A San Diego’s homelessness crisis has boomed, so have advocates’ complaints that the shuttering of single-room occupancy hotels has fueled the problem.
News that the downtown Plaza Hotel, which has 185 rooms with meager rents, is poised to shut down has inspired another wave of conversations about what the city could – or should – do to preserve aging SROs long considered the bottom rung of San Diego’s housing ladder.
Lisa Halverstadt dug into the city’s decades-long struggles to protect, preserve and monitor its SRO stock and found the conversation tends to ramp up only when a high-profile closure is taking place.
As they have in the past, city officials are now mulling regulatory reforms and other options to protect SROs and tenants that could come with significant price tags.
The latest one, which was approved by the Housing Commission earlier this month: up to $500,000 in relocation assistance for Plaza Hotel residents likely to struggle to find new homes they can afford.
- The Union-Tribune reports that the San Diego Rescue Mission is set to host a downtown procession Saturday to memorialize 111 homeless San Diegans who died on the streets last year.
Speaking of Housing …
- The Union-Tribune reports that La Mesa is the latest San Diego city to ease city regulations to try to spur more granny flat construction.
- Developer Lennar is planning to build 600 homes on a 40-acre plot in Rancho Penasquitos, Times of San Diego reports.
- Curbed profiles the rise of the Yimby Democrats of San Diego.
Vaccine Exemption Doc Lays Out Her Process
Earlier this week, Will Huntsberry revealed that one South Park doctor has written nearly a third of all the medical vaccine exemptions in the San Diego Unified School District.
Huntsberry posted more of his interview with Dr. Tara Zandvliet about why she writes exemptions and her conversations with patients who request them.
In Other News
- Dan Walters of CALmatters highlighted the forced closure of four Thrive charter schools in a column noting discrepancies between how state leaders approach accountability for charter schools and community colleges versus the state’s K-12 public school system.
- In the latest San Diego Explained, Ry Rivard and NBC 7’s Catherine Garcia teamed to explain how West Coast residents could be impacted by years of overuse of Colorado River water.
- Times of San Diego introduces Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar, who will be appointed San Diego’s new “Navy mayor” today.
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, and edited by Sara Libby.