A Question, A Statement, A Better Response To Homelessness

Greetings!  My name is Laura Ann Fernea, and I’m the Executive Director of the City Heights CDC. 

Earlier this week, as part of the Community Budget Alliance of 19 community-based organizations, I stood before our city council to share some of the following thoughts.

I think you would agree that it’s always better and usually cheaper to prevent a problem than to respond to it after-the-fact.  

One problem our community faces is homelessness—please hear me say that homeless people aren’t a problem, but homelessness is a problem for them, for you, for me, for all of us. We see people experiencing homelessness on the street and our human instinct is to want to help them, but how?  

Instead of only responding to the homelessness crisis, what if we also worked to prevent homelessness?

Almost everyone in San Diego who is living on the streets ended up there because they can’t pay their rent, and we can prevent a lot of homelessness by protecting renters and preventing evictions.

There are an estimated 10 evictions a day in San Diego County, which we only know from an estimate based on 211 calls. Renters in San Diego need better and more protections. With the Community Budget Alliance, we’re asking for a new rent ordinance to establish a Rent Board and Rent Registry. San Diego is the only major California city without a complete ordinance that establishes these systems. For example, eviction information is not collected at present, so we don’t even know who is about to be homeless.   

Of the four largest cities in California (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco), San Diego is the only one that does not have a dedicated Rent Board to help tenants and landlords understand their rights and responsibilities.

Four months ago, my organization launched One Month Away, an eviction prevention program providing a small grant to households on the brink of eviction but who have ongoing income. With emergency assistance to pay their rent for that one month, they can stay in their homes!  We’ve helped 18 families and individuals stay off the streets, but unfortunately, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The majority of homes in every district of San Diego are renters.

Preventing homelessness is not only the right thing to do, it’s cheaper!  One of our affordable housing partners spent two years helping families stay in their homes and were able to show a savings of up to $4500 per apartment for every eviction prevented!  

Preventing homelessness means children live in homes, not on the streets or in shelters.  It means they live with their families and get to stay in their own schools.

Preventing homelessness is overwhelming more humane than forcing families and individuals to live in shelters, or on the street, or with 3 other families in squalid conditions.

Preventing a problem is always easier than solving it.  We can do better in San Diego. Let’s make it the finest city for all of us!