The city of San Diego issued citations and cleared a downtown street where hundreds of homeless people regularly camp during ongoing efforts to sanitize neighborhoods to control the spread of hepatitis A.
Officers are asking homeless people to leave the street and nearby blocks where tarps and tents have regularly lined sidewalks and an area near a freeway on-ramp, police Lt. Scott Wahl said Wednesday. Those who refuse are given citations and those who resist further are arrested. Police over the past two weeks have been issuing about 50 citations a week — up from 30 a week before the crackdown, Wahl said.
He said he did not have figures on how many have been arrested. Some, he said, have been taken to mental health services if they showed signs of distress.
The crackdown was necessary to increase the effectiveness of cleaning efforts that include the power-washing of streets and installation of hand-washing stations, Wahl said. San Diego County is battling an epidemic of hepatitis A, a contagious liver disease that has killed 17 people and infected 461 people, including more than 300 who had to be hospitalized.