Morning Report: Another City Is Considering Ditching Housing First

Vista could become the latest North County city to shift to a public-safety first approach to homelessness.

Our Tigist Layne reports that Vista Mayor John Franklin last week proposed that the City Council prioritize its shelter beds for Vista residents, crack down on criminal activity and dump the so-called housing first policy adopted by the state and federal governments. The proposal, which is expected to come to a future vote, closely matches a similar shift approved by the Escondido City Council earlier this year.

Worth noting: A move away from housing first could cost both cities state and federal dollars.

Refresher: Housing first, first enacted under President George W. Bush, calls for homeless people to be quickly connected to housing and then to voluntary services to help them stabilize. Opponents argue the policy doesn’t adequately address mental health, addiction and public safety issues and hasn’t delivered a dramatic dent in homelessness. Champions of the policy argue housing is the best medicine and that California cities haven’t effectively ramped up housing and services needed to put a dramatic dent in the problem.

Read the full story.

$8.5 Billion San Diego County Budget for Health, Public Safety Services

About half of San Diego County’s proposed $8.48 billion budget comes from federal and state coffers – and represents a 4 percent increase from the last budget. 

It means that money is tied to executing certain programs like food security through CalFresh, mental health services and local rent subsidy programs. 

About 40 percent of the budget would be spent in the areas of health and human services, supporting needs in substance abuse and behavioral health. The proposed budget includes $28 million for increased substance use treatment services, including additional beds that advocates have clamored for, and $15 million to help the county implement a new state conservatorship law next year

Around $100 million would be spent on homelessness and immigrant assistance,  including $7.8 million to help connect people living in riverbeds to housing.

About 32 percent is reserved for public safety, including $87 million for fire and emergency medical services. There’s also an additional $4 million over last year’s budget to help the medical examiner with an increased caseload of processing deaths due to fentanyl overdoses. 

There’s also a $2.5 million increase to help the county update its Climate Action Plan which has stalled for years after being thrown by the courts. 

Public hearings on the budget begin June 4. And the county’s expected to adopt it June 25. 

Gloria’s Proposed Budget Slammed for Hurting Neediest San Diegans

The city’s independent budget analysts warned that Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget hurts San Diego’s neediest the most. About 40 percent of the budget cuts the mayor proposed to cover a structural deficit targeted programs that are meant to support low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. 

Gloria’s former primary election contender, Geneviéve Jones-Wright, who leads the group called Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance, called the cuts a “devastating blow” to those communities in a Union-Tribune article. 

Gloria defended the cuts recently, saying that he didn’t like them either, but called them “necessary” to close that budget deficit and make progress fighting the homelessness and housing crisis. 

• Last month, our Lisa Halverstadt reported on the city and Housing Commission’s dispute over funding for city homelessness programs overseen by the housing agency. Now, as Fox 5 San Diego reports, the city’s Independent Budget Analyst’s Office has weighed in with a report noting the mismatch between the city and Housing Commission budgets that translate into a roughly $23 million decrease in city funding for homeless programs.
• Our MacKenzie Elmer reported on two climate change directives whacked under Gloria’s proposed budget: One that empties the city’s savings account to pursue creating a public utility and leaving the San Diego Gas & Electric territory. Another proposed cut pulls funding away from communities on the front lines of climate change, also generally areas of lower income with higher populations of people of color. 

In Other News 

• Nurses at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside are reporting staffing shortages they claim present safety concerns. (KPBS)
• While pro-Palestinian encampments begin to dismantle across the U.S., one recently built at the University of California-San Diego remains. (ABC 10)
• A water main project near the Sea World theme park and through to Mission Valley will cause road closures this summer. (inewsource)
• A federal jury earlier this week decided four Chula Vista police officers used legal force while responding to a mental health call involving a man who died after he was restrained and his head was covered with a mesh hood. (KPBS)
• Ex-county supervisor Nathan Fletcher wants a Superior Court judge to unleash text messages exchanged between the former Metropolitan Transit System employee who accused him of sexual assault and a close friend, arguing will show the relationship was consensual. (KPBS)
• Better mapping software and a new patch truck could help the city of San Diego easily fix pothole-ridden streets, city auditors say. (CBS 8) 

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. 

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