SAN DIEGO — Looking to fill San Diego's cavernous budget deficit for next fiscal year, Mayor Todd Gloria proposes reducing funding to the San Diego Housing Commission which administers local homeless shelters and outreach programs in the city.
San Diego's Housing Commission is the region's public housing agency that administers the region's low-income housing program as well as develops affordable housing projects through the use of federal and state funds. The commission is also an integral partner in San Diego's homelessness programs.
The programs include some of the city's largest and most used shelters and outreach programs such as Alpha Project's shelters which house more than 800 individuals and Father Joe's shelter programs as well as others.
In documents obtained by CBS 8, the mayor's office is also requesting that the Housing Commission take $15 million of its reserves to help pay for city-funded homeless programs in the next fiscal year.
In all, the city looks to reduce next year's homeless funding paid to the Housing Commission by $20.5 million compared to last year's allocation and more than $24 million if factoring a $4 million annual increase requested by the Housing Commission to pay for the programs.
Hover over the lines below to see the breakdown.
The proposed reductions come as the number of people becoming homeless outpaces those who are getting off the street and into temporary or permanent housing.
According to new data from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, March 2024 was the twelfth straight month where more people became homeless than were housed.
The task force's report and the proposed reductions due to budget shortfalls could spell trouble for San Diego's unhoused population, as well as those on the brink of homelessness.
The Housing Commission says the budgeted reductions if approved force it to dig into other programs or cut services and voucher programs if the city does not pay its usual share.
"SDHC does not have $15 million available in reserves to supplement the City’s proposed funds," a San Diego Housing Commission spokesperson told CBS 8.
The spokesperson said the Housing Commission is still in discussions with Mayor Gloria's Office:
"The extent of the potential impact the City’s proposed funding reductions would have on these programs and services is still to be determined based on further discussions among the Mayor’s office, City Councilmembers and SDHC," said the commission spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Mayor Todd Gloria's Office says the housing commission has a robust financial portfolio and can afford to shoulder some of the budget pain by taking from its reserve accounts.
"With respect to the $15 million request, SDHC has a considerable investment portfolio and cash from which to draw," said Gloria Communications Chief, Rachel Laing.
Laing says the Mayor notified the Housing Commission prior to releasing his budget about the need for the $15 million.
"The $15 million being characterized as a cut is in fact a one-time request to use SDHC resources that the Mayor proposed to SDHC leadership well in advance of the budget release and is intended to sustain programming at its current levels. SDHC has a number of accounts from which it can draw this one-time contribution," said Laing.
Laing said that the budget deficit has had city-wide impacts and Mayor Gloria was forced to make difficult decisions on how to balance the budget.
"The City had approximately $100 million in General Fund budget addition requests from City departments that were not funded in the Proposed Budget due to budget constraints. Like the Housing Commission, our city departments were asked to maintain core city services with level funding. While we would like to fund enhanced services, the City's limited budgetary resources necessitate tough choices. The Mayor prioritized the maintenance of critical homelessness services when many City Departments took tough budget reductions."
As budget deliberations advance ahead of the city council's upcoming review, the Housing Commission spokesperson hopes the two entities can work together to come to some sort of resolution.
"SDHC understands the challenging budgets that both the City of San Diego and SDHC are facing," said the spokesperson. "We appreciate that difficult decisions and tradeoffs will need to be made among competing needs. SDHC will continue to work with Mayor Gloria, the City Council and the SDHC Board of Commissioners on a budget that enables SDHC to continue to provide housing assistance and homelessness shelters and services while also exercising prudence in these difficult financial times."