Police are about to enforce San Diego’s new homeless camping ban. Nobody’s quite sure what will happen next.

SAN DIEGO — Manjelika Iseka left the Democratic Republic of the Congo decades ago, back when it was still called Zaire.

She was only a few years old at the time and traveling with her grandparents. The family soon settled in San Diego.

Then her grandparents died, and things took a turn.

On Friday, she sat outside a blue tent on Eighth Avenue downtown. Other makeshift shelters could be seen in all directions, and she looked toward those inside.

“They’re just really scared because they have nowhere to go,” Iseka said.

San Diego’s controversial new camping ban took effect this weekend, and police plan to begin enforcement Monday of one of the city’s most aggressive responses yet to the growing homelessness crisis.

Advocates are preparing for an already mobile population to become even more transient, potentially complicating efforts to connect people with shelter and services, while some who live and work downtown hope sidewalks long blocked by tents may finally clear.

Yet many questions remain, including exactly where encampments will be prohibited.

The San Diego City Council narrowly approved the change earlier this summer, in a pair of 5-4 votes that followed hours of testimony and years of homelessness increases.

There were fewer than 2,300 unsheltered people in the city of San Diego near the start of the pandemic, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

Hundreds more were counted in 2022. By the beginning of this year, officials tallied more than 3,200 without shelter, with the number of those newly homeless repeatedly out-pacing the total who get housed.

Similar trends can be seen throughout the region.

San Diego is trying a range of fixes, including opening up parking lots and converting shipping containers into housing units. But after a steady drumbeat of complaints from condo owners, tourism officials and NBA great Bill Walton, leaders decided to crack down.

“I encourage unsheltered people to take advantage of our new safe sleeping site or available shelter beds,” Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who spearheaded the overhaul, said in a statement. “These options are much safer and healthier than living on sidewalks or in parks.”

The “Unsafe Camping Ordinance” prohibits encampments on public property if a shelter has availability. Yet even if no beds are open — which often happens — police can still kick people out if they’re staying in so-called sensitive areas.

That includes being within two blocks of a school or shelter. The same goes for trolley stations, the banks of waterways or parks “where a substantial public health and safety risk is determined,” according to city records.

San Diego has made a list of locations falling under that umbrella and staffers began installing warning signs last week, according to city spokesperson Ashley Bailey. But she declined to identify those places, citing a need for “operational security.”

Business groups have long said encampments make it harder to attract customers.

“Homelessness is the top issue,” Josh Callery-Coyne, a vice president of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, said in a statement. He hoped that increased enforcement, outreach and support services “will make positive steps toward getting folks off the street and into housing.”

Tents could still be found throughout downtown Friday, dotted along E Street and clustered by the Central Library. A jogger swerved off Eighth Avenue when the sidewalk became partially covered in tarps and trash, while a woman passing the same area grabbed her child’s hand and picked up the pace.

Enforcement by San Diego’s Neighborhood Policing Division will first focus on schools and parks. People should initially receive a warning. That will be followed by a misdemeanor citation before a potential arrest.

In interviews, people in encampments remained unsure about how that process would play out. Some asked a reporter to detail everything known about the rules, while one person said she didn’t believe citations would begin until the end of August. Another expressed frustration with fellow homeless people who defecated on the road, giving everyone a “bad reputation.”

The threat of fines could push people to other parts of the county. When officers cleared streets near Petco Park ahead of the Padres’ Opening Day, a leader of East County’s only shelter said they were unsurprisingly seeing new faces.

The East County Transitional Living Center recently hired a new CEO, Julie Hayden, who said Friday that they had seen a recent increase in families seeking rooms, although it was too early to know if that was connected to the camping ban.

“There’s probably more coming, it’ll take a bit to feel it,” she said.

Advocates have repeatedly raised concerns that a camping ban ignores the root problems, like a lack of affordable housing, while only making it harder for outreach workers to get people into units that do exist.

Jim Vargas, president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages, said their teams were looking for ways to stay in contact with people on the move.

“Relationship building is extremely important,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what the full effect will be.”

San Diego staffers will also be required to give a 24-hour heads up before clearing an encampment and confiscating what’s left behind.

The city attorney’s office concluded the ordinance does not run afoul of a federal ruling saying people can’t be kicked off public property if no shelter beds are available, although a legal challenge remains possible.

Other cities have recently moved in similarly aggressive directions.

Santee banned camping by the riverbed, and El Cajon leaders voted to exert more control over who’s issued hotel vouchers.

Even without many police visible downtown Friday, one man decided to pack up his tent.

He crouched near the front zipper and pulled a metal pole out of the right side. The polyester dipped. He slid out another.

Before long, there was only a crumpled pile on the ground.