Morning Report: When Oceanside Suspended A Program For Poor Families, This Woman Spoke Up

By Voice of San Diego, the Voice of San Diego

March 7, 2023

When it recently came to light that Oceanside’s staff had suspended a program for low-income families without telling city officials, there was one person who advocated for it knowing the program’s impact firsthand.

Oceanside resident Claudia Muñoz is a former participant of the Family Self-Sufficiency program, a savings incentive program for low-income families that receive rental assistance.

Muñoz is a single mom of two, who has been on her own since she was 16. For years, she struggled to provide for her daughters before joining the Family Self-Sufficiency program.

She credits the program with helping her increase her income, get her high school diploma, move up the ranks in her career and gain financial stability.

She told her story at a recent Housing Commission meeting where she advocated for the program to be reinstated so other families could benefit from it, just like she did.

The Housing Commission restored it last week.

Read the full story here.

Border Report: The Fierce Debate Around Cuts to Mexico’s Elections Agency

A series of reforms to Mexico’s National Electoral Institute have sparked criticism from those who view it as a threat to the country’s democracy.

As elsewhere in Mexico, the reforms have been polarizing at the border, with some business leaders joining former mayors, members of opposition parties and ordinary citizens in calling on the Mexican Supreme Court to interfere. A couple weeks ago hundreds protested in Tijuana.

Voice of San Diego contributor Sandra Dibble writes that she has followed demonstrations in Tijuana with interest and a feeling of poignancy.

Dibble writes, “When I first arrived in Tijuana in the mid-1990s, Mexico was in the throes of a transition to electoral democracy after seven decades of rule under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, which maintained power through widespread fraud and coercion. Baja California stood at the vanguard of that change, a bastion of Mexico’s political opposition …”

But now, Mexico and Baja California are at a far different political moment.

Read the Border Report here.

Let’s Talk About Schools! With Our Handy Guide

We’re hosting free community workshops to discuss our new Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools. We’ll answer your questions about school choice, enrollment deadlines, performance data and more.

Learn more and get your copy of the guide here.

In Other News

• San Diego State University has selected a developer for its Mission Valley campus. The Los Angeles-based company LPC West will be responsible for the build of three office buildings and expects to break ground early next year, the Union-Tribune reports.
• More than 1,770 people have died from fentanyl in San Diego County since 2019, according to public records obtained by CBS 8. Though the fentanyl deaths impacted all age groups, the vast majority of deaths from accidental overdoses were in people between 25 and 34 years old. (CBS 8)
• The Gaslamp Promenade pedestrian plaza is set to open this summer, but concerns about its impact on bus routes are growing. San Diego officials say they will work on minimizing disruptions to popular bus routes, but many are worried that the traffic-blocking aspects of the plaza will impact transit routes that primarily serve low-income residents. (Union-Tribune)
• The San Diego City Council approved a resolution authorizing officials to apply for a maximum $5 million in funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. San Diego City is eligible for state funding thanks to the “prohousing” designation it recently earned from HCD, based on its housing-prioritizing policies. If approved, the city plans to use the funding on new constructions of permanent and transitional housing, as well as homelessness issues. (NBC 7)

The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Tianrui Huang. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.

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/.