{"id":232130,"date":"2020-11-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/news-briefs-3\/"},"modified":"2020-11-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T08:00:00","slug":"news-briefs-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/news-briefs-3\/","title":{"rendered":"BREVES DE NOTICIAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grossmont College, Kitchens for Good partner to feed students<\/b><\/p>\n

Grossmont College has announced a new partnership with San Diego-based nonprofit Kitchens for Good to provide free fresh meals to students each week. The East County community college is the first to become a Project Nourish College partner. Its first distribution took place from noon-2 p.m. on Oct. 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the pandemic has deeply affected community college students\u2019 families and their livelihoods. From rent to food, many of our students are having a difficult time making ends meet,\u201d said Marsha Gable, Grossmont College vice president of Student Services. \u201cWe hope that this new partnership can help provide some relief to our students so that they can continue to transform their lives through education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each Thursday this fall semester, staff and faculty volunteers with Gizmo\u2019s Kitchen, the college\u2019s student pantry, will help distribute fresh meals prepared by Kitchens for Good that can be reheated at a later time. To qualify, students must be currently enrolled and register in advance online. While these meals are not suitable for families, organizers hope that the meals will help students stretch their food budgets each week. The college initially plans to distribute meals to 60 students each week, with students required to sign up and qualify prior to each week\u2019s distribution event.<\/p>\n

Since classes started in late August, Gizmo\u2019s Kitchen has partnered with the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank on monthly distributions of fresh and non-perishable foods. In September, the event provided food for 175 students; the October event supported 200 students. Additional monthly distributions are already scheduled for November and December; students must also register in advance for these distributions. Prior to COVID-19, Gizmo\u2019s Kitchen provided thousands of students annually with individual grab-and-go bags of non-perishable foods and coordinated Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank-sponsored campus food distributions.<\/p>\n

City Council expands homeless outreach, affordable housing programs<\/b><\/p>\n

On Oct. 27, The City Council voted unanimously to build on a pilot program that uses case managers to forge relationships with unsheltered residents and connect them with permanent housing and social services.<\/p>\n

The new Coordinated Street Outreach Program will be funded from a $1.5-million budget allocation that City Council President Georgette G\u00f3mez and Council member Monica Montgomery Steppe fought for during this year\u2019s budget negotiations. The new initiative effectively takes a pilot program that G\u00f3mez and Council member Chris Ward partnered on in City Heights and North Park and expands it to other neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the City Council took a big step forward in how we create meaningful relationships with residents living on the streets and connect them with permanent homes and the services they need to stay housed,” G\u00f3mez said. “We\u2019ve seen from our pilot project in Mid-City that this model \u2013 using case managers rather police officers to establish trust with vulnerable residents \u2013 really works. This program is a critical piece of our much-improved and better-coordinated effort to reduce the number of unsheltered San Diegans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Up to now, street outreach has often been left to police officers. However, some unsheltered residents are uncomfortable with encounters with law enforcement.\u00a0The Coordinated Street Outreach Program\u00a0offers a new paradigm.<\/p>\n

The program will be administered through the San Diego Housing Commission and operated by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) San Diego.\u00a0The program will run from Nov. 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021. The Housing Commission will have the option to renew the program with PATH for another year \u2013 July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022.<\/p>\n

Also on Oct. 27, the City Council approved a set of initial strategies to preserve San Diego\u2019s existing inventory of affordable housing \u2013 both naturally occurring affordable housing and subsidized affordable housing. The strategies emerged from a landmark study \u2013\u00a0\u201cPreserving Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego<\/a>\u201d\u00a0\u2013 released in May by the Housing Commission.<\/p>\n

The approved strategies include redirecting funds originally associated with the City’s Redevelopment Agency to fund preservation, adopt a Preservation Ordinance to strengthen and expand the rights granted by state preservation notice law, offering incentives to owners of unrestricted properties in exchange for affordability restrictions, providing seed funding to create a public-private\u00a0Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, and creating an interagency preservation working group.<\/p>\n

The new outreach program and the housing-preservation efforts are part of a growing list of initiatives aimed at reducing homelessness and increasing San Diego\u2019s supply of affordable housing, included in the 2017 Housing Action Plan and supported by the current City Council. Those efforts also include:<\/p>\n