Our recent story revealed that San Diego had the third-highest homeless population among major U.S. cities last year, but 15 cities with fewer homeless people could apply for more federal homelessness funding.

NBC 7 San Diego’s Catherine Garcia and I break that disparity down in the latest episode of San Diego Explained, which aired Wednesday. We also highlight the response from local and federal lawmakers to address the gap.

“I didn’t realize, frankly, the formulas were so prejudicial to our city,” Mayor Bob Filner says in the clip below. Watch:

Last week, the county’s Board of Supervisors voted to join Filner and congressional representatives to push for a change to the federal allocation to San Diego. KPBS included a county official and a representative from the local network of homelessness service providers in a discussion of the funding gap last week.

I’m Kelly Bennett, reporter for Voice of San Diego. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit that depends on you, our readers. Please donate to keep the service strong. Click here to find out more about our supporters and how we operate independently.

Kelly Bennett is a former staff writer for Voice of San Diego.

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