It’s been a year since San Diego passed its unsafe camping ordinance, which banned camping in most public spaces, and implemented safe sleeping sites to bolster the city’s shelter offerings.
Ahead of his re-election bid in November, Voice of San Diego Editor in Chief Scott Lewis sat down with Mayor Todd Gloria to reflect on the city’s response to homelessness, what’s working and what’s not.
The conversation also gets into Gloria’s feelings about a local ballot proposal to increase San Diego’s sales tax by 1 cent, up to 8.75 percent, which proponents are calling the “Penny for Progress” plan.
Lastly, at the behest of a passionate reader, Lewis will ask Gloria about a recent municipal code update that banned popular yoga classes in some beach locations, and created a more robust permitting system for fitness classes in all public spaces.
THANK YOU for this very essential conversation! 9 mo’s w/ capacity for 535 homeless residents in the Safe Sleeping Areas, yet @MayorToddGloria
says this interim step is req’d to house people:
“As of late March, 36 people living at the safe sleeping sites had either moved into permanent housing or were scheduled to do so soon. Four had died.” https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/04/homeless-encampment-ban/
Interesting interview with the mayor. Lots of softball questions and constant expressions of agreement from Scott. On the 1000 cots in a warehouse, starting at $3000 per cot ($30 million/yr) plus $18 million for improvements and other expenses, instead of asking why pay $30,000 ($2500/mo) per cot, Scott said “$2000 to $3000 per month” which is flat wrong. Scott should have asked why a family of 4 would cost $10,000/mo or $120,000 per year. The mayors response that the homeless people and couples and families couldn’t handle living in a market rate apartments went unchallenged, as did every other response from the mayor. Next time maybe listen instead of thinking about the next question, and not such constant agreement with the mayor’s word bath responses?