Two of the city’s homeless shelter providers have taken in dozens of migrants amid a spike in border crossings by migrants who cannot quickly connect with support systems elsewhere.
As of Tuesday, Alpha Project was sheltering 45 mostly Venezuelan migrants at three of its shelters while Father Joe’s Villages said late Monday it was sheltering 20 asylum seekers.
The flow of migrants into city shelters follows a surge of crossings along the southwestern border, including by some who previously moved into bustling San Diego migrant shelters that could only keep them for 30 days.
Our Lisa Halverstadt reports that Alpha Project and Father Joe’s are now grappling with how to aid migrants without Social Security numbers or access to other resources. The San Diego Housing Commission, which oversees most city shelter contracts, said it planned to meet with providers this week to discuss the needs of the refugee population and the support homeless service providers need to help them.
The spike in migrants at city shelters also comes months after county supervisors voted to identify county property that could be used to shelter migrants to try to avoid this outcome and a few weeks after two dedicated San Diego migrant shelters temporarily hit capacity.
Related: Tijuana’s shelters are also at a breaking point. KPBS reports that shelter operators and activists are sounding alarms about their shelter capacity. Some recently held a protest against a recently penned agreement that allows the U.S. to deport Venezuelan nationals to Mexico. Shelter operators, who say they don’t have beds, are concerned this will only further strain the system.
The Day in Housing Crisis News
City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera announced Tuesday he’ll call an Oct. 31 City Council vote on a resolution declaring housing a human right and hold a workshop to discuss new tenant protections at a time of surging rents and economic uncertainty.
In a statement, Elo-Rivera’s office said that the housing resolution co-sponsored by fellow Councilmembers Monica Montgomery Steppe, Councilmember Joe LaCava and Councilmember Raul Campillo would “serve as a guiding principle for the city in finding housing solutions for all San Diego residents. The resolution invites accountability in solving San Diego’s most urgent problem.”
Elo-Rivera’s office also touted the tenant protection workshop as a “major step in the creation of a tenant protection ordinance” where City Councilmembers and stakeholders can provide input.
The workshop will come a month after the expiration of the city’s no-fault eviction moratorium. As Halverstadt reported last month, Elo-Rivera had been eager to pursue new protections before the Sept. 30 expiration but his pitch remained under legal review.
- In late September, inewsource reveals that thousands of tenants across the region received notice from the county that COVID rental assistance they’d been approved to receive wouldn’t be coming. Now many are facing eviction. County officials told inewsource – and tenants – that they are still hoping to receive federal funding to cover those months but it remains unclear whether that aid will be flowing.
In Other News
- The Union-Tribune just broke the (unfortunate) news that railway fixes in San Clemente are now expected to halt all train service between San Diego and Orange counties through at least mid-December.
- Health officials are warning that San Diego County could be in for a tougher flu season than in previous years. This comes after hundreds of students at two local schools called out sick with respiratory-like illnesses. (KPBS)
- The Union-Tribune dove into the big unanswered questions surrounding the city’s hoped-for Civic Center redevelopment effort.
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
“the housing resolution co-sponsored by fellow Councilmembers Monica Montgomery Steppe, Councilmember Joe LaCava and Councilmember Raul Campillo…”
no editor/proofreader today, eh. 😉