Mayor — City of San Diego

We cannot claim to be America’s Finest City when thousands of people live unsheltered and dying on our streets. As Mayor, I will focus the City’s energy and resources on results-oriented programs proven to get homeless people off the streets, connected to services and back on their feet. Our strategy will be focused on permanent supportive housing instead of temporary shelters. Our goal should be to end chronic homelessness. Other cities have done it and San Diego should too. No more band-aids. No more temporary tents without a plan. No more criminalizing the existence of San Diego’s poorest and sickest residents. It’s time we work to actually end chronic homelessness. This problem is solvable with strong leadership, data-driven decision-making and accountability for all stakeholders. 

This is Our Top Priority

A problem as large and complex as homelessness can only be solved if it is understood to be the City’s top priority. Cities that are making progress toward ending homelessness have mayors that are directly and personally involved in the matter. That’s why I will move homeless services into the Mayor’s office in my first 100 days. This action is meant to send an unambiguous message to the entire city that this issue is the focus of my administration. I will personally ensure we make progress on this issue and hold those carrying out the work of housing the homeless accountable every single day.

Data Must Drive Decision Making

San Diego is spending more money than ever reacting to the homelessness crisis, but we are not seeing the results we deserve. As Mayor, I will implement radical transparency to ensure that limited taxpayer resources are being spent efficiently and effectively on programs that are getting people off the streets and keeping them housing for the long term. Those who are not delivering the results we expect will be defunded and we will redirect those funds to programs that are working. Service providers will be mandated to provide the public with data showing the outcomes of taxpayer funded programs. This information should be available online through a public data portal with monthly updates on all of the City’s housing and homelessness programs so that taxpayers can see the impact of their investments.

Housing Solves Homelessness

If we want to join the communities across the nation that are making real progress toward solving this problem, we must implement an aggressive housing first strategy that combines housing with wrap-around services. Emergency shelters should be for triage only. We must demand better outcomes form the City’s shelter system and move clients through the system and into permanent housing opportunities as quickly as possible. Housing first solutions have proven to save the public money and get real results. This approach eliminates requirements that become barriers to housing and provides the services that homeless people need in addition to housing. It’s common sense that the fastest way to end the condition of homelessness is to give someone a home. When supportive services are added to ensure the individuals remain stable and do not return to the streets. The City should also make investments in solutions like rapid-rehousing for those who need relatively modest assistance to get back on their feet. Often a security deposit, first/last months rental payment or credit check fee can be all that holds a person or family back from becoming housing secure. Smart prevention and diversion solutions like this can save many from homelessness. I will make the tough decisions needed to retool our programs and invest only in evidence-based solutions that support the housing first model.

Regional Collaboration is Key

Homeless individuals can be found in every community in the county. In order to end chronic homelessness, we must have full collaboration and coordination between elected leaders, those experiencing homelessness, housing providers, service providers and others on the front lines helping our most vulnerable residents. Data Must Drive Decision Making San Diego is spending more money than ever reacting to the homelessness crisis, but we are not seeing the results we deserve. As Mayor, I will implement radical transparency to ensure that limited taxpayer resources are being spent efficiently and effectively on programs that are getting people off the streets and keeping them housing for the long term. Those who are not delivering the results we expect will be defunded and we will redirect those funds to programs that are working. Service providers will be mandated to provide the public with data showing the outcomes of taxpayer funded programs. This information should be available online through a public data portal with monthly updates on all of the City’s housing and homelessness programs so that taxpayers can see the impact of their investments. Housing Solves Homelessness If we want to join the communities across the nation that are making real progress toward solving this problem, we must implement an aggressive housing first strategy that combines P A G E 2 As the Councilmember for District Three, I led the effort to merge San Diego’s leading homelessness organizations, forming one unified entity in the region tasked with strategic planning and coordination of resources to strengthen our collective impact and end chronic homelessness. As Mayor, I will build upon this structure by convening regular intergovernmental round tables with public officials representing the other 17 incorporated cities, county, state and federal governments so that we can scale solutions to match the size of our region’s problem. Leaders must be at the table to see what is working and what is not. By fostering stronger cross-jurisdictional collaboration, I will ensure that City resources are aligned with investments from county, state and federal budgets. Decisions should be based off of one regional action plan to build a system that gets people off the streets and into housing as quickly as possible.

Put Mental Health Funds To Work

We must address the mental health crisis head-on and implement real solutions for those who cannot care for themselves. There are no quick fixes for behavioral health conditions like substance abuse, but there is funding available to address them. Counties across California are sitting on billions in unspent Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funding. The County of San Diego has tens of millions in available dollars at a time when 43% of our homeless neighbors are challenged with mental health issues. As Mayor, I will work with County officials to match MHSA funds to City housing dollars to incentivize the creation of housing first opportunities for the homeless. Housing providers and health and behavioral health care providers can coordinate to connect patients to resources and care as quickly as possible. We are failing our community’s mentally ill by leaving the hardest to house on the streets. This is not just a civic disgrace but it is inhumane and far more expensive when those who are hardest to serve cycle through the emergency response, hospital and criminal justice systems.

Let's End Chronic Homelessness

San Diego can join other cities across the nation that are ending chronic homelessness by implementing best-inclass strategies rather than the temporary solutions that have been used locally. The fix for this crisis is more affordable housing and supportive services. The time to tackle this problem is now. The time for bold and progressive leadership is now. I will be a Mayor that believes it is our moral imperative to lift up the very weakest among us and considers housing a basic human right. I will dedicate every day of my time in office to ensuring that we all can have a place to call home.

Over 9,000 single room occupancy (SRO) units — many of them downtown — were lost.

When you lose 9,000 SRO units and allow — by failing to enforce existing city zoning requirements — up to 16,000 single-family homes plus hundreds of apartments and condominiums to be turned into short-term vacation rentals, you reduce housing supply and increase housing costs.

We have about 5,500 unsheltered individuals in the city of San Diego. You do the math.

We need to stop the political grandstanding, offering promises of overnight solutions, and admit this is a difficult and complex problem. Press conferences and slogans will not solve it. I have argued we need a data-driven, comprehensive and collaborative approach that addresses the real causes of homelessness.

One recent study from the Los Angeles Times showed that 46% of those living on the streets had substance abuse problems and 51% had mental health issues. Another study out of UCLA reported substance abuse and mental health concerns at 75% and 78%, respectively. The new plan commissioned by the San Diego Housing Commission, while not perfect, finally suggests options to previous politician's unsuccessful approach. The Housing Commission plan recognizes both the legal and moral imperative that we provide safe alternative shelter. But it also recognizes that success is dependent upon dedicated teams of mental health professionals, drug rehabilitation specialists, vocational trainers, and broadly educated law enforcement officers to deal with the issues at the root of homelessness.

Over a decade, the view of homelessness as principally a housing problem has dug a deep and dangerous hole that has swallowed the homeless in a cycle of hopelessness and threatens the health and safety of our entire community. When you are in a hole, it’s usually smart to stop digging.

We still have a difficult climb ahead of us. A good first step is to accept the failure of past policies and to make mental illness, drug addiction and public safety our priorities moving forward.

As mayor, here is how I will approach this issue:

• I will enforce the existing municipal code against conversion of our housing stock into short-term vacation rentals and bring these housing units back onto the market.
• I will invest in replacing the SROs lost under previous administration's watch by building permanent supportive housing units with services.
• I will provide shelters, transitional housing and safe parking options in the interim.
• I will personally engage county officials to make sure they fulfill their responsibility to deal with individuals suffering from drug and alcohol addiction and mental health problems; the county has both the responsibility and the resources to add mental health and recuperative care beds.
• I will put trained professionals on the street — professionals who can confront the everyday problems our unsheltered population faces and connect them to the help they need.
• I will invest in programs with proven results and eliminate programs that can’t document their effectiveness.
• I will focus on children who are caught in the cycle of homelessness to make sure they are in school and get them protection from the drug culture so they can escape this vicious cycle.
• I will identify the individuals who are the most expensive to the system in terms of emergency room and other services and focus on getting them the help they need, which is cheaper in the long term.
• I will enforce our vagrancy laws after we have provided for housing alternatives and diversion programs.
• I will personally attend the meetings of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless and meet regularly with the county’s other mayors so we have a coordinated approach to homelessness and other regional issues.
• I will not waste taxpayer money setting up a new housing bureaucracy when the San Diego Housing Commission, a city agency whose budget the city controls, has already developed expertise in this area.

Promises of simplistic solutions — “just build more housing” — will not solve this difficult and complex problem. Press conferences and slogans will not solve it. We need a data-driven, comprehensive and collaborative approach that most effectively mobilizes local, state, federal and private-sector resources to address the real causes of homelessness. As your next mayor, I will implement this approach as one of my top priorities.

In order to make the “City of Opportunity” a reality we will need to embrace the Innovation Economic vision – the idea that knowledge, entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration fuels economic growth. By encouraging and welcoming the development of opportunities in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) fields, the City of San Diego will become home to the highest paying jobs and good service sector jobs around it.

Moreover, a dedication to fiscally responsible, long-term growth plans that center on the Innovation Economy will favorably impact generations to come. It will drive our entire economy and be the key to San Diego’s future growth. Full STEAM Ahead!

AS YOUR MAYOR:

• I will make it an economic imperative to develop our home-grown talent.
• I will work with our local/regional educational institutions to ensure that our students are being trained and educated with STEAM-focused curriculums.
• I will work to expand the Connect2Careers paid internship program with a focus on jobs in which employers have needs and a focus on community college students in those areas.
• I will ensure the enforcement of statutes affecting minimum wage, prevailing wage and wage theft.
• I will support project labor agreements in which public money is used to lend support for increasing diversity in apprenticeship programs.
• I will lead a process to re-develop the City Hall site to serve as a catalyst for a downtown tech and arts hub with the goal of employing more residents south of I-8. The development of a tech and arts hub downtown is both an economic and cultural imperative so that jobs are closer to the people, and people are closer to the jobs.
• I will work to ensure that companies that receive contracts (the City of San Diego has $1 billion in contract spending) from the city increase their levels of employer engagement in the development of their workforce’s STEAM capabilities.
• I will seek out and encourage established STEAM companies to relocate or open offices in San Diego.
• I will work to eliminate unnecessary roadblocks and complications that prevent businesses from being able to start up, prosper and spur job growth across the STEAM spectrum.
• I will work to develop cross-border economic opportunities – taking full advantage of the unique financial opportunities that are available to border cities.
• I will work to identify a dedicated revenue stream to fund arts and culture.
• I will work to ensure that San Diego is a model of equity, and that no matter where you live in San Diego you have quality municipal services and access to opportunity.

As current President Pro Tem of the San Diego City Council, Chair of the Budget and Government Efficiency Committee and Vice Chair of the Rules Committee and the Committee on Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods I will continue my efforts to ensure that the City of San Diego creates long range economic plans that will incorporate STEAM and the Innovation economy into its overall vision, ensuring that ALL of San Diego benefits. I

DON’T JUST TALK ABOUT THESE ISSUES, I DELIVER:

• I was central to the development of the Workplace Equity Initiative addressing a myriad of issues including ensuring pay equity.

We all deserve to live in a city where one job is enough, where we can live in a home we can afford and can get to via efficient public transit, all while being surrounded by our city’s great natural beauty. As your Mayor, I will ensure that our economic policies result in this vision becoming a reality for all. Full STEAM Ahead!

There are numerous tools for addressing our shortage of affordable housing – inclusionary zoning, tax credits, streamlined permitting, increased densities, reduced parking requirements, etc. – but there’s no single silver bullet that solves the problem, and no one-size-fits-all solution that works in every neighborhood.

We’ve already made it easier to build granny flats.  And while I disagree with the Mayor about lifting height limits citywide, I do support higher densities along established transit corridors and streamlining the review process when projects conform to adopted Community Plans.

That’s why I support accelerated completion of Community Plan updates, project-area EIRs that allow individual developments consistent with community plans to receive expedited processing and a citywide commitment to encouraging higher densities next to transportation centers.

The most important role the City can play is providing upgraded transportation and other municipal infrastructure to enhance the quality of life in every neighborhood.

"This is not about simplistic labels like NIMBY or YIMBY. I’m a strong supporter of the City’s Climate Action Plan and favor increased density along transportation corridors, but I believe these decisions should be made locally, by local elected officials, not by Sacramento politicians.” -Barbara Bry

We can't continue to let a multi-billion dollar industry take advantage of our City.  Currently, up to 16,000 single-family homes are being used as short-term vacation rentals as well as a growing number of apartments and condominiums.  

Economic studies show that the costs of short-term rentals to our City outweigh the benefits, increasing housing costs, reducing City tax revenues from tourism, circumventing zoning laws, and creating more income inequality, not less. Auditors also revealed that THE CITY SPENT $2 MILLION to pick up trash at 16,000 properties being used FOR ILLEGAL short-term rental businesses.

In 2018, I tried to negotiate a compromise with Airbnb when I led an effort to have the City Council pass legislation.  This compromise was not acceptable to Airbnb which spent over $1 million to “referendize” our legislation so the Council was forced to rescind it.  Since then, the numbers have increased, and now apartments are also being turned into visitor accommodations.

I recognize the damage 16,000 unregulated short-term rentals have done to our housing stock, rental prices, neighborhoods, and taxpayers. That’s why I’ve led the effort to demand enforcement of reasonable regulations that protect our neighborhoods from this multi-billion dollar industry.

• I WILL CLEARLY IDENTIFY OUR NEEDS: Our communities thrive best when they are effectively connected as parts of a whole – through comprehensive transportation systems, a collaborative political process, and effective sharing of resources. This can only be achieved by clearly identifying our needs at the community level as well as citywide, based on a clear vision of the city we want. By looking to the future and planning accordingly we can assure that progress benefits the entirety of the City of San Diego.
• I WILL ENSURE A MORE COLLABORATIVE PLANNING PROCESS:
• Increasing allocations for staffing and financial resources that will keep community plans current, so that they can be used as the primary points of reference for good land use decisions. Preparing and approving a master environmental impact report which addresses the impacts of anticipated build-out within each plan area, simplifying any subsequent projectspecific analyses. Setting both maximum and minimum densities, to ensure a gradual transition to land uses which are required to accommodate the city’s growing population needs. Land use applications which are consistent with the plan should therefore not require further discretionary approval which is important in providing certainty to both communities and to developers. Establishing a uniform set of operating rules for planning groups and providing them with the training and professional staffing needed to make informed recommendations.

• I WILL ENSURE THE RIGHT KIND OF HOUSING IN THE RIGHT PLACES:
• Implementing community pilot programs for areas which are close to job centers and can readily accommodate more housing, in order to test the effectiveness of changes in land use on a smaller scale before rolling them out citywide. Preventing blanket waivers of height and parking requirements that ignore the particular needs of each community.
• Determining incentives that will result in greater affordable housing construction. Producing units affordable to middle-income households will take pressure off lower-income households, who currently are being outbid for previously affordable units. Requiring greater affordability in return for making housing incentives available. Facilitating building of accessory dwelling units (or granny flats) by expediting processing, reducing fees, and offering pre-approved, standard architectural plans.
• Investigating creation and expansion of assistance programs to reduce down payment requirements and interest rates for borrowers who have good credit and wish to transition from renter to owner status, in order to help to provide better housing opportunities and stabilize neighborhoods. Ensuring that communities receive tangible benefits in return for community plan amendments, in between comprehensive updates, that increase building intensity.
• Ensuring that a housing development strategy will be carried out in tandem with expansion and improvement of the transit system by requiring the city to collaborate closely with SANDAG and MTS in planning and financing transit system improvements. Ensuring that new, higher-density housing is located close to job centers and to public transit corridors, as well as within mixed-use developments.
• Prohibiting further destruction or conversion of SROs (single room occupancies) unless new development plans include equally affordable replacement units.
• Limiting short-term vacation rentals to primary residences only, to keep investors from turning homes into mini-hotels. They remove large numbers of units from the market, drive up housing costs, undercut the hospitality industry, and, worst of all, disrupt stable residential neighborhoods.
• Establishing a financing plan to which all who benefit contribute in a fair and immediate way to upgrading and maintenance of existing infrastructure – streets, sidewalks, bridges, parks, water lines, sewer pipes, storm drains – and to construction of new needed infrastructure beyond what developers are required to provide. 

• First elected official to oppose the SoccerCity land grab.
• Stood up against Airbnb disruption of our neighborhoods.
• Questioned the $72 million purchase of 101 Ash Street without a long-term real estate strategy.
• Helped create a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the San Diego Jewish Community Foundation to fund a program that will allow Habitat to scale its efforts to sell homes at affordable prices to more first-time home buyers.
• Supported an ordinance to reduce the fees and to make it easier to build an accessory dwelling unit.
• Supported community plan updates for Midway and Old Town to allow for more housing units.