Morning Report: More San Diegans Are Dying on the Streets

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There’s a health crisis within San Diego’s homelessness crisis.

As San Diego has grappled with its seemingly intractable homelessness problem, county medical examiners have also documented an uptick in deaths of homeless San Diegans.

Lisa Halverstadt reports that data from the county medical examiner’s office shows the number of homeless San Diegans who have died on the street or elsewhere has more than doubled over the last decade.

Now, health workers and volunteers say they are determined to better serve vulnerable homeless patients who may not seek health care on their own.

Halverstadt dug into the street-level tacks Father Joe’s Villages, Family Health Centers of San Diego and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department are ramping up, as well as the two nonprofits’ efforts to provide recuperative care options for homeless San Diegans being released from local hospitals.

‘What the Hell Is Going on’ With Family Separations

The Children’s Advocacy Institute at USD says several federal agencies failed or refused to produce documents in response to a records request last year about detainees at the border.

Now, the group is challenging the agencies in court and says they want to provide the public with a comprehensive look at the Trump administration’s handling of family separations at the border.

In the latest Border Report, Maya Srikrishnan says the new lawsuit focuses on finding the number of children who remain separated from their families, whether and how they were categorized by the government, their medical treatment and more.

“We want to know where they are and what they’re doing with them, what records they have and what their procedures are,” said Robert Fellmeth, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Institute. “We need to bring the government into compliance with basic law, basic constitutional and refugee law.”

Where the Sidewalk No Longer Ends

After years of complaints, San Ysidro students finally have a safe path to school.

NBC 7 San Diego reports that Mayor Kevin Faulconer was on hand Monday to celebrate the completion of the upgrades, which were stalled for years, along a previously sidewalk-less and curvy stretch of Old Otay Mesa Road between the neighborhood’s high school and middle schools.

Students also cheered the occasion with a mariachi performance.

Voice of San Diego has repeatedly chronicled the dangerous route, making it sort of an exhibit A of the city’s illogical sidewalk policies.

As Liam Dillon wrote, it’s rarely clear who is responsible for building city sidewalks.

In Other News

• A county initiative that produces the only rating system for child care in San Diego aims to improve the quality of preschools by offering free teacher training and funding opportunities. (Union-Tribune)
• A new study shows nearly 1 in 3 teachers are spending more on housing than is financially healthy. (KPBS)
• The city of Coronado has installed cool to the touch wheelchair accessibility mats at its beaches. (Union-Tribune)
• The Union-Tribune reports that SANDAG’s controversial transportation plan includes trains traveling up to 100 miles per hour along highway corridors and so-called congestion pricing for drivers.
• The San Diego County Office of Education is not pleased with the budget-strapped Sweetwater Union High School District’s plan to purchase a new software system – and now the Sweetwater school board is set to vote on whether to proceed anyway. (NBC 7)
• More than 2,000 people have signed a petition discouraging Scripps Health and Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc. from proceeding with a plan to build 120-bed psychiatric hospital in Chula Vista. (Union-Tribune)

Correction

Saturday’s Politics Report and Monday’s Morning Report misidentified the watchdog group that evaluates complaints against the San Diego Police Department. It’s the Community Review Board on Police Practices.

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Megan Wood, and edited by Sara Libby.