Since last summer, when state officials gave the go-ahead, city workers have cleared homeless encampments on patches of Caltrans-owned land adjacent to freeways nearly 500 times. City workers have cleared one encampment near Imperial Avenue, for example, nearly 70 times.
And the sweeps aren’t cheap. Since early March alone, the city has spent more than $650,000 on the actions, $400,000 of which was reimbursed by the state. That big spending comes even as the city grapples with a massive budget deficit.
Still, despite the sweeps, the people who live in those makeshift camps are continually returning. For many, they return because they simply have nowhere else to go.
City homeless shelters are still packed, and placement rates continue to drop. In July, only 12 percent of people who requested shelter in the previous fiscal year received a bed. During the latest fiscal year, the rate has dropped to nine percent.
“It’s like they’re just hustling us around — it’s like they’re moving cattle,” one man said. “It seems totally unnecessary.”
Environment Report: The Tijuana River’s Toxic Gas Problem
Residents in South Bay woke up Monday morning to news that toxic gas from the sewage-polluted Tijuana River had once again invaded the neighborhoods of Nestor and San Ysidro.
Unfortunately, it’s news the community is used to. That’s why State Sen. Steve Padilla wants the state to update its standards when it comes to toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide coming from the Tijuana River.
He’s proposing a bill that would lower the danger threshold for hydrogen sulfide, which means local air pollution control districts could alert the public of toxic gas danger much earlier. Research suggests that the current threshold is set too high.
The bill would also require the state to hold public workshops and give more power to air pollution control districts to protect the public from harm, though it doesn’t specify how.
Read the Environment Report here.
Cops and Fire Budgets to Increase — Despite Deficit
Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing to increase the police and fire budgets — even as many cuts are expected, reports the Union-Tribune.
The city is facing a $120 million budget deficit and the mayor is set to present his full budget on Wednesday.
In the meantime, news has been dribbling out. The mayor also hopes to increase funding for streetlight and pothole repair, even as general road repair funding would decrease by almost 20 percent.
Gloria wants to add $27 million to the Fire-Rescue budget and $14 million to the police budget. Even with those minor increases, police and fire will both have to make some cuts.
But as David Garrick at the U-T reports that will “mean painful cuts elsewhere.” Those cuts haven’t been fully unveiled yet.
If the last two budget years have been any indication, the City Council may fight Gloria hard on his spending plan.
- More budget: A tentative deal would give more than 5,000 city of San Diego white-collar workers pay raises, which would be offset by forced one-week furloughs. The furloughs would offset the financial impact of 2 percent pay raises in the contract’s first year, but not the further raises that would come in 2028 and 2029. (Union-Tribune)
In Other News
- An independent review of San Diego City Hall by the San Diego Taxpayers Association reveals misspending and a bloated staff, including an alarming 461 percent increase in the number of middle managers working at City Hall in the last 15 years. The report says the city has consistently approved new positions, salary increases and new programs without properly weighing them against the city’s growing budget deficit. (Union-Tribune)
- Federal immigration data shows local hospitals treated significantly more ICE detainees last year, under the Trump administration, than they did in the year prior, under the Biden administration. (Union-Tribune)
- Law enforcement officials will hold a gun buyback event in San Marcos this weekend in an effort to get unwanted firearms off the streets. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, Tigist Layne and Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.