Drone video captures large homeless encampment under I-5 near SeaWorld Drive | NBC 7 San Diego

Looks like GAVIN NEWSOME is going to have to open up those F.E.M.A. CAMPS!

They’ve been living there for 4 years and the city has done nothing. They may have a case for adverse possession

That one little island looks pretty sweet. I'd totally live on that island if I were homless. I’d absolutely get everyone to play pirates.

I think the jungle on the 54 is the biggest you just can't see it

Regular hard working people are becoming homeless due to rent being out of control

Get a couple acres of land near miramar. Set up a place where they can have a tent, portables, trash bins, plus large military tents where all services are available, medical, counseling, rehab, employment resources. Plus all the churches and nonprofit groups can go to one location to help. No drugs or alcohol. Pay them to help maintain their own facility: trash clean up, conflict resolution. Police only come as a last resort. Give incentives for those that want to help and do better. Homeless do NOT have a right to live anywhere they please. Nor to make a mess and be a burden to others. They can be homeless, but they must follow rules like everyone else.

Good luck to that guy it’s really hard to get a place in the shelter for single men without kids. Most place don’t even allow single men in their shelter.

One of the largest homeless encampments has only "dozens of people" living in it? Doesn't sound very large to me.

That is not as bad as it is in Oakland.

That water is full of SHIP AND PISSS AND DOPE

It's been going on for 30 plus years... dah??? In SD CITY

Its a fine place for an overpass and freeway, but not for living? How bout ya leave the be and help remove the trash. There is nowhere for these people to go. Leave them alone.

Living in CA under a bridge... When the ground starts shaking and the bridge starts falling these folks might wish they had chose a different spot.. Other than that the island looks cozy, palm trees and all!

Inflation, high cost of living an weak leaders, is making us all go nuts!

When I lived in Point Loma 20-something years ago, I saw, on more than one occasion, major fires in that area. It was a well known homeless encampment and obviously, the fire department had some trouble getting in there, leaving them to extinguish the fires from the overpass. The problem with the homeless encampments along the river - especially behind Mission Valley and in Grantville - is not only the humongous amount of hazardous environmental waste they generate - particularly fuels, solvents, spent batteries and electronics that leach into an environmentally sensitive region - but the sheer lawlessness of these places. I know, because I worked professionally with these individuals on a DAILY basis for 12 years. I remember a few years ago when a woman's body was found in the water near Mission Center Road, weighed down by a shopping cart. One of the unhoused ladies I worked with told me that she and her husband knew the murdered woman as a close friend and a fellow river dweller. She then told me they knew who did it ... but didn't want to "snitch" or get involved. I told her if she knew who did it, she was not only legally obligated to go to the police, she had a moral obligation to her dead friend. She shrugged me off. I honestly mean no disrespect to anyone experiencing homelessness, but women are especially vulnerable in these areas and should avoid them like the plague. Living on the streets is no picnic but if you get into any sort of trouble down by the river, you have nowhere to run and you better not expect anyone (including your "friends") to come to your assistance. The other problem are the drugs being consumed down there - really, really BAD drugs. Meth, crack, Fentanyl (and anything laced with Fentanyl) is bad enough, but there's no shortage of designer drugs like Flakka, which is as bad, if not worse, than PCP. As these drugs have become cheaper, they've created a situation where users are considerably more unpredictable and extremely violent. New variants of these drugs continue to pop up. Working with the homeless of these regions taught me a lot. A great many of the people living on the river are very sympathetic individuals deserving of our respect (especially combat veterans) and our assistance (especially unhoused women), even if they don't always want it. But a great many others literally have no regard for anyone or anything. While the term "predator" gets thrown around a lot these days, when you're around these individuals day in and day out, you quickly learn the manipulation tactics they've honed over the years which they use to exploit and harm others in their immediate orbit. Is that a "survival tactic"? For some people, it probably is. But for others, it's an effective strategy for theft, sexual assault and worse. A big obstacle to getting the unhoused the attention they need is that neither their advocates nor their detractors seem capable of understanding the issue with any sort of nuance, preferring to couch their opinions in emotionally potent, but intellectually vacuous, arguments. Depending on who you talk to, they're either "human trash" deserving of nothing but contempt or they're "victims" of a cruel and uncaring society. The truth of course is much more complex. We must continue to do everything we can to assist the unhoused, treat those with substance abuse disorders/mental illnesses and pass legislation aimed at remedying, to the fullest extent possible, this horrible socio-economic problem. But we also have to come to terms with the fact that, for many reasons, a lot of people are reluctant to leave unsafe areas because they like the easy access to their preferred drug of choice and/or they've become accustomed to the lifestyle. But for all the unhoused women out there, I can't implore you enough ... stay far, far away from the river encampments.

This was not here less than a year ago although homeless are all over that area normally anyway. My biggest concern is where they are putting their trash and going to the bathroom because right down stream is the Ocean Beach dog park where people and dogs frequent the water. Look further upstream and there are more camps, further and more, it goes all the way up into el cajon I know that for sure. So Sad, could be such an awesome resource for outdoor recreation but it is way too hazardous at this point. Look further west at the bridge, there are people living underneath it who have cut holes in mesh fencing, nothing done about it for years.

This should become a model homeless encampment for all California cities to emulate.

Riverside river bed has a similar homeless community living down under bridge. When you drive over it and look down it looks like a pretty cool party place.

Now more homeless from San Jose to San Francisco will move south to this island paradise in San Diego.

The chaos that is in store. People still just dont get it. 🙄😡