Category: Homelessness

Well, I guess we know where District 3 Councilmember Stephen Whitburn stands on a key issue for San Diego — short-term rentals.

An association of San Diego’s short-term rental owners is throwing a fundraising for him this week. Whitburn is running for re-election and the Short-Term Rental Alliance (SDSTRA) “is delighted to invite you to a special fundraising event.” Their invite states “Your support is crucial in ensuring that Councilmember Whitburn can continue his dedicated service to our community.”

Wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres and hobnobbing with the councilman are the draws and then you too can mingle with other owners of short-term rentals and learn how to keep local electeds at your fingertips.

We want to show the City how insane 1000 people would be at Kettner and Vine.

By Paul Krueger / Special to OB Rag

The future of Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed 1,000 homeless shelter won’t be known until the City Council returns from its summer break and resumes meeting in September.

But there are rumblings at City Hall that the mayor has — or will — abandon his controversial “mega-shelter,” proposed for an industrial-commercial block at Kettner and Vine Streets, east of the airport in San Diego’s Middletown neighborhood.

The proposed shelter faced a barrage of criticism from residential neighbors who complain that the city made no effort to listen to or discuss their concerns. But those nearby homeowners, renters, and small business owners on India Street are hardly alone in their opposition.

Watching some of the news video of the DNC (Democratic National Convention) yesterday, I cringed every time the camera panned and we could see San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in the crowd.

I thought, OMG, I bet Gloria is touting himself on the national stage as a mayor who has solved both the housing crisis and the homeless crisis, I’m sure. And on the surface, Gloria is just the type of mayor Harris would want to showcase — if all that was true. But, of course, it’s not true.

We know that Vice President Harris and Gloria know each other -. But does she know how unpopular he is in his own hometown?

by Marisa Kendall /Cal-Matters / August 12, 2024

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s message on homelessness in recent weeks has been clear: The state will no longer tolerate encampments, and cities shouldn’t either.

Californians who live on the streets, as well as the outreach workers who support them, say they’re already feeling the difference. Places where someone used to be able to pitch a tent and sleep in peace have suddenly become inhospitable. Police seem to be clearing camps more often and more aggressively, and are less likely to give advance notice before they come in with bulldozers and trash compactors, according to anecdotal reports in some cities. Even in cities where officials said publicly nothing would change, unhoused people and activists say it’s become harder to be homeless.

By Damon Zwicker

Profound disappointment and outrage are the only words I can think of to describe the deplorable conditions in the Gaslamp Quarter, particularly around Fourth Avenue and E Street. As a visitor to San Diego as an employee of an event company tasked with installing experiential marketing events for Comic-Con San Diego, I was shocked, astonished and horrified by what I witnessed during my recent visit.

The streets are plagued by individuals evidently intoxicated, littered with glass pipes and needles. Sidewalks are covered in feces and urine, trash is strewn everywhere, and orange-vested city workers are reduced to pressure washing the streets and mopping the sidewalks in a futile attempt to maintain some semblance of cleanliness.

By Piper French / Nation Magazine / August 1, 2024

California’s two most marginalized constituencies, its homeless and its imprisoned, each represent about half a percentage of the state’s 39 million residents. Both groups are vulnerable to abuse and untimely death, suffer from the deprivation of vital resources, and have little say in political discussions about their future. Black people are notably overrepresented in each category.

There is a reason the latter population passes basically unremarked upon and why the former is considered the marquee problem of the state, synonymous with the supposed crisis of California itself,

By Kate Callen

It’s no surprise Mayor Todd Gloria will not give up on his proposed 1,000-bed homeless shelter, not even after the idea was denounced at Monday’s long and contentious City Council meeting. He seems vexed that the Council has grown a collective spine. He is giving councilmembers one month to come to their senses.

In council chambers Monday, Gloria was defiant.

By Patty Ducey-Brooks

Residents, business owners and homeless advocates from throughout the city of San Diego are meeting at 1 p.m., Monday, July 22 at City Hall, located at 202 C Street, to urge the City Council to fulfill its fiduciary duty by rejecting the flawed Kettner & Vine Homeless Shelter Lease because of the major operational, legal and financial risks it imposes on San Diego identified in the City Attorney and Independent Budget Analyst Reports to the City Council.

(1)  Lack of Adequate Protection for the City:

The Callen Report

By Kate Callen

Once again, Mayor Todd Gloria wants the instant gratification of a real estate deal that seems financially perilous and legally tenuous. This time, he may not get it. Like 101 Ash Street and Midway Rising, the Kettner and Vine homeless campus has been hurtling forward at Gloria’s insistence since he abruptly announced the project April 4.

The scenario is all too familiar: Gloria is exuberant about a land use proposal, and he wants it to happen fast. Maybe the estimated costs of tenant improvements seemed reasonable (101 Ash). Or maybe the winner of a bidding process was an unknown player with no track record (Midway Rising).

From 7SanDiego

The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a city of San Diego permit application to create nearly 200 parking spaces for people experiencing homelessness at the H Barracks site in Point Loma.

According to the permit application, the site would have 190 parking spaces of varying sizes for standard vehicles, RVs and drivers who need accessible stalls. The plans also include a motorized entry gate, fencing with privacy screening, a pet relief area and cell phone charging stations among other things.

by Marisa Kendall /CalMatters/ June 28, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court today granted cities more power to arrest, cite and fine people who sleep outside in public places — overturning six years of legal protections for homeless residents in California and other western states.

In Grants Pass v. Johnson, the court sided with Grants Pass in a 6-3 decision, ruling that an ordinance passed by the Oregon city that essentially made it illegal for homeless residents to camp on all public property was not unconstitutional.