SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2013 With the help of a year-long pilot program between the City of San Diego and Caltrans, homeless encampment-related fires along a stretch of highway in downtown have been cut down.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re about to get on the 94 east in Downtown San Diego, you look out your window, and you\u2019ll probably see it, a homeless encampment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the areas we’re still working on,\u00a0but of course that starts with\u00a0going out with resources trying to work with people\u00a0as well as just making sure we’re going out there and clean on a regular basis,\u201d Franklin Coopersmith, City of San Diego Environmental Services Department, said. \u201cIn most of the areas we’ve seen encampments, either the frequency that they’re showing up has gone down, or in some areas, they have completely not repopulated at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABC 10News has spoken with Coopersmith <\/a>and others from the City of San Diego about the progress and successes <\/a>of the year-long pilot program. \u201cWe’ve done over 500 abatements since the start of,\u00a0uh,\u00a0so it would be July 23rd,\u00a02025,\u00a0so over 500,\u201d Coopersmith said. \u201cWe’ve removed over 280 tons of trash from the right of way,\u00a0and then we have about 90 people who have been actually placed from\u00a0the freeway itself into our safe sleeping.\u201d<\/p>\n An additional impact is helping to cut down on encampment-related fires along these sections of highway.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest benefit for the fire department is a reduction\u00a0in encampment fires and vegetation fires alongside of the freeway,\u201d Assistant Fire Marshal Alex Kane with San Diego Fire-Rescue said. \u201cThose fires are very dangerous,\u00a0not only to extinguish,\u00a0but for our personnel operating on the freeway.\u00a0It’s a dangerous place.\u201d<\/p>\n The City told ABC 10News that Fire-Rescue has seen a 39 percent drop in encampment-related fires in the freeway corridor since the program started late July 2025. That\u2019s compared to the same eight-month time period the year before it started.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen a marked reduction.\u00a0I’ve been speaking to the local crews around here, and they’re aware of it.\u00a0They see it,\u00a0they feel it,\u00a0and that’s a good thing for our first responders,\u2019 Kane said. \u201cIt enables them to be ready to respond to other emergencies.\u00a0It’s not only fires that they do,\u00a0they do medical aid.”<\/p>\n The year-long program started last July, so it\u2019s only got about four months left on its deal. ABC 10News asked the City and Cal Trans whether there are talks of extending it or possibly expanding the program.<\/p>\n Cal Trans said to ABC 10News in a statement, \u201cCaltrans appreciates its partnership with cities in addressing encampments in the region. Caltrans is focused on implementing the existing agreement with the city of San Diego and is always open to productive partnerships that address pressing issues. These conversations are ongoing, and no decisions have been made on expanding or renewing the agreement at this date.\u201d<\/p>\n Coopersmith echoed the sentiment that conversations are still ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really just comes down to do we have the\u00a0ability and the funding to be able to support continuing going,\u201d Coopersmith said. \u201dSo that’s where we’re going back and forth with Caltrans right now\u00a0to figure out,\u00a0you know,\u00a0what does it take to keep this going,\u00a0to expand it,\u00a0and so hopefully in the next few months we’ll have\u00a0a better idea of where we’re at with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2013 With the help of a year-long pilot program between the City of San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-260402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-san-diego","9":"tag-san-diego-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The program allows City crews to clear encampments on Cal Trans property along a five-mile area of the I-5, 94, and 163 highways in Downtown.<\/p>\n