southwestern Community College District have had homeless since Frank Kimball
and Col. W. G. Dickerson established National City and Chula Vista 140 years ago,
but never like this. Not even close. Double digit homeless counts of the 1970s are
now in the thousands, though no accurate tabulation exists.
It changes too quickly.
