It’s been more than a year and a half since the city of San Diego enacted a controversial homeless camping ban.
Our Lisa Halverstadt dug into the numbers on tickets and arrests and found that most of the enforcement has occurred in city parks – and that Balboa Park in particular has been a hot spot.
Indeed, 40 percent of tickets and arrests have happened in the iconic park that borders downtown and other central city neighborhoods.
Police say the law’s focus on so-called sensitive areas including parks and within two blocks of schools has made it an especially useful tool to address homeless camps in parks – and that the team of officers assigned to Balboa Park has helped bolster numbers there.
Homeless service providers and homeless residents say the crackdown on makeshift camps in the park has led unsheltered people to disperse, complicating efforts to move them off the street and sometimes putting them in riskier situations.
Balboa Park stakeholders, meanwhile, say they notice fewer homeless camps since police started cracking down but emphasized they are still grappling with public health and safety concerns they say are tied to the park’s unsheltered residents.
The Progress Report: The Post-Pandemic Outlier
Our Jakob McWhinney has written extensively about school districts and students whose academic performance has been down post-pandemic.
There’s one local district that’s performing better than it did before the pandemic: the Santee School District.
In his latest Progress Report, McWhinney writes about what the leaders of the East County district see as the reasons for their success including an early reopening, a focus on students’ social-emotional needs and a day-to-day focus on data and supportive resources.
Read the Progress Report here.
Federal Health Cuts Hit the County Government
CalMatters reported that counties and universities could lose more than $1 billion in funding for public health and behavioral health amid a federal claw back by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency website.
County spokesperson Tammy Glenn confirmed late Thursday that the county learned it’s losing unspent Covid-19 Health Disparities Grant dollars. Glenn said most of the $24.2 million the county received has been used but could not immediately specify how much was left unspent.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the grant program to help health departments across the nation address health inequities in high-risk and underserved groups, including rural communities and minority populations.
“The county will continue to assess the impact of the grant termination,” Glenn wrote. “The county is monitoring changes at the federal level and is committed to providing services representative of the communities we support guided by our vision, mission and values.”
Another Top County Behavioral Health Official Departing
The county’s longtime clinical director of behavioral health services is retiring by the end of this month.
A county spokesperson confirmed that Dr. Michael Krelstein, whose responsibilities have included overseeing the County Psychiatric Hospital, notified the county earlier this year that he would retire by the end of March.
Krelstein’s departure comes as the county Behavioral Health Services Director Luke Bergmann prepares to exit county government in mid-April.
County spokesperson Tammy Glenn declined to detail interim appointments that may follow the two departures. She wrote in an email that the county expected to begin interviewing candidates for Krelstein’s position next week and to have new clinical director start in May.
Krelstein and Bergmann’s departures come at a time when the county is facing both significant federal funding uncertainty and a slew of major initiatives.
“The county team remains committed to the important work we do to provide behavioral health services, and we will ensure a smooth transition during this period of change,” Glenn wrote in a statement.
In Other News
- Our Scott Lewis explains why city hotel taxes will go up in May, years after voters weighed in on whether to increase them.
- A large Otay Mesa housing development can proceed following a settlement deal with Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups. (Union-Tribune)
- The Oceanside City Council voted to crack down on unlicensed street vendors in the city. (Fox 5)
- KPBS dug into a nonprofit advocacy group’s probe of past criminal cases that revealed White defendants were far more likely to be offered a shot at parole than Black defendants.
- Local leaders and business groups are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s forthcoming 25 percent tariffs. (CBS 8)
- The City Attorney’s Office reached a $200,000 civil penalty agreement with an apartment complex near University of San Diego that it alleged rented units without a working fire alarm system or a valid certificate of occupancy. (Times of San Diego)
- The Chula Vista City Council recently advanced a city-funded plan to convert a motel into permanent housing for homeless residents. (inewsource)
- Correction: We updated yesterday’s North County report to correct the number of homeless shelters in Carlsbad. The city of Carlsbad has one homeless shelter and it’s for men only. Read the updated post here.
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
“…a federal claw back by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency website.”
so the *website itself* is able to do that?! wow.
(how ’bout “a federal claw back *reported* by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency website.)