People on the brink of homelessness, or those new to the streets, are easier and cheaper to help than those who’ve been homeless for years.
Cities that’ve greatly reduced their homeless populations know this, and have boosted programs targeted at prevention and quick intervention.
While San Diego has a growing number of newly homeless, it has yet to really focus on helping those folks. Instead, local programs often prioritize housing homeless veterans and those who’ve spent years on the streets.
VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt is out with a new story on our region’s dearth of funding for programs that might help newly homeless people, or keep them from becoming homeless in the first place.
At 1 p.m. Monday at Golden Hall, the City Council is holding a town hall on homelessness. New data and program proposals related to San Diego’s newly homeless folks are expected to be among the topics discussed.
Halverstadt zeroes in on the issue and talks to people like Sue Lindsay, who was hired to help the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.
“We need prevention and diversion in this town, and we need it now,” Lindsay said.
• In a new op-ed for Voice of San Diego, Tom Theisen, a past president of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless and a longtime volunteer for San Diego’s homeless, says there’s another homeless population San Diego county and city leaders need to target if they want to move the needle on the persistent homeless problem: disabled residents who have lived on the streets for years. Theisen says affordable housing coupled with services is the only way to successfully get San Diego’s disabled residents off the street for good.
Details on Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Wall’
Late Friday, new contract notices detailing the Trump administration’s proposed border wall were posted by Customs and Border Protection.
The Associated Press reports that the wall must be 30-feet-high and built solidly so that it would take at least an hour to bust through with a “sledgehammer, car jack, pick axe, chisel, battery operated impact tools, battery operated cutting tools, Oxy/acetylene torch or other similar hand-held tools,” according to the notices.
San Diego will play a big role in the eventual building of the border wall. The AP says the government will award the final contract based on 30-foot sample walls that will be built here.
Low-Income Renters Out of Luck
In his State of the City address, Mayor Kevin Faulconer talked a lot about housing and the region’s great need for more of it.
Affordable housing is something Faulconer and other local leaders talk a lot about, but a new study found that San Diego County is among the top three California counties to lose the most low-income homes over the past two decades.
The U-T analyzes the report, which also found that San Diego County is on track to lose about 2,400 more subsidized rentals by 2022 thanks to soon-to-expire affordability protections.
Faulconer Is Faulconering the SoccerCity Deal
When it comes to big civic issues, Mayor Kevin Faulconer has become known for waiting in the wings until the political waters are warm enough for him to come out with an opinion. That’s what he did with his last-minute endorsement of the Chargers’ failed pitch to build a new downtown stadium.
Faulconer has remained on the sidelines when it comes to SoccerCity, the proposal to transform the Qualcomm Stadium site into a new joint-use stadium surrounded by an entertainment district, housing and a public park.
But the U-T’s Kevin Acee says the mayor is taking a big step toward his expected endorsement of the plan. On Tuesday, Faulconer is scheduled to meet with SDSU representatives and the group of investors behind the SoccerCity redevelopment plan.
Acee says the meeting will likely focus on addressing SDSU’s concerns with the project and adding some city-mandated provisions to the plan.
Weekend News Roundup
• On this week’s Politically Speaking, NBC 7’s Gene Cubbison talked to Sen. Toni Atkins about her affordable housing bill, and he interviewed the newest member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Kristin Gaspar.
• There’e been a few big changes when it comes to the four local breweries that made the Brewers Association’s annual lists of the top 50 American breweries by sales volume. The Reader explains the two big shifts.
• The U-T’s Greg Moran says the latest indictment in a Navy corruption scandal “depicts a wider and more coordinated effort” by both Navy officers and Leonard Glenn Francis — aka “Fat Leonard.” Moran recounts incidents that show the big favors officers did for the contractor who’s admitted to defrauding the Navy of at least $35 million.
• Reps. Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter faced the same sort of angry crowds last week at town hall meetings, but the politicians had very different ways of handling the hostile questions. Hunter’s bravado was front-and-center while Issa was much more measured, and the U-T’s Michael Smolens explains the political environments behind the very different behaviors.
• If President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint was a Facebook post, San Diego County’s science and tech communities would respond with an anger emoji while the military industry would give it a big thumbs-up. (U-T)
Social Media Moment
The San Diego Cake Show went down over the weekend. Live videos posted on Facebook showed how these were no ordinary desserts.