Those paying attention know that San Diego Unified has big plans for housing – specifically affordable housing for staff. Last year, district leaders signed an MOU with the teachers union agreeing to create a plan to develop housing for at least 10 percent of district staff by June. Officials even allocated $206 million of the $3.2 billion bond voters approved in 2022 to developing workforce housing.
They’ve already taken some steps. The district partnered with a developer to build the 260-unit Livia project in Scripps Ranch, which includes affordable housing units that district employees get first dibs on. Last April, the board also approved the beginning of negotiations with a developer to build affordable housing at the now-vacant Central Elementary – the proposed site of that contentious safe parking site we’ve been writing about.
Tomorrow night’s board meeting marks an even bigger step: Trustees will vote on three workforce housing-related items.
- One reaffirms the goal of building housing for 10 percent of staff on district property over the next decade while laying out priorities for the development – like retaining ownership, maximizing affordability and creating “sustainable communities.”
- The second issues a request for proposals from developers for five sites throughout the district, including the district’s headquarters at the Eugene Brucker Education Center in University Heights. Leaders expect to be able to build 1,500 units of affordable workforce housing at those sites, thus fulfilling the goal of providing housing for 10 percent of its staff.
- The third item is an agreement to establish what’s called a regional housing finance authority in partnership with the San Diego Community College District. These housing authorities are a new thing, having been created by a 2024 law, SB 440. They give members of the authority more leeway to raise and allocate funding for affordable housing projects and – importantly – exempt the organizations from some requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, which can often act as a costly and unwieldy hurdle to new development projects. Exactly what this will look like for the two districts isn’t entirely clear – this would be the first such housing authority created under this new law.
“A society that prices teachers out of the communities in which they teach has lost its way,” Board President Cody Petterson said during a Monday press conference previewing the plans. “We are committing not only to housing at least 10 percent of our certificated and classified staff in the next five years but to leading our region in the development of community-guided, job-adjacent, transit-supportive, mixed-income affordable housing.”
About that San Diego Trash Fee
If you’re a homeowner in the city of San Diego, get ready to start budgeting for a new fee: trash pickup. City officials are still figuring the details, but you could be looking at a fee of $53 a month, or $636 a year, on your property tax bill.
How we got here: San Diego voters OK’d a measure in 2022 to allow the city to study and implement a fee for collecting trash. The original projects in the ballot estimated a fee would range from $23 to $29 per month per customer, but now it’s higher.
On the latest Why it Matters episode, our Scott Lewis explains what this means for San Diegans and how the fee compares to other cities. The proposed fee also comes with proposed new services for homeowners such as free container replacement and curbside bulky items pick up.
The city is hosting open house meetings through April to allow residents to learn more about the proposed fees. The next one is today at 5:30 p.m. at the Linda Vista Library. You can find more meetings here.
Oceanside Police Considering Using ‘First Responder’ Drones
The Oceanside Police Department is considering using drones to help quickly locate and view potential crimes, accidents or other emergency situations.
The department has been offered a state grant for a 13-month trial of the “first responder” drones, which can automatically fly to a location within seconds of a 911 call. The department’s current drones require an officer to arrive at the scene before launching the drone.
More than a dozen cities in California already use first responder drone systems, including Chula Vista, which was one of the first cities in the nation to launch a similar program.
Voice of San Diego has previously reported that many cities don’t always disclose how police drones are used and what information they are collecting. Oceanside’s police officials told the Union-Tribune they have a written policy that outlines who can see or distribute data collected by the drones.
In Other News
- At least one ICE agent visited a homeless shelter in downtown San Diego last week with a warrant for a specific individual, who was then taken into ICE custody. The visit comes after San Diego recently distributed guidelines for when and how homeless shelters should cooperate with immigration officials. (Union-Tribune)
- Outside cash from independent committees is dominating the special election for a new District 1 county supervisor. Independent committees have so far raised more than five times as much as the campaigns controlled directly by the candidates. (Axios San Diego)
- Students and faculty of Cal State San Marcos staged a walkout and protest on Monday aiming to ensure that all California State University campuses be sanctuaries from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, that Ethnic Studies and DEI initiatives be protected and more. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Tigist Layne. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.