The Homeless Outreach Team -

From the San Diego Police Department – The Homeless Outreach Team

Homelessness is an extremely complex social problem that impacts the quality of life in our community. There are no easy solutions.

The San Diego Police Department and elected officials in the County and City recognize that there is a fine line between homelessness as a social issue and homelessness as a criminal issue. Many homeless are on the street because of substance abuse, mental illness or both.

To assist the City and County provide better service to this at-risk population, the SDPD has created the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT). The team consists of police officers, County Health and Human Services specialists as well as psychiatric clinicians from the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT), a private non-profit organization.

HOT is available to assist the community with homeless-related issues. HOT provides field assessments for eligibility to public entitlements, crisis intervention, comprehensive case management, drug/alcohol rehabilitation placement, and psychiatric/medical treatment placement.

The police department recommends that San Diegans not offer food or money to those that appear homeless as it may encourage more panhandling. Those who are inclined to help the homeless should consider contributions to local charities, missions, food banks or social service organizations that assist the needy.

If you feel someone needs service, the phone number to call is 858-490-3850. For more information, visit City’s website at www.sandiego.gov.

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