Since he was first elected in 2020, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s homelessness policies have become steadily more controversial. His longtime push to expand shelter options, his shift to for sharply limiting camping by unsheltered individuals, and his backing of efforts to compel mentally ill or addicted individuals to accept treatment — each have ers and critics. To many residents with “comion fatigue,” Gloria is too accommodating to a sizable group of people who are hurting the city’s quality of life. But some activists are quick to share anecdotes about what they see as the brusque treatment of unsheltered individuals that they say shows City Hall is actually engaged in what might be called “comion theater.”
The U-T Editorial Board doesn’t doubt Gloria’s sincerity, however. We also are baffled that many critics insist there are easy answers to a problem that is far thornier here than in areas with much cheaper rents.
But however one feels about this issue, here’s something that all involved should agree on: Gloria’s yearlong push to turn a 65,000-square-foot vacant Middletown warehouse into a massive 1,000-bed homeless shelter with a potential long-term cost of about $1 billion was handled in maddening fashion. Though he didn’t give up on the project until a Feb. 7 announcement from his office, its fate was sealed last summer. At a July meeting of the City Council, could not have been less enthusiastic about Gloria’s push for “Hope @ Vine,” as his istration dubbed the planned project at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street.
Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica questioned the city’s failure to simultaneously offer a long-term plan on how to pay for the shelter. Council , the public and pundits alike expressed alarm over an ominous report commissioned by the property’s landlord that said it may have issues with both “asbestos-containing material” and “lead-based paint.” Gloria’s decision not to pay for an independent evaluation of warehouse health risks — in a city reeling from its disastrous acquisition of an uninhabitable Ash Street office tower — wasn’t just surprising. It was inconceivable.
The hasty manner in which the mayor threw his weight behind the proposal was underscored by the formal warning from the City Attorney’s Office that the lease it reviewed “does not adequately protect the city’s legal or financial interests.” Yet for more than six months after that, Gloria stood by his dead plan walking. Why?
The mayor is absolutely right that the city has an “urgent” need to come up with many more shelter beds. But his rhetoric is undercut by his Middletown follies. The city’s hunt for a better shelter site should now be nearing its conclusion — not just revving up.
