Council Approves Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 24, 2006 at 7:16 AM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego City Council approved an ambitious plan last night to end chronic homelessness. City officials also called for negotiations to settle a lawsuit to stop police from ticketing the homeless for

San Diego City Council approved an ambitious plan last night to end chronic homelessness. City officials also called for negotiations to settle a lawsuit to stop police from ticketing the homeless for sleeping on the street. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

It was a night of contradictions, as the council voted to support a plan to find permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless- and then discovered their temporary winter shelter faces an imminent funding crisis. Councilwoman Donna Frye says she’s concerned that the Bush Administration, while pushing the plan to end chronic homelessness, has decreased funding for homeless services.

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Indeed, the city’s Jim Waring, say because of federal funding cuts, this is the last year the city’s Housing Commission can pay for the winter shelter program

Waring: There is simply no available money within the housing commission.

The agency will have use money out of its already depleted reserve fund.
On top of that, it turns out the tent structure for the homeless downtown will be right next to a construction site where toxic materials are being trucked out, causing a possible environmental hazard. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.