Rainy Day

A tent village in downtown San Diego during a rainstorm

Recently, there was an extremely out-of-character rainstorm in San Diego. Since we only get around 30 days of rain each year, our infrastructure is ill equipped for harsh rain and wind. In fact, some of the homes in San Diego cannot withstand such conditions. The already vulnerable unhoused population is made even more so during conditions such as these. My family and I drove downtown to provide socks and food for a homeless tent village, and we were shocked by the state of people’s shelters. During sunny days, old tents or cardboard shelters, although inadequate, seem enough to protect from the elements. Under the harsh weather however, they provided little to no shelter whatsoever. The repercussions of the relatively harsh weather exemplifies the crisis homelessness is, and should provide us with even more reason to work faster towards a better solution.