By Shawn VanDiver | Guest Editorial<\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s note: This op-ed first appeared online in the Voz de San Diego<\/a> on May 23.]<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that San Diego, and nearly all of California, is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. It\u2019s also no secret that San Diego has seen an influx in the number of folks experiencing homelessness<\/a>. I don\u2019t know anyone who enjoys seeing these folks living in squalor on the streets \u2014 and yet seemingly every reasonable solution encounters resistance.<\/p>\n Challenges of this magnitude require that every neighborhood does its part.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I was so disappointed to see my neighbors show up to the Clairemont Community Planning Group\u2019s meeting in May to vehemently oppose<\/a>\u00a0a private project that would bring about 60 supporting housing units. Health care and addiction services would be provided at the Mt. Alifan Drive site, as well as help finding jobs.<\/p>\n Despite this, my neighbors complained that they didn\u2019t want alcohol abusers, homeless people or dangerous criminals in our neighborhood. They also insisted that the \u201chousing-first\u201d model<\/a>\u00a0doesn\u2019t work. Although this project doesn\u2019t require input from the community planning group, the group inserted itself into the discussion anyhow and is considering the formation of an ad-hoc committee on homelessness that could result in more red tape.<\/p>\n Whether they realize it or not, my neighbors are telling the people trying to get their lives back on track that they aren\u2019t good enough to live in the Clairemont community. That their struggle doesn\u2019t matter. That they should pull themselves up by their tattered bootstraps.<\/p>\n This phenomenon isn\u2019t unique to Clairemont. Every time one of these proposed projects comes before a city council, planning group or town council \u2014 essentially any sort of body tasked with approving or providing input on community affairs \u2014 a group of folks show up to say \u201cno\u201d or \u201cyes, but not in my backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n They always argue that some other neighborhood would be better \u2014 ensuring that nothing changes and that responsibility is passed around. With SANDAG projecting that, by 2050, there will be a 150,000-unit shortage in San Diego<\/a>, every neighborhood needs to build and build now. We know that \u201chousing first\u201d is a proven model, because it provides homeless families a stable environment without overly difficult barriers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s working in Detroit<\/a>, Hawai<\/a>, Seattle<\/a> and more. It works because it prioritizes security and housing over other issues, such as sobriety. Just consider how hard it would be for any of us to focus on finding a job, getting sober or otherwise getting our lives back on track if we didn\u2019t have a place to call home. Consider how hard it would be to get ready for a job interview without a mirror, electricity or clean water.<\/p>\n The opponents of the Mt. Alifan Drive project have attracted much of the attention, but the good news is that once the site is developed into supportive housing, nearly 60 folks will no longer be homeless. They\u2019ll be our neighbors, and welcoming them to our community should be a priority. And while we\u2019re working on this project, we should also be working to identify other areas in our region to build more housing.<\/p>\n San Diego should be famous for its weather, binational relationships and delicious tacos, not for our housing and homelessness crises. If we want to get there, everyone in the region needs to do their part. I hope my neighbors, and all San Diegans, will open their minds and encourage the political leadership, planning groups, labor unions and business community to set aside their petty fights and build like they\u2019ve never built before.<\/p>\n \u2014 Shawn VanDiver is a Navy veteran and formerly served as the chief operating officer of the Three Wise Men Foundation, a veterans nonprofit.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Shawn VanDiver | Guest Editorial [Editor\u2019s note: This op-ed first appeared online in the Voice of San Diego on May 23.] It\u2019s no secret that San Diego, and nearly all of California, is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. It\u2019s also no secret that San Diego has seen an influx in the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":234251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Guest editorial: Every neighborhood needs to do its part to solve homelessness","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11557,11551,11593,11552],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mission-valley-news","category-news","category-no-images","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}