Morning Report: The Battle Against Homeless Shelters

By Voice of San Diego

December 6, 2024

Politicians proposing homeless service projects in San Diego face a harsh reality: The neighbors are not going to embrace them – at least initially.

That reality hit San Diego politicos hard this year. The beefing between shelters versus neighborhoods is our latest entry in Beef Week.

Mayor Todd Gloria faced the wrath and skepticism of Point Loma residents over plans to open a parking lot for people living in vehicles near the airport and protests from a broader swath of San Diegans – including nearby Mission Hills residents – over a proposed 1,000-bed shelter in Middletown. For now, he’s adamant that he’s not giving up on either project.

Over at the county, board Chair Nora Vargas successfully persuaded her colleagues to cancel a plan to put 150 tiny homes in Spring Valley following backlash from neighbors, losing out on $10 million in state cash that had previously been pledged for the project. Now fellow Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and other county officials are trying to weather the storm following protests from Lemon Grove residents over the 70-cabin project that the county is now pursuing there instead.

A residential neighborhood in Del Mar on Jan. 2. 2024. / Photo by Ariana Drehsler

The bottom line: As housed residents raise concerns about public safety and the homeless crisis, they are not excited about providing homeless residents a safe place to go near them. Opponents of homeless service projects often say they agree that San Diego needs more solutions to this problem, but they disagree on where those solutions should go.

So what can be done? Our Lisa Halverstadt rounded up the takes.

Read the full story here.

Hungry for more beef? Read more stories in our Beef Week series here.

San Diego voters rejected a sales-tax increase on the ballot and Wednesday, the mayor announced a hiring freeze, cuts to overtime for city employees and pausing some plans for capital improvement projects, as Axios reported.

The city is staring down the barrel of a $258 million budget deficit. Gloria’s immediate cuts will help, but they won’t be enough to overcome the projected shortfall. More structural budget cuts will be on the way.

It’s a dramatic shift in tone. Gloria and other leaders did not make the case that passing the sales tax increase would make or break the budget. City Councilmember Raul Campillo previously told Voice the city would be able to continue providing the same levels of service even if the sales tax didn’t pass.

Civic Center halted: Just more than two years ago, when the City Council and mayor decided to settle its lawsuit against the company that leased it the 101 Ash Street tower, they said it was because they wanted the building so they could complete a major revitalization of the Civic Center area.

The mayor said, Wednesday, in light of the budget crisis, he was putting a stop to the effort.

No word on if we can sell the building back.

Related: The mayor coming into the podcast studio today for a conversation about the budget and other things. Send any questions you have to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.

“The city of Del Mar is an Airbnb owner’s dream,” writes our Tigist Layne. That, however, is about to change.

The Del Mar City Council passed new rules regulating short-term rentals, which are set to go into effect in 27 days.

The new rules will limit the number of vacation rental homes to five percent of the city’s housing stock, or 129. There are exceptions though.

Read the North County Report here to find out more.

Almost a month after Election Day, Oceanside’s mayoral race is finally over with incumbent Mayor Esther Sanchez narrowly defeating her challenger Councilmember Ryan Keim.

In the end, Sanchez won the seat by only 232 votes, receiving 50.15 percent of total votes.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.