An imperative to provide housing first
Our public systems don’t operate in a vacuum. When they are stretched thin, it’s akin to our highway system being clogged, inefficient and slow. Homelessness comes at the end of a long path where many systems have broken down, and small business owners see this firsthand – the toxic stress families live in as a result of lack of access to healthy food and decent and affordable housing. They have a pulse on the community, keep tabs on its temperature, and are first to hear when a sense of malaise of fear starts settling in.
Priority areas for the organization include:
- Getting our toolkit into the hands of as many businesses as possible
- Ensuring the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless (county) and the San Diego Housing Commission (city) create actionable plans
- Supporting bond measure(s) that include clear metrics to address affordable housing shortages
- Modifying the inclusionary affordable housing fees to promote more onsite unit development
- Committing a publicly financed flexible funding pool to incentivize landlord participation
- Encouraging citywide review of community planning groups’ transparency and compliance to better inform local development projects