After leaving downtown, we floated around for a week or two as we traveled north. We got to La Jolla and stayed put for a bit. We spent about five or six months in La Jolla.
We stayed for the library access. The Geisel Library is open up to 17 (or 17 1/2?) hours a day when school is in session. I had Verizon Internet service at the time for the two tablets we had, so I just needed a place to plug in. It is open to the public, so you can go in there, but it is a college library. I don't know what services are available to non-students. My son says we did use Wi-Fi there, but I was so sick, I don't really remember. It closed for 11 days straight at Christmas and we ended up hiking to the county public library in La Jolla village eight of those days. The county library branch in La Jolla village is closed fewer days than most branches.
La Jolla is one of the most expensive places in the U.S. As far as I could determine, there were no services for homeless individuals or poor people generally. I had food stamps and had no trouble using them at the Ralph's and Whole Foods. The Ralph's is about a 30 minute walk from The Geisel. It has an indoor cafe style seating area and the only kosher deli of the Ralph's chain. It also has a regular deli. We got most of our lunches there.
There is a Chipotle in the same shopping center as Ralph's. We bought t-shirts at Ralph's for $6 and other clothes at the Ross Dress For Less in the same mall. That was the only discount store I recall finding. Their second hand clothing stores carry designer items on sale for more money than I spend on new, full price clothing.
There is an Express bus that runs between La Jolla and downtown San Diego. I took this once a month to check my mail at Rachel's and I would take a different bus back to stop at a Walmart along the way and get clothes, a new tent, or whatever we needed. So, if you have a bus pass, you can go to La Jolla and still access services downtown, assuming you aren't dependent on daily free meals at soup kitchens and the like.
The Price Center is near the Geisel. It has public restrooms and lots of eateries, like Burger King and Panda Express. It is open to the public most of the time. Students can get in to study during hours when it isn't open the public. It has study areas, with plugs and, I think, Wi-Fi but it is often packed.
It is incredibly foggy in La Jolla. We were able to find decent campsites. Sometimes, the fog was so bad, it empowered us to quietly pitch a tent early and settle in for the night before dark -- as long as we kept quiet. We typically camped within a 30 minute walk of the Ralph's, and a within 45 minute walk of the Geisel.
Public bathrooms include:
The mall
The Geisel
The beach
The Price Center
There was a public phone outside the Geisel, near the front entrance. At the time, I had no cell phone. I periodically made calls from that phone.
We mostly went to beach for clean up. I never found a means to get a shower. La Jolla has a lot of greenery and is less grimey than downtown. This helped make the lack of showers more tolerable.