San Diego, CA
The pandemic’s toll on San Diego County child care businesses is still being felt
On a Tuesday in Might, Carolina Festo walked over the cracked concrete exterior her house in Metropolis Heights and described her imaginative and prescient for one thing completely completely different: a play area for youths.
“I wish to repair the concrete and put in pretend grass,” she mentioned, pointing to a fenced-in lot in her yard. “But it surely’s some huge cash — I can’t afford to do this.”
A refugee from Burundi, Festo beforehand ran a house baby care with 12 youngsters. When the coronavirus pandemic started in early 2020, she needed to shut, and never for well being causes. All of her purchasers have been refugees who labored in lodge housekeeping who ended up being laid off, so that they now not might afford baby care.
“I misplaced my purchasers as a result of the mother and father did not go to work, so that they determined to stick with the youngsters,” Festo mentioned.
Festo’s baby care was one in every of virtually 4,000 that closed in California after COVID-19 hit, in line with knowledge from the state licensing division. Through the pandemic, many baby care suppliers needed to not less than quickly shut their doorways. However, two years later, the state knowledge present that many have but to open again up.
In San Diego County, 372, or about one in eight, baby care facilities closed after March 2020, with closures hitting probably the most susceptible neighborhoods the toughest, the information present. Festo’s ZIP code in Metropolis Heights misplaced 10 house baby care facilities, among the many largest drops within the state.
Now, like many baby care suppliers that closed their doorways, Festo is struggling to reopen. Her earlier purchasers, and different refugees she would usually serve, are transferring out of state — pushed away by excessive housing prices.
“It was very powerful and really troublesome for me to come back again in enterprise as a result of, as I used to be saying, a number of purchasers moved out of San Diego as a result of housing right here is simply too costly, and folks can’t keep right here,” she mentioned.
Claire Trageser
Unequal impression
Even a small disruption is sufficient to put baby care suppliers out of enterprise — particularly in lower-income areas, mentioned Kim McDougal, the director of the Childcare Useful resource Service for the San Diego YMCA.
“Quite a lot of them simply could not make it. They did not have a financial savings account they may depend on,” McDougal mentioned. “Lots of our higher-income communities have been in a position to keep their baby care provide. And that is most likely as a result of they’re in a position to cost the next value for the care.”
And people companies probably had a security web, she mentioned. In the meantime, baby care suppliers in lower-income areas misplaced purchasers after they have been laid off, whereas higher-income households stored their jobs and their youngsters in care.
Past Metropolis Heights, ZIP codes in Escondido, Vista and Mira Mesa misplaced between 20% and 50% of their baby care facilities, in line with the state knowledge.
Authorities loans
Although there was some authorities funding and assist for baby care, it didn’t do sufficient to assist. San Diego County gave grants to baby care suppliers — from $2,750 for small house baby cares to as much as $50,000 for bigger licensed baby care facilities. Festo mentioned she utilized for a grant, however didn’t obtain any cash. She did get a state grant for $5,000, which lasted a couple of months.
There have been additionally loans, such because the federal paycheck safety mortgage program. Whereas the PPP program funneled $235 million to greater than 1,500 baby care applications all through the state, a 2021 evaluation by KPBS and The California Newsroom discovered that it bypassed lower-income communities with increased concentrations of minority teams. Simply 4% of the kid care companies that closed statewide obtained PPP loans.
In San Diego County, many of the PPP loans went to higher-income areas comparable to Poway and La Jolla. Not one baby care enterprise in Metropolis Heights obtained a mortgage.
Festo didn’t apply for a mortgage — she was frightened of going into debt, and didn’t know that PPP loans can be forgiven. Had she identified that, she might need had the cash at present to construct an additional room in her house and care for youths whose mother and father work evening shifts.
In a KPBS survey of kid care companies, two-thirds of the 90 respondents mentioned they did get subsidies — on common $46,000, which lined about 11% of their funds. Lower than 1 / 4 of respondents mentioned the cash was sufficient, and virtually half mentioned they’re nonetheless anxious about having to shut.
One difficulty was that the federal government grants didn’t come rapidly sufficient, mentioned Donna Sneeringer, the chief technique officer for the Baby Care Useful resource Middle.
“The primary spherical of stipends got here in the summertime of 2020 out of preliminary federal CARES Act funding, however, by the point the {dollars} went out, people who have been on the sting have been already gone,” she mentioned.
Different authorities help
The federal government did make different modifications to assist the kid care business, however not rapidly sufficient, mentioned Nina Buthee, the chief director of EveryChild California.
“They gave out a number of PPE, like masks, gloves and cleansing provides, however the rollout was unusual,” she mentioned. “There have been truck pallets being delivered to baby care facilities that don’t have a loading dock.”
McDougal, of the YMCA, mentioned there have been a number of different issues that the state might have executed. They embrace: offering medical insurance to baby care suppliers, growing the speed the state pays suppliers for youngsters on subsidies and growing the variety of days suppliers will be paid regardless of being closed.
“If a middle has youngsters on subsidies, they’ll have 10 nonoperation days a yr and nonetheless cost the state for these,” she mentioned. “Throughout COVID, they elevated the quantity to 16, however that’s nonetheless not practically sufficient. For those who had a number of COVID outbreaks, that may be nothing for you.”
Claire Trageser
Toddler care disaster
The declining variety of baby care spots is one thing Ariana Steck feels just about each minute of the day. Steck is a mom of a 6-month-old who works from house for the YMCA.
On a current afternoon, she sat at a desk in her small North Park condo with 4 completely different child contraptions all inside arm’s attain. Her son, Griffin, stood in a jumper surrounded by colourful buttons that performed music.
“I began utilizing a licensed household baby care house for sooner or later every week,” she mentioned. “And the remainder of the times I’m baby care and worker.”
Steck has been again at work for a month. Whereas she put Griffin on baby care waitlists lengthy earlier than he was truly born, she hasn’t been capable of finding full time care.
“Many facilities did not have vacancies till the winter of 2022,” she mentioned. “One middle informed me that they had over 100 infants on their wait checklist. He will be in preschool by the point they name us.”
Steck can’t wait that lengthy, so she’s left with a brutal balancing act.
“My very first week again, I began my days at about 4 within the morning, and he slept till 7,” she mentioned. “So I acquired 3 hours to work then, after which I’d work throughout his naps and once more after his Dad acquired house.”
That wasn’t sustainable. Now Steck will get a bit extra sleep and tries to work whereas Griffin performs.
“Like, when he’s doing tummy time in his bed room, we’ve a bit footstool in there, and I park my laptop computer on that, and he is sitting proper subsequent to me,” she mentioned.
Steck truly works partly with baby care referrals for the YMCA, so she has higher data of kid care than virtually anybody. And, when she was pregnant, she knew there was a toddler care disaster.
“However, when you’re sitting in it, you are like: ‘Oh, it is a disaster,’” she mentioned. “There’s a official factor occurring right here the place there’s a enormous demand for toddler care, and the provision is simply not there.”
Partially two of this collection, on Thursday, we’ll take a look at a brand new downside for suppliers: rising rental and housing prices.
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – As the Los Angeles wildfires displace thousands of residents, San Diego hotels open their doors to help, offering discounted rates.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office confirmed with ABC 10News that 180-thousand residents have been displaced by the wildfires as of Thursday morning.
With that, San Diego’s hotel industry is responding to the call for help, welcoming any evacuees from LA who are seeking shelter.
One of those hotels is Omni San Diego.
Charles Cho, General Manager of Omni San Diego, said he put out a rate for Los Angeles evacuees that is substantially below their normal rates.
“We just want to make sure we share our rooms, since we have them, with those who need them the most,” Cho said. “There’s still a lot of hotels in between us and where the fire is, but hey, if they’re willing to come down here, we’re ready for them.”
Cho said as soon as he heard about the wildfires, he checked Omni’s occupancy to see what they could offer.
As of Thursday, Omni is already helping one evacuee.
“Hospitality really is all about making friends, and it’s about building relationships,” Cho said.
Cho is not alone in his intentions to help LA residents.
According to the San Diego Tourism Authority, more than two dozen hotels across San Diego came together on Thursday to offer assistance to Los Angeles evacuees, and both the Tourism Authority and San Diego Lodging Association put the list of hotels together and published it online.
Fred Tayco, Executive Director of the San Diego Lodging Association, said, “We very quickly got the impression that the news was paling in comparison to what they were seeing on the ground. If you are evacuating and you are negatively impacted, the doors are open. “
Kerri Kapich, Chief Operating Officer at the San Diego Tourism Authority, said all the hotels will be offering their own special rates. The rates will all expire at different times.
“There are discounts in terms of no parking fees, resort fees for pets, and other things like that,” Kasich said. “At the end of the day, we’re here to help. LA is our neighbor. They’re our friends, our family. We just want to do everything that we can during this heartbreaking time.”
To see the list of San Diego hotels offering assistance to LA wildfire victims, visit The San Diego Tourism Authority website or The San Diego Lodging Association’s website.
As evacuees from the Los Angeles fires search frantically for temporary lodging, many of them are reaching out to San Diego County hotels, which have mobilized to provide deeply discounted room rates.
The San Diego Tourism Authority, in tandem with the local lodging association, has created a web page with a growing list of discounted accommodations, from the Bahia Resort Hotel and Catamaran to the Rancho Bernardo Inn and La Jolla Shores Hotel.
San Diego-based Evans Hotels, which has properties in the Mission Bay area and La Jolla, already has about two dozen bookings from L.A. residents forced to leave their homes following multiple firestorms in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena. Many simply want to get away from the smoke and fire blanketing Los Angeles right now, said Robert Gleason, CEO of Evans Hotels, which operates the Bahia and Catamaran resorts, in addition to the Lodge at Torrey Pines.
According to the lastest estimates from fire officials, there are more than 9,000 homes, businesses and other structures that have been destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires burning across Pacific Palisades and Altadena, which is near Pasadena.
Gleason said that at the Bahia and Catamaran hotels, Evans Hotels is offering 25% off standard room rates, 40% off suites, and a waiver of resort, parking and pet fees.
“We started getting calls first thing yesterday morning from evacuees, trying to book a reservation because hotels in L.A. were filling up pretty quickly,” Gleason said Thursday. “The reality is that none of the guests staying with us really want to be with us but are here out of necessity.
“We had a call with the executive committee of the San Diego County Lodging Association this morning, and everyone is trying to do whatever they can. In the lodging business we get to participate in really joyous times for people and also in times of great stress and challenge for people. We see both extremes.”
The Tourism Authority has assembled a list of offers that is being continually updated on a website it created related to fire relief. Among the more generous discounts is 50% off at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad; a $99 daily rate at Humphreys Half Moon Inn on Shelter Island; and 50% off available rates at the La Jolla Shores Hotel and La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. Expiration dates vary from property to property.
“We were monitoring conditions in San Diego to see if we would have any challenges here, but so far conditions look good,” said Kerri Kapich, chief operating officer for the Tourism Authority. “We had heard from a few hotels along the beach areas that they had calls from L.A. residents, and then thought we’re in a situation where we can reach out to our membership and other hotels in the community to see if they’d like to put offers out there. It’s gratifying to see hotels are doing that.”
In addition to local hotel discounts, Airbnb also has announced that it, too, is reaching out to those made homeless by the Los Angeles wildfires. It is offering free, temporary housing via a partnership with 211 LA to connect with those impacted by the fires.
San Diego, CA
Mountain West men’s basketball power rankings: Utah State, San Diego State, Boise State lead the way
In what will be the biggest day of the Mountain West men’s basketball season to date, Saturday looms large for all six of the conference’s top contenders.
The action-packed day begins with New Mexico (13-3, 5-0) hosting San Diego State (10-3, 3-1) at 11 a.m. Mountain time. UNLV (9-6, 3-1) and Colorado State (9-6, 3-1) will meet in Fort Collins at 2 p.m. with Boise State (12-4, 4-1) and No. 25 Utah State (15-1, 5-0) closing the night at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
In the latest NCAA Tournament projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, the MWC remained a two-bid league with Utah State (seven seed) and San Diego State (eight seed) earning spots. New Mexico was listed among Lunardi’s first eight out.
Here is a look at our midseason Mountain West power rankings.
Last result: 85-78 win at San Jose State (Tuesday)
Season record: 15-1, 5-0
Analysis: Utah State finally cracked the AP top 25 in the latest poll. Other than a 75-73 loss to Big West-leading UC San Diego, the Aggies have been perfect this season under first-year head coach Jared Calhoun.
Up next: Saturday vs. Boise State, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network
Last result: 67-38 home win over Air Force (Wednesday)
Season record: 10-3, 3-1
Analysis: The Aztecs held a seven-point lead over Utah State with 90 seconds remaining before losing on a late Tucker Anderson 3-pointer. San Diego State has bounced back nicely with convincing wins over Boise State and Air Force.
Up next: Saturday at New Mexico, 11 a.m., CBS
Last result: 81-59 home win over UNLV (Tuesday)
Season record: 12-4, 4-1
Analysis: Boise State played arguably its best game of the season against UNLV, shutting down Dedan Thomas Jr. while getting strong offensive contributions from seven different players. When the Broncos’ offense is clicking, few MWC teams can match their firepower.
Up next: Saturday at Utah State, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network
Last result: 61-53 win at Wyoming (Tuesday)
Season record: 13-3, 5-0
Analysis: Despite a strong body of work, the Lobos sit way down at No. 67 in the NET Rankings. A victory over San Diego State would provide a major boost to New Mexico’s NCAA Tournament resume.
Up next: Saturday vs. San Diego State, 11 a.m., CBS
Last result: 91-64 home win over Fresno State (Tuesday)
Season record: 9-6, 3-1
Analysis: The Rams have feasted on the bottom of the conference with victories over winless Fresno State, Nevada and San Jose State. Senior swingman Nique Clifford remains one of the MWC’s top players and is averaging a double-double at 16.6 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists.
Up next: Saturday vs. UNLV, 2 p.m., Mountain West Network
Last result: 81-59 loss at Boise State (Tuesday)
Season record: 9-6, 3-1
Analysis: UNLV took a step back Tuesday in a non-competitive loss at Boise State. The Rebels have one of the conference’s best players in Dedan Thomas Jr., but the sophomore point guard needs more help.
Up next: Saturday at Colorado State, 2 p.m., Mountain West Network
Last result: 82-81 overtime loss at New Mexico (Jan. 4)
Season record: 8-7, 0-4
Analysis: It’s been a nightmare start to MWC play for the Wolf Pack, who have lost their four conference games by 11 combined points. With upcoming games against Fresno State, Air Force and San Jose State, Nevada has a chance to get its season back on track.
Up next: Saturday at Fresno State, 5 p.m., Mountain West Network
Last result: 61-53 home loss to New Mexico (Tuesday)
Season record: 9-7, 2-3
Analysis: The Cowboys were outscored 43-21 after halftime in Tuesday’s loss to New Mexico. Wyoming does hold a three-point win over Nevada, but the Cowboys are staring at a tough upcoming schedule with a home game against Colorado State sandwiched between road trips to Boise and Las Vegas.
Up next: Jan. 14 at Boise State, 7 p.m., Mountain West Network
Last result: 85-78 home loss to Utah State
Season record: 7-10, 0-5
Analysis: Unlike the MWC’s bottom two teams, the Spartans have been quite competitive this season with single-digit losses to New Mexico, Boise State, UNLV and Utah State. Senior guard Josh Uduj, a Utah State transfer, is averaging 16.8 points per game for San Jose State.
Up next: Saturday at Air Force, 1 p.m., Mountain West Network
Last result: 91-64 loss at Colorado State (Tuesday)
Season record: 4-12, 0-5
Analysis: The Bulldogs have dropped 10 of their last 11 games following a 3-2 start to the season. First-year head coach Vance Walberg has his work cut out for him.
Up next: Saturday host Nevada, 5 p.m., Mountain West Network
Last result: 67-38 loss at San Diego State (Tuesday)
Season record: 3-12, 0-4
Analysis: Air Force was the victim of a 44-4 scoring run during Tuesday’s loss. That is … not good.
Up next: Saturday vs. San Jose State, 1 p.m., Mountain West Network
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