Homelessness is more visible than ever before, so the perception is that it’s growing and growing fast, but data tells a different story.
The 2022 point-in-time count shows there were fewer homeless people in San Diego than there were 10 years ago. In a new story, Will Huntsberry explains why reality doesn’t match perceptions.
Two things to keep in mind: First, the point-in-time count is flawed, but it is the most thorough effort to count each homeless person in the county. Second, the 2023 count will be out soon and people are bracing for what could be a significant increase.
The 10-year trend: Even if the count goes up, Huntsberry writes that the 10-year trend still has an important story to tell.
Homelessness hasn’t increased nearly so much as most people perceive it has and that’s because of a few factors.
The Cost of a Water Divorce
Two small farming communities in North County want to call it quits. They don’t want to buy their water in San Diego anymore because it’s too expensive.
Quick summary: San Diego’s water is imported from the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The transportation is managed by the San Diego County Water Authority. San Diegans support the cost of doing that by paying their water bills to 24 different water districts.
So, if two of the 24 water districts want to leave the Water Authority, that means someone will have to pick up their tab.
MacKenzie Elmer explains what that might look like for your pocketbook.
Read more about water costs here.
Politics Report: Republicans Have No Love for ‘Housing First’
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The similarity among the talking points of Republican elected officials last week on their opposition to “Housing First” as a homelessness policy led us to surmise that a coordinated strategy may be afoot.
This week, Republican elected officials held a joint press conference to explicate their opposition to “Housing First” as a homelessness policy.
Housing first is a set of policies based on the premise that the best first step to ending homelessness is stabilizing a person’s situation by giving them a secure place to live – without conditioning the housing on entering treatment. A precursor approach, transitional housing, provided shelter with less autonomy than a personal home and tied that shelter to a client’s willingness to attend things like addiction or mental health treatment.
The Politics Report gets into what local Republicans had to say. Also some providers are uncharacteristically jumping into the conversation.
For more, read the Politics Report here.
VOSD Podcast: In the latest VOSD Podcast, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña unpack a new law that is rocking campaign finance, a new-ish law that is stifling street vending, and a would-be law that could tackle street camping.
Listen to the full episode here.
In Other News
- ICYMI: In the latest Cup of Chisme, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña shares an update on how local street vending rules are impacting vendors. Read the newsletter here.
- The Union-Tribune reports that San Diego Unified officials acknowledged that a data breach last fall affected current and former employees not just students. We reported last month that the hack affected student medical records.
- KPBS profiled Padres owner Peter Seidler. He spoke about his interest in helping address San Diego’s homeless crisis.
The Morning Report was written by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Scott Lewis.