Recuperative care facilities designed to take in homeless hospital patients are broadly seen as a key strategy to aid people who could otherwise be forced back onto the street.
Yet state Medi-Cal insurance reforms meant to increase access to facilities that support unhoused people recovering from an illness or injury had the opposite effect when they rolled out a couple years ago.
Our Lisa Halverstadt reveals that San Diego County recuperative care facilities saw plummeting referrals following the 2022 reforms despite the region’s increasingly aging and health-challenged homeless population. Increased bureaucratic red tape and confusion that’s endured since then have sometimes translated into empty beds.
Why it matters: As Halverstadt and Voice of San Diego contributor Peggy Peattie previously reported, thousands of homeless San Diegans are ending up in local hospitals each year – and many cycle between local hospitals and harsh conditions on the street that exacerbate their health problems. Many of those patients have Medi-Cal insurance and at least some could qualify for potentially a life-changing recuperative care stay.
What about shelter beds? City of San Diego – home to the region’s largest share of homeless shelter beds – doesn’t have beds set aside for homeless patients leaving hospitals or a way for hospitals to directly refer patients to its shelters or safe sleeping sites. This means homeless patients often end up back on the street despite a state mandate to prioritize getting them into shelter.
One Election Update: Chula Vista Doesn’t Want Andrea Cardenas Back
Former Chula Vista Councilwoman Andrea Cardenas has lost ground as of Thursday.
The latest count shows that she is now in fourth place for the seat she resigned from last month. Cardenas and her brother, Jesus Cardenas, each pleaded guilty to two counts of grand theft for defrauding the government of thousands of dollars.
We had wondered if she’d make it to November. Her attorney had said that she would serve again if voters re-elected her to the seat. But it seems that’s not going to happen.
School trustee Cesar Fernandez leads the race for Chula Vista’s District 4 seat. Rudy Ramirez, a former councilman, is in second. Delfina Gonzalez is in third. The top-two vote getters move to the General Election.
Hayes still has a shot in the 75th Assembly: Carl DeMaio’s hoped to run against a Democrat in the runoff for the race to replace Assemblywoman Marie Waldron. But the latest count of ballots released by the Registrar of Voters Thursday had Republican Andrew Hayes gaining ground on Democrat Kevin Juza for the second spot in the runoff.
Mason Herron, a local political consultant, is helpfully providing not just the latest count numbers but also how much they have changed since the previous update. Hayes gained more than 300 votes on Juza for second place in the latest count. The registrar still must count an estimated 40,000 votes from the district and Hayes is down 1,813 votes.
Statewide behavioral health measure Proposition 1 remains a nail biter. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about why the measure with major campaign cash that was championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom – and once expected to glide to victory – is now too close to call.
Colorado River Drought Solution Creates Division
It’s now north versus south on the drought-plagued Colorado River.
Western states that drink from it dropped new plans on how to rapidly cut use of the river this week. But California, Arizona and Nevada – which make up the lower river basin – have different ideas about how to do it than their northern basin partners, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is playing the role of mediator between the two basins as the states haggle over how to cut their use before 2026, when the terms of the last round of dealmaking and compromise on water use expires, reports Rachel Becker of CalMatters. If the warring parties can’t come to terms, the feds could throw down its own mandate – but that risks triggering lawsuits from and between states.
In the new deal, California, the river’s biggest user, offered to ration water by 10 percent when water levels on major reservoirs are below 69 percent capacity. Arizona agreed to shoulder a 27 percent cut and Nevada by 17 percent. Mexico, if it agrees, by 17 percent as well.
Not so fast, said the Upper Basin. They want more aggressive cuts from the Lower Basin states and well before reservoirs dip to lower levels, Becker reported. Becky Mitchell, a Colorado representative on the Upper Basin negotiating team, basically said the Lower Basin’s offer was “status quo.” JB Hamby, a California representative on the Lower Basin negotiating team, called the Upper Basin’s plan “draconian” and warned it would cause real devastation to southern California.
But the Lower Basin’s plan leaves out some key details, like which water users – like the Imperial Valley Irrigation District that Hamby represents, would have to forego or whether they’d be compensated.
The Bureau of Reclamation plans to finish assessing the proposals by December.
In Other News
- San Diego State’s new Mission Valley development opened its 34-acre river park this week. (KPBS)
- A study released Thursday found that migrant drowning deaths off the coast of San Diego have dramatically increased since the federal government made the border wall taller. (Times of San Diego)
- San Diego’s Commission on Police Practices is reviewing the police department’s pursuit policy following the death of two young boys. (NBC 7)
- A lawsuit against the San Diego Housing Commission could clarify whether low-income tenants with Section 8 vouchers throughout California are covered by the state’s rent cap law. (inewsource)
- Orange County unseated San Diego as the No. 1 toughest place to find an apartment. (Union-Tribune)
- Scripps Health is halting labor and delivery services at its Chula Vista hospital. (10 News)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, MacKenzie Elmer and Scott Lewis. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.