San Diego, CA
San Diego suggests giving 4 projects $15M to build 500 new affordable homes
The city of San Diego Monday recommended allocating $15 million in Bridge to Home funding to four proposed housing projects, which would create a total of 528 affordable homes, pending city council approval.
The funding being recommended is part of the gap-financing program’s sixth round. In San Diego, Bridge to Home has spent nearly $108 million to expedite the construction of 2,148 affordable homes across 24 projects.
“We’re fighting every day to make housing attainable for all San Diegans,” Mayor Todd Gloria said. “With this new round of Bridge to Home funding, we’re driving forward hundreds of affordable homes and sending a clear message: San Diego is building a future where everyone has a place to live and a chance to thrive.”
In July, the city issued a notice of available funding, inviting developers to propose projects aimed at increasing the supply of low- to moderate-income housing units. The initiative offers gap financing to help make such projects viable.
San Diego received nine responses, requesting a total of $46.2 million. The city recommended four of those projects:
- Global Village by Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans / Hitzke Development in Redwood Village: 137 homes, 41 of which are dedicated to those who make 40% or less of the area median income. Development will also include a 2,000-square-foot childcare center, a global market and a community open space;
- The Joule by Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation / Citythinkers, Inc. in Grantville: 208 homes, 55 of which are set aside for those at risk of homelessness;
- Promenade Apartments by CRP Affordable Housing and Community Development / Community Revitalization Development Corporation in Hillcrest: 94 homes for small to large families, with 11 earmarked as permanent supportive housing units providing supportive services for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Eighteen homes will be for those at risk of homelessness; and
- Salvation Army Rady Center by Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation in East Village: 89 homes for seniors, 55 set aside as permanent supportive housing for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness and those with serious mental illnesses.
“Affordable housing is foundational to a thriving, inclusive city,” Economic Development Director Christina Bibler said.
“These investments would not only create much-needed homes, but they would also bring community benefits, like an on-site childcare center and locations in high- and highest-resource areas with access to quality schools, jobs, transit and cleaner environments. These investments will lead to stronger economic, educational and health outcomes for the San Diegans who need them most.”
The proposals were evaluated on how feasible they were, how they fit the neighborhoods they will be constructed in and community support. They were weighed more heavily if the projects were being considered in areas with nearby resources or had a plan for daycare.
Developers had to have been part of San Diego’s pre-qualified developers list.
According to the city, of the $15 million in this round of Bridge to Home funding, $10 million comes from former redevelopment funds, the use of which is restricted to creating new housing, including site improvements as well as construction.
The other $5 million is being provided by the city itself from federal housing and community development funding to allow smaller developers to build projects of 40 units or fewer.
City staff will present its recommendations to the Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Each loan will then need to be approved by the full City Council.
A total of 2,148 affordable homes have been at least partially financed through Bridge to Home since 2021, when Gloria began the program. Of these, 421 come with services to prevent people from falling into homelessness.
So far, 390 of the homes are occupied. Another 392 homes are currently under construction, with 286 of those expected to be completed by next spring.
Thursday, July 9
• La Jolla Town Council: 6 p.m., La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollatowncouncil.org
Friday, July 10
• La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club: 6:45 a.m., UC San Diego Faculty Club, 270 Muir Lane. lajollagtrotary.org
• Kiwanis Club of La Jolla: noon, La Jolla Community Center, 6811 La Jolla Blvd. kiwanisclublajolla.org
Sunday, July 12
• La Jolla Open Aire Market: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Girard Avenue at Genter Street. (858) 454-1699. lajollamarket.com
Monday, July 13
• La Jolla Library Book Club: 1:30 p.m., Community Room, La Jolla/Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave. The July book is “Fresh Water for Flowers” by Valérie Perrin. sandiego.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=316631
• La Jolla Planned District Ordinance Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
• Laughmasters Toastmasters: 6:30 p.m., online. Email jrmmt@cox.net.
Tuesday, July 14
• San Diego Blood Bank blood drive: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Hensel Phelps Construction Co., 9404 Genesee Ave. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. Photo identification is required. (619) 400-8251. sandiegobloodbank.org
• Rotary Club of La Jolla: noon, La Valencia Hotel, 1132 Prospect St. rotarycluboflajolla.org
• Co-op Toastmasters Club: noon, online at bit.ly/46W13bx (meeting ID: 849 4320 0407, passcode: cccu2020). (669) 900-6833. toastmasters.org/find-a-club/00001125-coop-club
• La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., online. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
Wednesday, July 15
• Torrey Pines (La Jolla) Rotary Club: noon, online. torreypinesrotary.org
• La Jolla Shores Association: 6 p.m., Martin Johnson House, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 8840 Biological Grade. lajollashoresassociation.org
Thursday, July 16
• La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club: 6:58 a.m., La Jolla Shores Hotel, 8110 Camino del Oro. Call Cheryl Collins at (760) 936-3272 or Steve Cross at (619) 992-9449.
• San Diego Blood Bank blood drive: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Sanford Burnham Prebys (patio outside Buildings 6 and 7), 10901 N. Torrey Pines Road. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. Photo identification is required. (619) 400-8251. sandiegobloodbank.org
• La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., online. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
Friday, July 17
• La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club: 6:45 a.m., UC San Diego Faculty Club, 270 Muir Lane. lajollagtrotary.org
Did we miss listing your community event? Email calendar information to Noah Lyons at noah.lyons@lajollalight.com by noon Thursday for publication in the following week’s edition. ♦
San Diego, CA
Elite California city set for mass illegal street vendor expansion as judge issues stunning verdict
San Diego seems to have no solution to its illegal street vendor problem and it’s only getting worse in many areas including the popular Balboa Park and Gaslamp Quarter.
Local business leaders are frustrated following the January 2026 California appeals court ruling, which forced the city officials to entirely halt the crackdown on street vendors.
“It’s a disaster,” Denny Knox, executive director of the Ocean Beach Main Street Association, told the San Diego Union Tribune last week.
An increasing number of street vendors are exploiting the court’s ruling and many don’t even bother to get a permit.
Executive Director of Gaslamp Quarter Association, Michael Trimble, said that street vendors block the sidewalks, making it difficult for the businesses in the area to function.
“The lack of action has also led to an escalation of activity, including new vendors setting up tents and selling goods without permits, health approvals or accountability,” said Trimble, the Union-Tribune reports.
Organized groups of hot dog vendors have returned to the Gaslamp Quarter—bringing associated hazards like open fires, blocked walkways, and the dumping of grease into storm drains.
“It’s so much of a slap in the face to merchants that have done things the legal way, the right way,” said Ruth-Ann Thorn, owner of Native Star boutique and Exclusive Collections Gallery in the Gaslamp Quarter, reports inewsource.
Officers can no longer impound vending carts and law enforcement in Ballpark District is restricted, SDPD’s Ashley Nicholes said in a statement, according to the Union-Tribune.
“Recent court rulings involving the city’s street vending ordinance have limited what police officers can do to enforce street vending laws,” Nicholes said.
San Diego’s tug-of-war with street vendors started in 2018 when the state law decriminalized aspects of street vending. The task to draft a vendor law fell into the laps of then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer in 2019, then passed on to Mayor Todd Gloria in 2021 and then Councilmember Jennifer Campbell.
The law, approved by the City Council in May 2022, banned vendors in Balboa Park, Little Italy, Ocean Beach and some beach areas during summer months. But, the merchants kept complaining about the lack of law enforcement and that led to the revision of the law in 2024.
The revised law made it easier for officials to impound vendors’ carts, limited free-speech protections, which didn’t include yoga classes on the beach and selling food.
After an immediate backlash, a federal appeals court ruling in June 2025 said the city’s ban on beach yoga classes is unconstitutional as they are protected under the First Amendment.
A California appeals court in the case of Imhotep Mustaqeem earlier this year ruled that San Diego’s revised 2024 street vendor law violated state law by establishing “overly restrictive” geographic no-vendor zones and restricted operating hours.
Imhotep Mustaqeem, a licensed vendor who had sold snacks outside Petco Park since 2009, sued the city after police impounded his cart under San Diego’s revised 2024 ordinance. While a lower court initially ruled against him, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ultimately vindicated Mustaqeem and quashed the 2024 street vendor law.
A California yoga instructor known as “Namasteve” is leveling up his warrior pose as he battles San Diego’s efforts to end his popular beachfront classes.
Steven Hubbard recently filed his third lawsuit over a 2024 city ordinance that prohibits teaching yoga to four or more people at local beaches and parks.
Hubbard, who’s been teaching yoga by the Pacific Ocean shoreline for 17 years, contends the local law violates his right to free speech because he doesn’t charge his students and instead accepts voluntary donations.
“It does set a dangerous precedent for government to be passing bans on specific types of speech that, for whatever reason, it doesn’t like,” Hubbard’s lawyer, Bryan Pease, told The Independent. “We don’t know why they decided yoga is something they want to target. They’ve never explained it, but it is concerning from a First Amendment perspective.”
Neither the San Diego mayor’s office nor the city attorney’s office replied to inquiries from The Independent.
The yoga ban is buried in a subsection of the San Diego Municipal Code that defines the “services” that are regulated at beaches and parks.
“Examples include massage, yoga, dog training, fitness classes, equipment rental, and staging for picnics, bonfires or other activities,” it says, marking the only time yoga is mentioned.
At the time the ordinance was introduced, Pease said, it was “put on the city council agenda as a sidewalk vending ordinance.”
“There was no public notice that they would be targeting the free and donation-based teaching of yoga in parks and beaches,” the lawyer said. “ I don’t even know that the city council members themselves knew what they were voting on.”
Videos posted on Hubbard’s “Namasteve Yoga” page on YouTube show scores of students following his instructions as they face the water in the Southern California sunshine.
San Diego park rangers issued Hubbard a total of 10 citations under the 2024 law, Pease said.
Some were for leading classes from his backyard while livestreaming on YouTube as students apparently watched on their devices by the beach, Pease said.
After Hubbard first challenged the 2024 ordinance in federal court, the judge overseeing the case denied a motion to block its enforcement, saying the First Amendment didn’t protect the teaching of yoga.
But that decision was reversed last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that Hubbard and fellow yoga teacher Amy Baack were “likely to succeed” in challenging the legality of San Diego’s public yoga ban.
“Teaching yoga is protected speech. The City’s prohibition on teaching yoga in shoreline parks is content-based and fails strict scrutiny,” according to the unanimous decision written by U.S. Circuit Judge Holly Thomas.
Hubbard has also filed two lawsuits in state court, with the most recent on June 22. It was first reported by the Times of San Diego.
It seeks unspecified damages for three tickets he received in May 2025, all of which charged him with giving a lecture without a permit.
The accusation came despite a ruling in the federal case that said requiring a permit to give a lecture “substantially overburdens” the right to free speech, according to Hubbard’s lawsuit.
All the citations issued against Hubbard were dismissed in April when the city attorney’s office didn’t appear in court to prosecute, Pease said.
Meanwhile, city lawyers have issued a series of subpoenas that seek “detailed GPS tracking information, all social media posts from all time and complete financial records for all financial transactions” involving Hubbard and Baack, Pease said.
Pease characterized the move as “pure harassment,” saying it seemed “calculated to have a chilling effect on people’s participation if they think their personal information is going to be obtained through these channels.”
“All that the city attorney has said to me about it is that it’s to prove that this is commercial activity, and they’re going to hire a financial expert to go through all these records,” he said.
A hearing on a motion to quash the subpoenas is scheduled for July 17 in state court, and pretrial discovery in the federal case is pending, with a deadline of August 28.
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