Homeless to sweep sidewalks on Garnet

A new Pacific Beach program will include private security patrols and a program that hires local homeless to sweep sidewalks, the area's business improvement district Discover Pacific Beach announced on Friday.

Funded in part by a $20,000 grant from city councilmember Lorie Zapf's office, Discover will work with the Pacific Beach Street Guardians to conduct homeless outreach, connecting locals with assistance and offering them employment in cleanup and other beautification projects along the Garnet Avenue shopping and dining corridor.

"I started getting a lot of complaints about the rise in aggressive transients here in the PB community, along with a lot of rowdy behavior," Zapf said of her early experiences transitioning from being a representative of another district into District 2, which includes the beach areas. She told assembled media that participating in a police ride-along exposed her to "a lot of the lawless behavior going on in the beach areas," which motivated her office's participation in the program.

One component of the district's new Clean and Safe program is the hiring of a private security force to be supplied by National Public Safety. The company, which employs green-uniformed security personnel dressed to resemble actual police, created some controversy when it was brought in to serve in a similar fashion in Ocean Beach's business district.