On June 13 San Diego experienced an intense City Council session that went long into the night, and which culminated in a 5-4 majority voting in favor of passing a controversial ordinance banning homeless encampments.
The lengthy public testimony conducted prior to the council vote demonstrated there are many different perspectives San Diegans maintain related to the homeless situation and how it should be addressed. Depending on where they fell on the potential homeless situation remedy spectrum, San Diegans generally saw the proposed ordinance as either an imperfect but necessary step toward addressing an out-of-control problem, as a cynical action intended to do nothing more than offer politicians the opportunity for projecting good optics as we head toward election time, or as a mean, offensive action geared toward punishing and criminalizing the homeless population.
How did San Diegans eventually react to the results of the vote? In spite of the intensity of the debate, I did not sense any sort of cathartic expressions of victory or defeat by either side’s supporters.
In fact, I contend that when all the deliberation and voting was done, all sides shared one uneasy perception — a lack of confidence that the ordinance would make a significant impact one way or another. I am afraid San Diegans now feel that way about any civic action proposed or taken related to addressing the homeless crisis.
We have good reason for being skeptical about the implementation of any measure aimed at resolving the homeless crisis, even one as controversial as this recently passed city ordinance. Taxpayers have seen so much attention, energy and money thrown at the problem and so little corresponding progress. No matter what we do, the homeless count just keeping going up.
Most concerned citizens are familiar with the dismal figures. California spent a whopping $10 billion on the homeless during the 2019-2021 timeframe while providing assistance to 510,000 individuals. Despite this huge expenditure of money, no appreciative progress has been made in the state’s homeless situation. It is no different here locally; the latest San Diego County Point-in-Time count of the homelessness showed a highly disturbing increase in the county’s homeless population.
A combination of acknowledging the failure of spending so much taxpayer money, and continuing to personally witness homelessness, while at the same time reading of and listening to horror stories related to the daily lives that these homeless individuals and their neighbors must endure, has led to a homelessness fatigue on the part of otherwise empathetic San Diego residents. This homelessness fatigue runs the risk of increasing our level of cynicism, which, in turn, leads to dangerous levels of civic apathy in regard to accepting the status quo.
Two days after the council vote, the County of San Diego announced it had received a $17 million state grant to coordinate a joint county-city partnership to address the homeless population living along the San Diego riverbed. $17 million may seem like a suitable antidote to reducing the riverbed homeless population; after all, the latest estimates claim there are only 300 homeless individuals residing in the riverbed. Surely, $17 million can take care of a mere 300 people at $56,666 for each.
And yet, I am sure many San Diegans, upon learning of this $17 million grant, likely shrugged their shoulders and said something like, “Don’t hold your breath. See me in a year or two and explain whatever became of that money. And let me know if any fewer homeless people live in the riverbed.” Homelessness fatigue has programmed us to feel that way.
In this distressing time of inflation, $17 million may not be what it used to be, but it’s still a significant chunk of taxpayer money. No matter where they stand on addressing homelessness, no taxpayer wants to see this generous sum wasted. And yet, I believe the underlying assumption on the part of many San Diegans is that this money will in all likelihood be frittered away with no appreciable results and no accountability.
In conducting an internet search, I found the figure of $17 million pop up in interesting ways. It’s what LA Clippers basketball star Kawhi Leonard paid for a mansion in Pacific Palisades. It’s also the price for the most expensive pair of shoes in the world — a diamond encrusted pair on sale in Dubai. In November 2022, the Del Mar Fairgrounds opened a new $17 million concert venue. And $17 million also happens to be the 2023 annual salary for Padres third baseman Manny Machado.
What the above four examples share in common is the idea that the individuals or organizations making this kind of sizable fiscal investment expect something in return. Metrics are developed to monitor the extent to which a positive return takes place. That return may result in a future appreciation of value, or immediate monetary dividends, or in the case of Machado’s salary a trip to the World Series. No one expects the money to be frittered away. Accountability is part of the process. Someone is bound to pay for failure.
I am not so sure the same can be said for the $17 million homeless grant. Will we taxpayers get a return on our money? How and when will we know? And who will be held accountable if failure occurs? What metrics will be developed to determine the success of this grant, and how will the metrics data be regularly monitored and published so that interested citizens can hold the bureaucracy accountable?
San Diego taxpayers are owed timely answers to these questions. Unfortunately, there is no expectation such answers will ever be made known to the average San Diegan.
We taxpayers owe it to ourselves to be aggressive in pursuing and constantly tracking such grant-related data so we can ultimately determine how many fewer homeless individuals live in the riverbed, and see if the $17 million was worth the investment, or if it was frittered away without making any significant impact? How else to hold county officials accountable? How else to avoid becoming inured to our government eventually spending the next round of $10 billion.
Padres fans enthusiastically track Manny Machado’s daily progress via the sports page. After studying the data, they can form an opinion as to whether his annual salary was a wise investment. Can county taxpayers expend the effort to do the same for data associated with money intended for what some now describe as the homeless-industrial complex?
If not, I fear the fate of this $17 million grant will be easily forgotten or ignored, buried somewhere in the government bureaucracy, merely one more expensive casualty of our homelessness fatigue. And when the next large grant is awarded, we will merely shrug our shoulders in resignation and say “whatever.”
Steve Rodriguez is a retired Marine Corps officer and high school teacher who last taught at Olympian High School in Chula Vista.
