This post first published in the Dec. 6 Morning Report.
Former mayor Kevin Faulconer is endorsing Sunbreak Ranch, a controversial proposal to establish a remote camp for homeless San Diegans where services could be concentrated.
“We need bold and creative ideas to reduce homelessness in our region. Sunbreak Ranch is one of those creative ideas,” Faulconer wrote in a Tuesday statement. “I’m endorsing this concept as a way to get people off the streets and giving them the help they need to turn their lives around.”
Voice of San Diego asked a Faulconer spokesman how the former mayor would respond to concerns about relocating people far from where they are now staying or the East Miramar location, a spot that Sunbreak Ranch backers are eyeing that the commanding officer of the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar has said isn’t workable.
Spokesman Gus Portela’s response: “The concept of Sunbreak Ranch is not site specific,” Portela wrote. “It does exactly what the City of San Diego did under Mayor Faulconer’s tenure during Covid (at the convention center in partnership with the County) where we had all the help needed to turn lives around under one roof.”
What Faulconer’s not endorsing: Portela said Faulconer, a longtime Point Loma resident, doesn’t support a yet-to-be detailed city plan to convert H Barracks, a space it’s long used as a public safety training center, into a shelter site for hundreds of homeless San Diegans. The proposal has faced an avalanche of concerns. Portela declined to elaborate on Faulconer’s beefs with it, but said he’ll have more to say soon.
People need jobs to support themselves. Nobody in these articles or on the city council ever mentions that.
A sampling of some folks endorsing Sunbreak Ranch.
Dan Smiechowski – 2024 San Diego Mayoral Candidate
San Diego Landlord
Rick Sweeney – Retired Business Owner
Eric Nemoseck – Founder – SD CAN DO, representing 36 Downtown HOA’s
Jeff Hamann – Hamann Companies
Ryan Keim – Deputy Mayor – City of Oceanside
I don’t even LIKE Lawson-Remer. But it’s no surprise that Kevin Faulconer would endorse the concentration-camp concept of Sunbreak Ranch over solving the housing crisis. Thousands and thousands of San Diegans….including a high proportion of seniors…..cannot obtain housing despite being stone cold sober and mentally healthy. But the lazy politician panders to stereotypes that excuse him from responsibility for failing to get housing built during his prior terms in office…..stereotypes such as “If you are unhoused, it’s your own fault because you are of poor character. So we are going to give you a re-education camp where you will learn upright living. Like I have. Unemployed and separated from my family.” When on SANDAG, Faulconer couldn’t even get to Board meetings on time, he was too busy ordering dessert coffees and pastries in the espresso shop downstairs. Not a role model really.
Former mayor Kevin Faulconer needs to understand Sunbreak Ranch isn’t happening anywhere on MCAs Miramar. Base commander said NO. It’s over. Deal with it.
Kevin Faulconer is criticizing Lawson-Remer for wasting time and money on temporary solutions.
How is this compound of military style canvas tents any more permanent than what has been done before? It isn’t.
If the creators of Sunbreak Ranch want to test out their idea; that’s fine.
But participation and living there should be strictly VOLUNTARY.
People like Mullen, Walton and especially Faulconer cannot be trusted with the authority to confine ANYONE to an internment camp against their will.