Chula Vista city crews could soon get the green light to clear homeless encampments from five freeway off-ramps without waiting on state crews to show up. The Chula Vista City Council is set to discuss a proposed agreement with Caltrans last night that would let the city handle cleanups along ramps between E Street and Main Street, rather than routing every request through the state agency that controls the land.
Under the current setup, Chula Vista has had to contact Caltrans before accessing state property to clear encampments, according to ABC 10News San Diego. Mayor John McCann said Caltrans response times to encampment requests could stretch to one, two, or even three months, and his office has received complaints about the sites in the meantime, per the same report. The proposed deal would run through June 2027 and give Chula Vista authority to clear encampments on the specified off-ramps directly.
Reimbursement Capped at $200,000
Caltrans would reimburse Chula Vista up to $200,000 for cleanup costs under the arrangement, the station reports. That figure is notably smaller than what San Diego secured when it entered a similar agreement with Caltrans in 2025 and later renewed it: Caltrans provided up to $400,000 in cost reimbursement toward an estimated $800,000 annual budget that also covers police officer response hours, according to KPBS.
San Diego's first year under the deal, running from July 2025 to July 2026, cleared more than 413 tons of waste along a five-mile freeway corridor, connected 115 unhoused residents to shelter programs, and moved 19 people into permanent housing, KPBS reported. The Chula Vista arrangement mirrors a broader statewide push: Governor Gavin Newsom expanded the state's Encampment Delegated Maintenance Agreement program to 13 California cities by July 2026, letting municipal crews clean up encampments on Caltrans rights-of-way with state reimbursement, according to the Davis Vanguard. Statewide, Caltrans crews removed nearly 26,500 encampments from highway rights-of-way and collected roughly 457,000 cubic yards of debris between July 2021 and July 2026, the outlet reported.
Outreach Component Called Critical
If the plan is approved, people living in the encampments would be offered services meant to help them get off the streets, per ABC 10News. Paul Armstrong said the outreach component of the proposed plan is critical, and that executing it in partnership with homeless outreach providers would benefit Chula Vista, the station reported.
Mayor McCann framed the encampments as a health and safety issue, saying the city needs to keep Chula Vista safe and clean while protecting single-family neighborhoods and small businesses, according to ABC 10News reporter Laura Acevedo. The mayor's comments echo the city's September 2024 anti-camping ordinance, which the City of Chula Vista says the council passed unanimously to prohibit tent encampments and sitting, sleeping, or storing belongings within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, transit stops, and sensitive environmental areas. That vote followed the U.S. Supreme Court's Grants Pass ruling permitting local sleeping bans.
Shelter Capacity Remains a Tight Fit
Chula Vista's unsheltered homeless population has been shrinking. Results from San Diego County's January 2026 Point-in-Time Count showed a 25.4% drop in unsheltered homelessness in Chula Vista compared to 2025, outperforming the countywide 11% decline in street homelessness, per the Times of San Diego. That follows a 2024 count that had recorded 650 total individuals experiencing homelessness in the city, including 503 unsheltered residents sleeping outdoors, in vehicles, or in tent encampments, according to the San Diego Continuum of Care.
Even with the decline, bed space remains limited. Chula Vista's 65-unit pallet shelter, known as Village at Otay, has served 210 individuals since opening in May 2023, enrolling 124 new participants and transitioning 39 residents into housing between July 2025 and June 2026, per city documents. The city is also working with developer Wakeland Housing to convert a former motel at 1160 Walnut Avenue into Palomar Point, a 28-unit permanent supportive housing facility expected to open by early 2027 — a project Hoodline first reported received $8.61 million in state Homekey+ funding.
Regional data underscores why outreach matters alongside enforcement. One-third of unsheltered individuals in San Diego County were age 55 or older as of the January 2026 census, with more than half of those seniors experiencing homelessness for the first time, according to KPBS. Advocates have stressed that clearing freeway ramps needs to coincide with available shelter entries and long-term housing options, a tension that will likely shape Tuesday night's discussion as the council weighs the proposed agreement.
