San Diego, CA

The Mayor Is Still Saying He Increased Shelter Capacity by 70 percent. He Still Hasn’t

Published

2 months ago

October 23, 2024

The Mayor Is Still Saying He Increased Shelter Capacity by 70 percent. He Still Hasn’t

As a central component of his re-election campaign, Mayor Todd Gloria continues to claim he’s increased homeless shelter capacity by 70 percent.

That claim is no more true now than it was in June 2023, when Voice of San Diego first fact checked it.

From the airwaves to his November ballot statement, Gloria is pushing the 70 percent figure as a key reason voters should re-elect him.

In one ad, a narrator ticks off several accomplishments. She tells voters Gloria has “increased shelter for the homeless by 70 percent!”

An independent expenditure group supporting Gloria called San Diegans for Fairness has also been pushing the claim.

Here’s how Gloria’s team does the math: They pick a convenient starting point where the number of beds was unusually low due to the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, and before Gloria took office, the city had 1,409 shelter beds.

Gloria’s team doesn’t use that number. They use a date in April 2021, about three months after Gloria took office.

Up until then, the city had been using the convention center as a shelter, because of the pandemic. But just before April 1, 2021, the convention center closed. Other shelters within the city were operating at lower capacity due to Covid restrictions.

So on April 1, 2021, there were only 1,071 beds available.

Today, there are roughly 1,856, according to the mayor’s campaign staff.

The math works like this: Between April 2021 – when the number was significantly restricted by the pandemic – and now, city homeless shelter capacity increased by roughly 73 percent.

But the city wasn’t providing 1,071 beds before Gloria took office. It was providing around 1,400. That math works out to a roughly 32 percent increase.

That’s not a small increase. But it doesn’t come close to the 70 percent Gloria is claiming.

I asked Gloria about the math at a press conference on Wednesday. He stuck to his administration’s interpretation of the numbers.

“In April of 2021 we had a very small number of beds,” he said. “We don’t have that anymore.”

Since Gloria’s 32 percent increase on shelter capacity, progress has actually stalled.

During the last 16 months, the city has only increased the net number of shelter beds by 51.

In January, at his State of the City speech, Gloria said he wanted the city to deliver 1,000 new shelter beds by early 2025.

That’s not looking likely. It would mean increasing overall shelter capacity to roughly 2,800 in the next few months.

The mayor had hoped to purchase a warehouse at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street that could be converted to shelter for more than a thousand people, but that plan is now in limbo.

It’s possible the city will tally a net loss of beds by early 2025.

The city is set to lose 614 beds at two large shelters operated by Father Joe’s Villages by the end of the year – and Gloria has known this was coming for months. City officials are now trying to come up with solutions to address the closures.

Meanwhile, Gloria’s administration has come up with alternative options. He has opened safe parking lots, where people can sleep in their cars, and safe camping sites, where people can sleep in a tent.

“We can parse on the numbers,” Gloria said. “We worked aggressively over lots of concerns and complaints and feedback to get this done,” he said, referring to shelter expansion.

Lisa Halverstadt contributed to this report.

Source link

San Diego, CA

Flu cases continue to climb nationwide and in San Diego County

Published

6 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Flu cases continue to climb nationwide and in San Diego County

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The bug is biting. Flu cases continue to climb nationwide and right here at home, and San Diego doctors said we’re not immune to the trend.

Flu cases have increased year by year and this season, the peak reached 3,567 cases, the highest its been in about five years, according to data from San Diego County.

The numbers show that during and after the pandemic, cases continue to rise, and local doctors, like Dr. Nick Saade with Sharp Memorial Hospital, said the data reflects what he’s seen too.

“The short answer is yes, we are seeing more cases than recent years,” said Dr. Saade. “There’s definitely been kind of like a more rapid increase in the number of cases and a larger number of cases around this time when you compare it to the last four or five years or so.”

Dr. Saade said trends are going back to where they were before COVID. That’s because during the pandemic, many were taking measures to protect themselves with masks, washing hands, and social distancing.

“But when you look back further than that, you find that the cases and the rates of increase of cases are probably more consistent with what you saw in the pre-pandemic levels,” said Dr. Saade.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent reports nationwide, visits to the emergency room because of influenza are high and continue to increase.

Symptoms include fever, chills, cough and sore throat, but Dr. Saade said there are preventative steps you can take, like keeping distance and practicing good hygiene.

“There’s a number of ways you can catch a bug this winter season,” said Dr. Saade. “So it could be contaminated surfaces, contaminated food and water, direct contact with other individuals.”

He said while getting teh shot may not completely prevent you from getting the illness, but your symptoms won’t be as severe.

Source link

San Diego, CA

Escondido reptile rescue facing higher costs, at risk of closure

Published

13 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Escondido reptile rescue facing higher costs, at risk of closure

One of the largest reptile rescues in the country hopes 2025 is better than 2024.

The EcoVivarium Reptile Sanctuary and Museum cares for 400 snakes, lizards, and turtles at its facility in Escondido. Most of their tenants were saved from bad owners or bad situations. However, the extreme rate of inflation in the last year has EcoVivarium’s owner worried.

“Everything is going through the roof right now,” sighed Susan Nowicke, who founded EcoVivarium 15 years ago.

“Like every other Californian, our insurance rates more than quadrupled,” she explained.

Nowicke said their utility bill doubled and they pay $10,000 a month in rent. None of those expenses include the cost of caring for the wide variety of animals.

“My staff work for minimum wage,” Nowicke added with tears in her eyes. “I’m not proud of that fact. I would like to pay all of them what they are worth. They are worth far more than that. And they deserve more than that for the work they do. They work hard.”

The money EcoVivarium makes from tours and grants likely won’t cut it in 2025. Making matters worse, the nonprofit doesn’t make any extra money from local governments or other rescues when they take on another reptile.

“They have their funding to run their operations,” Nowicke shrugged. “They expect us to have our funding to run our operations.”

Begrudgingly, Nowicke said they need $250,000 more every year to serve the community and the reptiles.

“I’m very concerned. I am very, very concerned for our future,” she said.

Nowicke said they are also at capacity. EcoVivarium can’t take on anymore rescues until they get more room and more funding.

Source link

San Diego, CA

Can a once-toxic shoreline solve Mission Bay’s recreation needs? San Diego readies rival visions for South Shores

Published

21 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Can a once-toxic shoreline solve Mission Bay’s recreation needs? San Diego readies rival visions for South Shores

An overhaul of the long-neglected area could help anchor major changes coming to other parts of Mission Bay: Fiesta Island and the bay’s entire northeastern corner.