With a new plan from the city, a call for thousands of new homes and aid slots for homeless San Diegans has been made with an expected cost of $1.9 billion. Mayor Faulconer’s Housing Commission has urged the city to double the number of housing units in the next decade.
To accomplish this, about 2,800 supportive units and changes to 700 existing units would need to be built and completed in the next ten years. Furthermore, 60 percent of these changes would need to be lined up in the next four years, costing the city approximately $577 million.
The city hopes to accomplish many things with this new plan. These goals include building the 2,800 supportive units, altering 700 existing units to have supportive housing subsidies and supportive services, developing 1,140 temporary rental assistance units, and producing 760 homelessness prevention subsidies.
Consultants Ann Olivia and Liz Drapa of the Corporation for Supportive Housing said the lack of low-income and supportive housing in San Diego was the main barrier to moving San Diego’s homeless population off the streets.
“This contributes to low rates of permanent housing placement and a feeling of hopelessness by people served through the system,” Olivia and Drapa wrote.
An analysis published last year by San Fransico Controller’s office found that San Diego had the smallest number of supportive housing units while having the fourth largest homelessness population in the nation.
A change needs to be made and Mayor Faulconer’s leadership behind the Housing Commission has been pivotal in making such great leaps towards a better San Diego with a solution to its homelessness problem.
