San Diego Mayor To Replace Homeless ‘Czar’

When Stacy Spector was hired last October as a senior advisor on housing solutions the mayor said the brand-new position was necessary for the city. Now that necessary position is vacant after the surprise departure of San Diego homeless Czar. They don't know if she was fired or resigned. Centimeters have not introduce a comprehensive policy to address the issue. Joining me is Bob McElroy , CEO of the Alpha Project. Welcome back. Thank you. I will start out by asking you if you have any information white Stacy Spector left to Berkley after short time on the job question No. I was shocked by it because she's been engaged seven days a week for the last six or seven months. She was out doing the job before she was announced as the homeless Czar. Some people were critical about her planing because she did not have a background specifically in public housing or homelessness. Did you find that was a handicap for her? Maybe it brought a new perspective because sometimes we cannot see the force of the trees. She met with all the people that we don't even bothered to meet with. She was at every town hall meeting and every residents meeting and other big meetings and those things. I think she was really brought in my many conversations with her was to try to build teams and bring the county together with the city and all the opposing groups and supportive groups together and I think she did an outstanding job do not. She said that was one of her goals. She spoke on midday edition and here's a little of what she said. Reporter: No one can solve homelessness and it's not going to ever and, but we can come together and coordinate collaborate and communicate to put together an overall plan that contains many great ideas and many programs that are already working well. Make sure that they tie together to bring together solution. That solution was the number of homeless people increases in the city is still not clear. What does her departure tell you about where the city is in the efforts to solve this issue? We are really close. The request for qualifications came out about a month ago. We responded to that and we submitted a full-blown proposal now we are waiting to see. We proposed for 30 years. I've been every mayor's task force and every committee to deal with homelessness and we've come out with we had outstanding proposals. The problem is they were never implemented. Now we have no choice. There has to be some implementation. There are literally thousands of people on the streets and sometimes we forget that they are human beings and we see them every day. That's a good balance of Stacy being here because I want to go get it done today. I've seen too many people die on the streets. So we will see in the next few weeks. So she was a supporter of your intake facility proposal. The new effort to increase the number of temporary shelter beds efforts are being made to find permanent housing. Are you concerned that project is in jeopardy? No, not at all. We've came so far. We spread it to all the media outlets and all the politicians and councilmembers. So it's all out there and I've been reassured by the mayor's office that we will continue forward. We've seen like a split among advocates for the homeless in Senegal. Some believe money needs to be spent on temporary shelter and others say all funding should go to providing permanent housing. Is that becoming a rift in the city's efforts to address this issue? I don't really take those strongly. We've demonstrated our support and we just built some downtown. But it takes decades to build that housing and hundreds of millions of dollars to do it. So what do we do in the meantime? We cannot let them be in survival mode every day. There has to be a place for people to start the process of recovery and that's what we don't have now. Is is a big argument in the homeless community now question Not amongst providers. Some of the paper hangers may be. It's kind of like the flavor of the month. One Sistas not fit all. We built 203 unit downtown and we've got to about 50 people that were not appropriate for the housing and they slept on the floor and they felt more comfortable outside. That is fine. We actually have a people that Fillmore comfortable in the tent. So at least to be safe and they have access to all the services and they will not be in your neighborhood. Since the mayor took office homelessness is getting worse. The mayors made statements about finding solutions but there continues to be more tense on the streets. Is that money standing in the way or commitment? There are people that pocket change can make a big dent. The funding has never been a challenge. The programs never been the challenge it's the political way to do it. Kevin I have met over and over again and he is going to pull the trigger and do something. We will support it. Asked me is in that kind of -- if you don't think you're the best proposal you should not submit. We were together every day and we network every day and share resources every day. Kevin stated it is out there and I believe something in the very near future will start the process. Reporter: The mayors office as it will find a replacement for Stacy Spector. Any idea who that might be question No clue. They will have a huge learning curve though because she was on seven days a week and met over the weekends and everybody knows her from the business community, residents community and political community. She's built a tremendous bridge among many groups including the county and we will see. Reporter:-Speaking with Bob McElroy. Thank you. Coming up having a challenge child detain a juvenile hall can be expensive for families. It is 12:20 and you are listening to KPBS Midday Edition.