San Diego City council held a special meeting Monday where they unanimously declared housing as a human right.
It comes as San Diego, for the first time, recorded more newly homeless residents than those that are being rehoused.
“This is important for us as a city to make this commitment to the residents of San Diego amidst our housing and homelessness crisis, and we will do what it takes to meet the moment,” San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said. “Everyone has a stake in this issue.”
There was also a workshop for stronger tenant protections that took place at the meeting.
ACCE San Diego and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans had members that spoke about the current state of the city’s Tenants' Right to Know Ordinance.
“Stronger tenant protections are a requirement for many of our families to remain in their homes,” PANA’s Asma Abdi said.
There was significant push back against the new proposal from landlord groups, including concerns about overall tenant safety and construction of new housing.
“The ramification of the draft policies, while some portions are legally questionable — are going to be destructive to more quality housing being built and being renovated,” F&F Properties founder Dan Feder said.
Even though rent is starting to go down, the compounding effect of inflation has many people’s finances stretched thin.
“Every day our families in San Diego who love to live here — and want to remain here — are facing evictions, facing housing instability,” Abdi said.
Fifty percent of households in the City of San Diego are housing cost-burdened.
The city needs to build over 100,000 housing units by 2029 to meet its current and projected needs, with nearly 45,000 units being for low-income earners.
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A new report found people of color, especially Black people are routinely stopped at higher rates than white people by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Many of these are so-called pretextual stops and not in response to traffic violations. Then, the alleged break-in and attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband last week has not turned down the volume of vitriol. New lies and mockery have found their way into our public discourse. Plus, one East County hospital is bringing back a program that provides comfort and support to those who have no one else. And, San Diego Gas & Electric is proposing an experiment to reduce the carbon footprint of natural gas, by blending it with hydrogen. Later, on Tuesday voters in San Bernardino will face an important decision: whether to succeed from California and form a new state. And in Riverside County, one of the state’s most competitive House races pits a Republican incumbent who opposed certifying the presidential election against a Democratic challenger who helped prosecute January 6th rioters. And finally, later this month, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team will be among the 32 teams taking the pitch in Qatar as part of the world’s most watched sporting event, the FIFA World Cup. -
One hospital in East County is bringing back a program that provides comfort and support to those who have no one else. In other news, the San Diego City Council met Monday to declare housing as a human right and discuss further tenant protections. Plus, there’s a new contemporary art installation on view at the San Diego Museum of Art.
