Politics Report: The Airport Homeless Shelter Fight

This week, folks turned out for yet another Point Loma meeting to pan the proposed H Barracks homeless shelter campus. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria hopes the site, which will eventually house crucial facilities for the city’s Pure Water project, could in the meantime host shelters and services to serve 700 people or more.

It’s the next big step in what’s becoming the “you-can-go-there, but-you-can’t-be-here” homelessness approach.

“Projects like H Barracks are crucial in expanding the City’s shelter capacity, which then expands the City’s ability to enforce the Unsafe Camping Ordinance. Locations throughout the Peninsula that are currently experiencing issues with people sleeping in parks and on sidewalks near schools would see the benefit of this stepped-up enforcement,” wrote the mayor in his latest “Update on Homelessness” newsletter.

Former Mayor Kevin Faulconer has taken on opposition to the project as his own cause. While the site is across the bay from Point Loma, it’s too close to home for Faulconer’s Peninsula neighbors and they will have to be a big part of his campaign to unseat County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, if he hopes to be successful.

“It’s wrong. I stand with them because a temporary shelter near the airport won’t solve the problem we’re facing long term,” Faulconer wrote on Twitter.

I decided to call him up. Here’s our Q&A:

Politics Report: You’ve touted your record on homelessness but to the extent that you did have an impact as mayor, it was with temporary shelters. Now you’re hitting this plan because it’s temporary. Why are you opposed to this?

Kevin Faulconer: “Just going into something that you know is going to only last a couple years — that’s the biggest issue. Take aside the issues with the site — the potential contamination, the coastal concerns — to spend the type of money we’re talking about, knowing all the while that it’s only temporary, is a huge disservice to the community.

“Yes, we did temporary sprung structures. I chose the sites myself. And I made a promise to the community around them that it would be safe and I backed that up with neighborhood policing services.”

So is there a permanent thing somewhere you do support?

“I look at what we did in the Convention Center as a model of what works. We had the city and the county working together. We brought in housing navigation resources. We had city employees working there — it was a phenomenal success story of people working together. And more than 1,000 people got housing out of the Convention Center.

“To me it’s not about a location. It’s about that concept of a one-stop shop. It works. I was tired of arguing with the county about whose responsibility it is. The county should be taking the lead on this and it’s wrong for the county to say ‘We’re just going to provide services and you have to provide the brick and mortar solutions.’ The county has to lead and I would lead.”

But the Convention Center was also temporary. Was it even a homeless shelter for a year?

“But that was an emergency and what I mean is that it was the concept that was what worked. It worked. And now, let’s again treat it as an emergency it is. The county needs to lead. I was vocal about that when Republicans were running the county and now I’m vocal about it now that Democrats run the county.”

Do you have a place in mind where the one-stop shop could work?

“Don’t just look at city or county property. Don’t just lock yourself into one place. Find a place that you can use that won’t just be there temporarily. We’ve done temporary. We need a location that is going to work for the long-term. And you have to back it up with quality-of-life enforcement. I know you don’t like the Sunbreak Ranch concept (fact check: true!) but there are some great San Diegans who are investing their time and energy and will invest their dollars in this and we’re fortunate because of that and that’s how you get people invested in long-term solutions.”

You’re saying if you embrace the Sunbreak Ranch process something will come up?

“We need political will. That one-stop shop works if you dedicate the resources to it.”

I was walking in Ocean Beach the other day and noticed signs saying Faulconer stands with Trump. I’m not even sure how that’s allowed with various sign rules around elections because your race isn’t even on the ballot. Regardless, this issue is going to keep coming up. Where are you now on the presidential candidate?

“I always like it when my opponent wastes money. I’m focusing on local issues.”

OK so would you support Trump again?

“I’m supporting Nikki Haley.”

The Other Candidate Isn’t Sure Yet

For balance, I asked County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer where she stood on the project.

“I’m in the process of meeting with constituents and listening to them about their concerns and needs. I think it’s important to come up with practical impactful ways to address the crisis but in a way that’s responsive to the community. I’m in that information-gathering and listening stage. In next couple weeks, or month, I’ll be much clearer about what I think this project should look like,” she said.

And she hit Faulconer: “He’s just all for the most pie-in-the sky solutions rather than anything real. He’s against anything that’s proposed but not saying anything he’d be for,” she said.

Gloria’s assurances: The mayor said he would not allow people to walk up to H Barracks for services. That was a way to assure people that it would minimize loitering around the facility. And he made a list of promised attributes of the campus including fencing around it, lighting, on-site security and neighborhood patrols, accessible transportation services and no tolerance for weapons or drug and alcohol use.

But it would have all the one-stop shop type stuff Faulconer touted.

Mayor: Nothing Would Have Stopped Flood and It’s Going to Happen Again

On Feb. 22, Mayor Gloria appeared on Fox 5 and pushed back on the framing that the city’s lack of preparedness is what led to the devastating flooding Jan. 22.

Fox 5 anchor Rauol Martinez asked Gloria what he and city officials had learned to prevent it from happening again.

“I’m afraid that it will because this is about climate change. This is about extraordinary amount of rain in a very short amount of time something that we’re not used to here in San Diego and something that, to your question, we need to prepare for, look at this incident and see what can we do going forward to do better. Obviously, you know, maintaining our drainage system is important. However, every expert I talked to said that would make no difference in this particular situation and the neighborhoods still would’ve been flooded,” Gloria said.

And he’s not really into the stormwater tax: I have been hearing that Gloria is not exactly excited that Council President Sean Elo-Rivera proposed a tax hike to help pay for the massive list of projects the city has for stormwater system improvements.

“The mayor supports making major investments in our stormwater system and has been clear that we need to invest significantly in a broad range of infrastructure and facilities as well,” wrote Rachel Laing, in an email.

That wasn’t a yes. I asked for a more specific take on the tax and didn’t get it.

One of His Rivals Is Also Unsure About It

I asked Geneviéve Jones-Wright, the former public defender and now public interest attorney what her take on some of this was. Here is our conversation.

Politics Report: I saw an ad you made where you said you wanted to see San Diego’s public transit system overhauled to be more efficient and valuable but I also heard you opposed the tax increase on the November ballot. Where are you at on that?

Jones-Wright: “I have talked about the need for us to look at other ways to create the revenue instead of asking San Diegans to pay more taxes as the first solution for our woes. We all know how expensive San Diego is and, when we couple that with any type of tax increases, it makes it difficult for families. Now we’re going to hit them with multiple tax increases simultaneously? Each tax increase may seem minor, individually, but together they will create a major burden. I do not want to ask San Diegans to go into their pockets and pay more until our city government can show it can be more financially responsible.”

And would that go for the stormwater tax hike proposed as well?

“I have not made a public statement about that because I want to make sure I understand the landscape. This issue of our city leaders wasting and misusing funds does extend to storm drains because we took money and diverted funds from road repair and storm water infrastructure to purchase 101 Ash Street. We have not been good stewards of taxpayer money and we are not in good standing to ask for more money.”

The mayor says this was a 1,000-year storm and nothing would have prevented the flooding that occurred, and it will happen again. Do you have a reaction to that?

“The mayor is gaslighting every single victim of his systemic neglect. I watched him as he said any city’s system would have been overwhelmed. But other cities get more rain than that and don’t flood so catastrophically. Other cities were prepared and had channels that were clear. We know that residents in southeast San Diego have been using Get It Done app, as he asked them to, to report these drains and channels. And we know that two councilmembers prioritized funding for that neighborhood and mayor himself denied those funds.

“No, he is not being truthful and he is not taking responsibility for his disinvestment of communities of color and that is maddening.”

Larry Turner was here in the Politics Report saying nice things about you the other day. What do you think of him?

“Obviously, I think I’m the best candidate, based on my expertise and background. Larry seems to be a genuine person and he shows up and he is there to talk to voters about what matters to them and that’s way more than I can say about the mayor.”

Beating an incumbent mayor is extremely difficult. You need a tremendous amount of money and a powerful movement. If you advance to the runoff, how are you going to be able to win?

“If I make it to the general, there are going to be conversations with people about reconsidering their options. He has shown a lack of care for people of color in particular. Without me, they may have just seen this race and decided to hold their nose and vote the mayor. I give them a viable option where they can vote their hearts and have hope. They tell me my campaign gives them hope.”

If you have any comments or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.