A new affordable housing community coming to San Diego

I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s Monday, August 4TH

A NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMUNITY COMING TO SAN DIEGO…

More on that next. But first... the headlines….

SAN DIEGO LEADERS HAVE ANNOUNCED AN ADDITIONAL FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS IN FUNDING FOR THE ‘BRIDGE TO HOME INITIATIVE’

THIS IS THE LATEST ROUND OF FUNDING FOR THE GAP-FINANCING PROGRAM WHICH HAS ALREADY COMMITTED MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS

THE FUNDS WILL BE SPREAD ACROSS TWENTY FOUR PROJECTS AND OVER TWO THOUSAND AFFORDABLE HOMES

TEN MILLION OF THE FUNDING COMES FROM FORMER REDEVELOPMENT FUNDS WITH THE OUTSTANDING FIVE BEING PROVIDED BY THE CITY ITSELF

THE INITIATIVE OFFERS GAP-FINANCING TO HELP MAKE PROJECTS LIKE THIS ONE, POSSIBLE

LAST WEEK I BROUGHT YOU SOME NUMBERS REGARDING HIGHER TARIFFS ON SOME OF OUR U-S TRADING PARTNERS, A FEW THAT HAVE BEEN DELAYED ANOTHER WEEK

IN PLACE NOW IS A THIRTY FIVE PERCENT TARIFF ON CANADIAN IMPORTS NOT COVERED UNDER THE EXISTING U-S, MEXICO AND CANADA TRADE DEAL

MEXICO ITSELF IS STILL FACING A POTENTIAL THIRTY PERCENT TARIFF BUT THAT HAS BEEN EXTENDED ANOTHER 90 DAYS FOR THE SIDES TO TRY AND REACH A DEAL

A NEW BATTERY STORAGE FACILITY IS NOW OPEN IN BARRIO LOGAN

ITS PROJECTED TO BE THE LARGEST BATTERY STORAGE FACILITY IN SAN DIEGO

OWNER AND OPERATOR AREVON NOTABLY A MAJOR CUSTOMER AND PARTNER OF TESLA SAYS IT WILL HELP POWER THE ENERGY GRID AND LOWER CHANCES OF BLACKOUTS

BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT SUPERCHARGED COIN ARE SOME HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

LAST YEAR A BATTERY STORAGE FACILITY IN ESCONDIDO CAUGHT FIRE AS WELL ONE IN OTAY MESA

THE COMPANY SAYS THE BATTERIES BEING OUTDOORS, SPACED APART WITH EACH BATTERY BEING PROGRAMMED TO SHUT OFF AT EXTREME TEMPERATURES IS KEY TO SAFETY

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NEARLY 200 AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS ARE COMING TO MISSION VALLEY. REPORTER ANDREW DYER SAYS IT’S JUST THE FIRST PHASE OF A LARGER PUBLIC TRANSIT-FRIENDLY PROJECT.

TWO BULLDOZERS. TWO SCRAPERS. AND A BIG HOLE IN THE GROUND.

THIS IS THE FIRST WEEK OF CONSTRUCTION ON THE BECKER, A 190-UNIT AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPLEX JUST WEST OF FASHION VALLEY MALL.

REBECCA LOUIE IS THE CEO OF WAKELAND HOUSING, THE DEVELOPER OF THE BECKER. SHE SAYS PROJECTS LIKE THIS ARE NEEDED IN THE CITY.

YOU KNOW, WE'RE IN A HUGE HOUSING CRISIS HERE IN SAN DIEGO. AND SO IF YOU THIS IS SUCH A GREAT EXAMPLE, BECAUSE IF YOU LOOK AROUND IN MISSION VALLEY, LIKE LOOK AT THE JOBS THAT ARE HERE, RIGHT? SO WE'VE GOT LOTS OF RETAIL, LOTS OF HOTELS, HOSPITALS, ALL JOBS THAT ARE FILLED WITH PEOPLE WHO CANNOT AFFORD TO LIVE HERE IN SAN DIEGO.

THE BECKER IS JUST THE FIRST PHASE OF THE RIVERWALK SAN DIEGO MASTER-PLANNED COMMUNITY. MORE THAN 4,000 NEW HOMES ARE BEING BUILT HERE, AS-IS A NEW TROLLEY STATION.

430 AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS ARE PLANNED. THE FIRST, AT THE BECKER, WILL BE MOVE-IN READY IN 20-27.

ANDREW DYER, KPBS NEWS.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING ON NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN KAISER PERMANENTE AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ITS HEALTHCARE EMPLOYEES. REPORTER JOHN CARROLL SAYS HUNDREDS HERE IN SAN DIEGO STAGED AN INFORMATIONAL PICKET FRIDAY MORNING.

A COUPLE HUNDRED KAISER HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS TOOK TO THE STREET… ON THEIR DAY OFF… TO MAKE THEIR DEMANDS KNOWN.  NIKKI AVEY IS A REGISTERED NURSE AT KAISER… AND A MEMBER OF THE UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CALIFORNIA.  SHE SAYS KAISER HAS ITS PRIORITIES IN THE WRONG PLACE.

“They put the budget at the center of the care whereas we as healthcare professionals put patients at the center of our care every day.”

WE REACHED OUT TO KAISER.  THEY PROVIDED US A STATEMENT WHICH SAYS IN PART - THAT THEY HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF WORKING PRODUCTIVELY WITH LABOR… AND THAT THEY’RE COMMITTED TO INTEREST-BASED BARGAINING FOCUSED ON SHARED GOALS AND COLLABORATION.  THE CURRENT CONTRACT EXPIRES AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER.  THE FOLKS PICKETING SAY IF THERE’S NO NEW CONTRACT BY THEN, THEY’RE READY TO STRIKE.  JC, KPBS NEWS.

THE MARINE CORPS HAS CHANGED ITS LONGSTANDING AGREEMENT WITH AN OCEANSIDE-BASED CREDIT UNION FOLLOWING A K-P-B-S INVESTIGATION LAST YEAR. REPORTER SCOTT RODD SAYS THE NEW CONTRACT GIVES MARINE RECRUITS MORE CHOICE.

Our investigation revealed Frontwave Credit Union has had an exclusive arrangement with the Marine Corps for decades. The agreement funneled thousands of Marine recruits into the credit union every year in order to process their direct deposits during bootcamp. 

KPBS also found Frontwave relies on overdraft fees charged to Marines and other customers as a key source of revenue. Following KPBS’ reporting, a bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members led by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren launched an investigation. 

Frontwave’s new contract with the Marine Corps requires more financial counseling offered to recruits … and guarantees recruits the choice of their own bank or credit union. 

“I think there's no doubt that choice is valuable and people should be able to select the financial institution that they want to work with.”

Bill Skimmyhorn is an associate professor of economics at William and Mary. 

He says these changes will only matter if the Marine Corps holds Frontwave accountable to the agreement.

"You'll kind of now have to wait and see-- does this seem to make a difference?"

Frontwave declined an interview request. The Marine Corps did not respond to a request for comment.

SOC

SAN DIEGO’S HOUSING SHORTAGE CONTINUES TO IMPACT LOCAL RESIDENTS WITH REAL ESTATE PRICES WELL BEYOND WHAT MANY CAN AFFORD. K-P-B-S AND OUR NON-PROFIT NEWS PARTNERS HAVE BEEN DIGGING INTO THE SOURCE AND HISTORY OF THE HOUSING CRISIS.

JOURNALIST BELLA ROSS FROM OUR PUBLIC MATTERS PARTNER VOICE OF SAN DIEGO SPOKE WITH NEWS ANCHOR DEBBIE CRUZ TO DISCUSS HER LATEST EDITION IN THE SERIES.

"Bella, much of your work has focused on the lack of housing in the city. Why has this problem gotten worse in recent years?

There are so many factors you have the zoning ordinance, you have resistance from homeowners who like don't want to see their community change or become more apartment heavy. You have all of these regulations. Like recently, there were reforms made to the California Environmental Quality Act that make it easier to build stuff, but that stood in the way for a long time. And then also the economy is just in like a really complicated place. Labor is really expensive, building materials are really expensive, and it's just kind of really hard to get anything done.

So you have this landscape where between like the regulations and general anti-housing sentiment. Really, there are very few things in favor of building more housing. Your reporting suggests higher density housing could help address the affordability crisis. How do we end up with so many single-family homes in the first place?

This is really interesting study that came out of Berkeley that showed that the vast majority of the region of San Diego is zone specifically for single family homes. And when you think back to when San Diego was first becoming the city that we know today in the zoning ordinance was written, um it kind of makes sense because it seems like there was this like endless amount of space that we can occupy.

And it's also very important to say that these um the zoning ordinance was inherently discriminatory and really contributed to the kind of racial lines that we see placed along San Diego that exists to this day. But this made it so that it's much easier to build single family homes and you can really only build apartments in these kind of denser developments in a very limited number of areas. And it's this situation is worsened by the fact that San Diego is kind of like in a geographically complicated position.

We have Mexico to the south, we have the ocean and then we have Camp Pendleton up north. So basically our options are to develop east or to build up within our existing neighborhoods and make our existing neighborhoods denser.

What's the incentive for property owners to embrace higher density? It's definitely a difficult trade-off because like I've said, it's you know, we're we're really changing communities in a big way, but I think that it it can be for the better. People talk a lot about wanting walkable communities, like they don't want to be sitting in traffic all the time.

They don't want to be living this life of like long commutes and congestion and really the only way to get around that is to invest in transit and invest in walkability in these denser neighborhoods where people are in proximity to the places that they're living and working and shopping and visiting people. And so, in order to do that, you can't have these sprawling single family neighborhoods. You need to kind of condense things.

So, what are some of the most promising solutions to the current housing crisis at this point? Who is taking the lead in driving that change?

I mean, I think we've seen a lot of law makers up in Sacramento trying to kind of fulfill the things that I'm talking about now. So, we talk about upzoning and making it easier to build these like denser apartment complexes in places where we currently have single family homes. And we also saw what I had mentioned about the California Environmental Quality Act, And that was recently reformed in a huge way that people have been talking about for decades now. And so like those kinds of changes I think could make a really big difference.

Um but yeah just kind of like breaking down some of those regulations or at least making them more flexible. Anything else you'd like to add? 

um I do want to emphasize some reporting that came out of the public matter project by Jake Gotta from KPBS that really showed that like even when the housing development in a neighborhood are like largely luxury housing, it's still stabilized rents in that area contrary to places where new housing wasn't being built all are was being built in smaller amounts.

So I think that having this understanding of the fact that like these luxury apartment complexes while they seem very counter intuitive and like obviously I think most people would rather see them just be affordable with the way that the market works Um, it it still does help us get to where we're trying to go. Um, it's just it's just a really complicated market equation. Right. Well, thank you so much for uh joining us this afternoon, Bella."

THAT WAS JOURNALIST BELLA ROSS, FROM OUR PUBLIC MATTERS PARTNER VOICE OF SAN DIEGO.

That’s it for the podcast today. Contributing as editor today was Terrence Shepherd. This podcast is hosted and produced by me, Lawrence K. Jackson.

As always you can find more San Diego news online at K-P-B-S dot org.

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Have a great weekend!