Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.
Gage Forster
San Diego, CA
Officials believe San Diego is well positioned as cities compete for dwindling state homeless dollars
Gov. Gavin Newsom warned recently that cities and counties could lose state funds targeted at addressing homelessness if they don’t show real progress in getting people off the streets.
In San Diego, local officials say they’re finally starting to see that progress.
The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported a roughly 7% drop in homelessness countywide in last year’s point-in-time count, from about 10,605 people in 2024 to about 9,905 in 2025.
In the city of San Diego, homelessness — sheltered and unsheltered — dropped by 14%.
In his recent State of the City address, Mayor Todd Gloria pointed to the reduction as proof that the city’s approach to homelessness is working.
That progress puts the San Diego region in a relatively strong position as the state tightens the rules around Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funding, known as HHAP — one of the largest sources of state money for homelessness programs — and as other funding sources shrivel.
Temporary fix grows important
HHAP was launched in 2019 as a one-time infusion of state cash to help cities and counties respond to the growing homelessness crisis. Over several years, it became one of California’s key homelessness programs, delivering roughly $1 billion a year statewide for shelters, outreach, rental assistance and interim housing.
That changed last year, when lawmakers approved no new HHAP funding amid a budget shortfall. Newsom proposed restoring the program in the upcoming budget, but at about half its previous size — $500 million — and attaching stricter accountability requirements.
To qualify for future funding, cities and counties must show they are doing a number of things the governor has pushed: adopting strong encampment policies, maintaining a state-approved plan to build new housing, earning a “pro-housing” designation from regulators, putting up local matching dollars and showing measurable progress at reducing homelessness.
San Diego officials say the region checks those boxes.
Both the city and county have encampment ordinances that align with Newsom’s “model” policy and have stepped up enforcement in recent years. Each also has a state-approved housing element, and San Diego was among the first cities in California to earn a pro-housing designation, which the state gives to jurisdictions that streamline approvals and adopt policies aimed at increasing housing production. The county followed soon after.
City leaders say they have used HHAP dollars to provide more shelter beds, rent subsidies and outreach teams to get people off the street and into stable housing. The county has used the money to provide housing subsidies for at-risk populations, such as foster youth and seniors, and develop plans for emergency housing programs.
Frustration in Sacramento
Walt Bishop, director of government affairs for the city of San Diego, said the region has been preparing for the accountability shift.
“There was frustration from the governor’s office and the Legislature that (they’re) putting a lot of state investment in this and not seeing visual results on homelessness,” he said.
Bishop said the city believes it can meet those expectations.
“You give us this money, we will be accountable,” he said. “You set the markers, and we’ll meet them.”
But housing officials and advocates warn that without new, ongoing funding — especially long-term funding — the region could struggle to sustain the improvements it’s made.
Funding sources that helped fuel recent gains, including federal housing vouchers tied to affordable housing projects, are tapped out, even as the need for deeply affordable housing continues to grow.
Ryan Clumpner, a San Diego Housing Commission board member, said recent progress has relied in part on state funding that’s temporary or, like HHAP, inconsistent.
“We are running out of options at a rapid pace, and every intervention that people are familiar with — almost all of those are coming to an end in the next one to three years,” he said. “And there’s really no plan for what we’ll do after that.”
Buying hotels, building shelters
San Diego Housing Commission CEO Lisa Jones said federal programs, such as housing vouchers, along with state funding, including HHAP and Homekey, have been “foundational” to San Diego’s homelessness response, helping boost the number of shelter beds, develop permanent supportive housing and stabilize people at risk of losing their homes.
Homekey, a state initiative launched during the pandemic, helped cities buy hotels, motels and other properties and convert them into housing for people experiencing homelessness.
San Diego used Homekey funds to create more than 600 housing units. The program is now winding down, and state officials have not indicated it will continue at the same scale.
“The reduction or elimination of these funding sources would hinder further progress,” Jones said, adding that the commission is now placing greater emphasis on homelessness prevention and housing stabilization to keep people from falling into the system in the first place.
Federal housing vouchers, which have played a key role in San Diego’s response to homelessness, are also under increasing strain.
Stephen Russell, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, said vouchers have effectively been frozen at the federal level for years.
“Meanwhile, rents have gone through the roof,” he said.
Vouchers generally require tenants to pay about 30% of their income toward rent, with the voucher covering the rest, up to certain limits. As rents rise, that gap grows.
“The Housing Commission was essentially subsidizing the gap,” he said.
That money is now gone.
Voucher squeeze
Earlier this year, the Housing Commission decided to require some voucher holders to pay a larger share of their income toward rent, rather than cutting people off from assistance altogether.
“The choice was, do we take vouchers away from 1,600 families… or do we ask everybody who’s capable to pay some more? And so they’ve gone with that second choice,” he said. “It was unacceptable to them as policymakers to put people out on the streets.”
The voucher squeeze also affects what kinds of housing developers are able to build.
Affordable housing projects typically rely on a complicated mix of tax credits, public subsidies and private financing. For households earning less than 30% of area median income — including many people exiting homelessness — rent alone does not cover the cost of operating housing.
When someone has almost no income, the math just doesn’t work without a subsidy, Russell said.
“If they can only pay $300 a month, but it costs you $700 or $1,000 a month to pay the mortgage on that unit, that’s where the voucher comes in,” he said.
Those subsidies, known as project-based vouchers, are especially important for permanent supportive housing, which pairs housing with services for people with serious health or behavioral health needs.
Without vouchers, Russell said, developers are unlikely to bring forward new projects serving the lowest-income residents.
Gains at riskCity and county officials say that HHAP funding has played a major role in preventing homelessness from getting worse, even if that impact isn’t always obvious.
In a recent presentation on Newsom’s budget, Monica Saucedo, a senior fellow at the California Budget and Policy Center, said declines in homelessness show that targeted spending has worked.
“Over the last several years, the state has invested over $1 billion on average annually through (HHAP), and the results speak for themselves,” she said.
But Saucedo warned that scaling back the program could undo those gains.
“Even though HHAP was designed as temporary funding, these dollars have become core to California’s homelessness response systems statewide,” she said. “Losing or pulling back this funding now poses a real risk to the progress we’ve made.”
Russell put it more bluntly: “Turn off the tap and see how many people come flooding back out on the streets.”
At the same time, forces driving homelessness — high rents, limited housing supply and economic instability — continue to operate at a much larger scale.
“The system producing homelessness is still running full speed,” Russell said. “We’re just trying to keep up.”
There are some potential sources of relief. Recent federal legislation expanded low-income housing tax credits, which could help finance more affordable housing, Russell said. State lawmakers are also debating a large housing bond that could go before voters later this year.
Locally, proposals to create dedicated revenue streams — such as taxing second homes or short-term rentals — could provide more predictable funding, though those ideas remain controversial.
A spokesperson for Mayor Todd Gloria acknowledged the risk posed by shrinking state and federal support, but said the city is preparing to adjust.
“The mayor has warned that a reduction in state and federal support can erode the progress we’ve made,” David Rolland said. “But he is quick to point out that, as we always do, we will aim to maximize limited resources.”
When John Resnick opened Campfire on a quaint little street in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2016, some locals weren’t sure what to think. The coastal enclave wasn’t exactly awash in innovative, chef-driven establishments, so it was a shock to see the dining room consistently full. Early on, one woman wondered aloud to Resnick, “Where did all these people come from?”
It’s a moment he remembers vividly. “I was struck by her statement, because I think she was surprised that so many other people in Carlsbad were there,” Resnick says.
The rest of the culinary world would take some time to catch up to what was happening. In 2019, when Michelin expanded to rate restaurants throughout all of California—not just the San Francisco area—Addison was the only one in San Diego to earn a star. But since emerging from the pandemic, the region’s food scene has grown dramatically. Driven by outstanding farms, ingredients, a bumper crop of talented chefs, and a G.D.P. approximately the size of New Zealand or Greece, San Diego County has become one of America’s most underrated dining destinations.
Perhaps no single restaurant is a better emblem for this shift than chef William Bradley’s Addison, which opened in 2006. After landing his first star, Bradley knew he wanted more. To get them, he transformed his French-leaning fare to serve what he calls California Gastronomy, which combines the cultures of SoCal with impeccable ingredients and wildly impressive techniques, prizing flavor over flair. Michelin responded, awarding Addison a second star in 2022, and making it the first Southern California three-star restaurant just a year later. The accolade has created a halo effect, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.
Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.
Eric Wolfinger
“Earning three stars forces the global dining community to pay attention to a place that may not have been on their radar before,” says chef Eric Bost, a partner in Resnick’s four Carlsbad establishments.
Resnick recruited Bost, who spent time at award-winning outposts of Restaurant Guy Savoy, to run Jeune et Jolie, which he led to a star in 2021. They’ve since taken over an old boogie-board factory down the street and converted it to an all-day restaurant and bakery, Wildland. The space also hosts an exquisite tasting-counter experience called Lilo, which was given a Michelin star mere months after opening in April 2025. And as Resnick and Bost grew their successful Carlsbad operation, chef Roberto Alcocer earned a Michelin star for his Mexican fine-dining spot Valle in nearby Oceanside.
The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.
Kimberly Motos
About 25 miles to the south, another affluent coastal community is going through its own culinary glow up. In La Jolla, chef Tara Monsod and the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective opened the stylish French steakhouse Le Coq. Chef Erik Anderson, formerly of Michelin two-star Coi, is preparing to launch Roseacre. And last year, Per Se alums Elijah Arizmendi and Brian Hung left New York to open the elegant tasting-menu restaurant Lucien, lured by the ingredients they’d get to serve. “A major reason we chose San Diego is the quality and diversity of the produce,” Arizmendi explains. “San Diego County has more small farms than anywhere else in the U.S., and its many microclimates allow farmers to grow an incredible range of ingredients year-round.”
Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.
Gage Forster
Chef Travis Swikard has also been a tireless advocate for the region’s ingredients since he returned to San Diego, his hometown, and opened Mediterranean-influenced Callie in 2021. There’s no sophomore slump with his latest effort, the French Riviera–inspired Fleurette in La Jolla, where he’s serving his take on classics like leeks vinaigrette and his San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with local red sheepshead fish and spiny lobster. Its food is bright, produce-driven, and attentive in execution, while the dining room maintains a relaxed and unpretentious style of service. And Swikard sees that approach cohering into a regional style with a strong network of professionals behind it.
“It’s really nice that we are developing our own identity, not trying to be like L.A. or any other market, just highlighting what’s great about the San Diego lifestyle and ingredients,” he says. “Similar to New York, a chef community is starting to develop where chefs are supporting each other. There is a true sense of pride to be cooking here.”
Top: In La Jolla, Lucien serves ocean whitefish with tomatoes turned into concasse, sabayon, and other expressions.
Authors
Little Debbie is officially expanding its doughnut range.
On April 14, the brand announced a new sweet snack: Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts. The company says there was “massive consumer demand” for the original Big Pack Old Fashioned Donuts, which quickly became a top seller. Now, they’re just giving the people what they want.
The new snack is a chocolate old-fashioned cake doughnut finished with a sweet glaze and is launching in two formats:
- The Big Pack Carton: This box contains six doughnuts in a retro-inspired package that reflects the brand’s heritage.
- Single-serve doughnuts: There are also 3-ounce, individually wrapped Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts, which the brand suggests pairing with a morning coffee or eating on a midday break.
The original, which includes six individually wrapped cake-style doughnuts with a vanilla glaze, first hit stores in June 2025 and, according to the brand, has been “consistently selling out.”
“We saw an incredible response to the Old Fashioned Donut we introduced last year,” said Scott Brownlow, Little Debbie’s brand manager, in a press release. We’re doubling down on what works and giving both loyalists and new fans an irresistible reason to head back to the store.”
Little Debbie’s Chocolate Old Fashioned Donuts are rolling out now to major retailers, grocery stores and convenience stores nationwide. As with the original Old Fashioned Donut, they become a permanent addition to the brand’s snack lineup.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
The Padres will soon have a new owner, as billionaire José E. Feliciano is reportedly close to acquiring the franchise. San Diego will be watching him closely. He has a lot to live up to.
Back in November, the current ownership group led by late owner Peter Seidler’s brother, John, announced the family would begin the process of selling the team. Just five months later, Feliciano has reportedly outbid three other billionaires to secure ownership of the franchise. The final sale price will be $3.9 billion, shattering the previous MLB record. If the deal goes through as expected, Feliciano will be compelled to match not only the price tag, but also the commitment San Diego’s fans have made over the last decade.
When Peter Seidler took over as the team’s chairman and primary owner in November 2020, he set about rebuilding the franchise into one that could compete at the highest level of baseball. He spent lavishly, locking up players to massive contracts and blowing past the luxury tax threshold, while also investing in the San Diego community and openly proclaiming that turning a profit wasn’t his goal. The Padres followed by having the most successful sustained stretch in their history, reaching the postseason in four of the last six years. Seidler’s driving ambition was to deliver San Diego its first major sports championship. The team’s fans responded by matching his passion.
A better product on the field led to a packed Petco Park. The Padres have finished in the top five of attendance in each of the past five seasons, culminating in an remarkable 2025 campaign when the team sold out 72 of its 81 home games and welcomed a record 3.47 million fans through their gates. San Diego finished second in attendance last season, behind only the World Series champion Dodgers.
Seidler’s investment paid off. In 2025, the Padres reportedly generated around $500 million in revenue despite a relatively disadvantageous television deal. Unfortunately, Seidler never got to see it. He died in November 2023 at the age of 63 from an infection related to a compromised immune system following multiple battles with cancer. The Padres have played in his memory, and the team’s supporters have carried his goal with them.
That kind of fan support deserves another owner willing to invest not only in the team, but also in the city. John Seidler and the rest of the ownership group were never going to be those people. To their credit, they seem to know that.
Peter Seidler had a boundless passion for the Padres. His brother John has never quite shared it, at least not publicly. The ownership group purchased the team for a reported $800 million in 2012 and is selling for $3.9 billion. Cashing out now makes sense. There’s an enormous “but” coming.
Feliciano has to know what he’s getting into by following in Seidler’s footsteps. Padres fans are far more active than they once were and have proven their commitment for years. The team’s new owner needs to be genuinely invested and ready to finish what Peter Seidler started. Feliciano doesn’t just owe that to his memory. He owes it to every fan who’s packed Petco Park believing San Diego was finally on the precipice of its first World Series title.
The Padres’ new owner isn’t a stranger to sports franchise ownership. Feliciano is the co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, which was part of a consortium that purchased Chelsea FC in 2022 for roughly $5.25 billion. Despite a heavy financial investment to the roster, the results in London have ultimately failed to meet the competitive standard established by the previous regime.
From Feliciano’s viewpoint, the upside of purchasing the Padres isn’t hard to see. Petco Park is one of baseball’s premier venues and boasts an atmosphere that rivals any in American sports. The team’s TV deal should improve dramatically with MLB’s next collective bargaining agreement. Then there’s the location. San Diego is one of America’s crown-jewel cities, and its eighth-largest by population. The weather is perfect year-round, the fanbase is passionate and the market has proven it will show up for a quality product. There’s only one thing missing.
Feliciano has won the bidding war for the Padres. Now comes the hard part. He must be passionately invested in delivering a long-awaited World Series championship to San Diego. This franchise carries too much potential to be a billionaire’s vanity project. Peter Seidler proved that when he put his all into making that happen, and the city showed up for him.
Now it’s Feliciano’s turn to show up for the city.
More MLB from Sports Illustrated
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow
-
Massachusetts6 minutes agoPolice shoot and kill man armed with knife in Lexington, DA says
-
Minnesota12 minutes agoBoldy, Eriksson Ek help Wild cruise past Stars in Game 1 of Western 1st Round | NHL.com
-
Mississippi18 minutes agoGeorge County High School senior killed in Highway 26 crash, MHP says
-
Missouri24 minutes ago
Missouri Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 winning numbers for April 18, 2026
-
Montana30 minutes ago
Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for April 18, 2026
-
Nebraska36 minutes agoGallery: Huskers Run-Rule No. 12 USC to Take Series
-
Nevada42 minutes agoIN RESPONSE: Cortez Masto lands bill would keep the proceeds in Nevada
-
New Hampshire48 minutes agoNew Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News