Conservatorships and the homeless

Speaker 1: (00:04)

Good morning. I'm Anica Colbert. It's Thursday, February 10th, using conservatorships to address homelessness more on that next, but first let's do the headlines. Mexican authorities have arrested three suspects in connection with the murder of journalists, Lordes mal Nado in Tijuana last month, Mexico's president Andres. Manuel Lopez announced the arrest during a press conference yesterday. Malden Nado was the second journalist killed so far this year in Tijuana and the fourth in all of Mexico. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. 95% of all crimes against the press in Mexico are never prosecuted. Former assembly member Lorena Gonzalez has made an official endorsement in the race for her former 80th district seat. She gave the nod to fellow Democrat and former San Diego city council, president Georgia Gomez Gomez says if elected, she would continue a similar mission to Gonzalez you'll wanna build

Speaker 2: (01:11)

The work that she, uh, laid at the state. Um, I'm gonna continue fighting for workers. I'm gonna continue fighting for environmental justice,

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Republican Lincoln Pickard and former San Diego city, Councilman and Democrat. David Alvarez are also vying for the seat. The special election primary for the 80th district seat will be held on April 5th and a runoff on June 7th. San Diego's temperature record for February 9th was broken yesterday when it hit 85 degrees. The previous record for that day was in 2016. When it hit 83, the abnormally warm weather is expected to last through the weekend from KPBS, you are listening to San Diego news. Now stay with me for more of the local news. You need The number of people living on the streets continues to grow. That has providers and city leaders scrambling to address the problem. Some believe changing conservatorship laws is one way to do so, but others disagree. K PBS reporter Tanya thought has more.

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When you hear conservatorship, you likely think of Brit Spears and the free Britney movement. When do we want free Brit? When do we want it? Now? Her conservatorship came to an end at last November after 14 years, but there's another type of conservatorship that some lawmakers see as a tool to combat the homelessness crisis,

Speaker 4: (02:46)

Right? We're not talking about an extremely wealthy, very famous, uh, celebrity. We're talking about the sickest and most vulnerable people that live on the streets of San Diego and on the streets of cities across the nation,

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San Diego mayor, Todd Gloria wants to expand the current conservatorship law to force more mentally ill homeless people to go into treatment and get off the streets. Right now, the law says people who courts rule as gravely disabled can be placed under conservatorships, which means they can be placed in care against their will. For

Speaker 4: (03:17)

A portion of these folks, they end up in the criminal justice system, uh, which I hear very clearly from the public they are not comfortable with. Um, and there has to be some choice other than leaving them on the streets or incarcerating them in prison. We have to have a better option.

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He thinks the gravely disabled definition could be expanded, but providers say even if more people can be forced in to care, there aren't enough places for them to go. Michelle cab is with the county behavioral health directors association of California.

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How does anything change the day after that law is fine. If we don't have more treatment beds, more housing, more funding for services go

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Says, people stand up by at chance at long term recovery. When they enter into services voluntarily,

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The vast majority of people, including people with serious mental illness and or substance use disorder needs voluntarily willingly accept both services as well as housing when it is offered to them. Our problem in California is that we have a major deficit of housing that meets the needs of very low income Californians.

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Greg angel is the CEO of interfaith community services.

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Far too often. We have to ask somebody where did you sleep last night? And is it safe to sleep there again? Because help is not available today.

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He says addressing conservatorship reform before expanding resources is a backwards way of thinking. So until

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We have access to these resources, taking away people's rights who want to access those, those resources, who, but who can't just is, is, is going too far and is not something we would advocate for.

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Carrie Suza has been homeless since 2016 and knows she suffers from a mental illness.

Speaker 7: (05:09)

No, I let them know that I, you know, that I have that I have a mental illness and that I, that I need help with my medication. And I need to see, I need to have a, um, an eval, you know, but I don't think a lot of people know to save that

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She, what will happen if someone rejects a conservatorship, what

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If you don't wanna do what they're asking you to do? You know, is that gonna, is that gonna, you know, affect me negatively? You know, am I now not gonna get the services that I need? So that would be pretty

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Pertinent. Every Wednesdays goes to a humanity showers event for a shower, food and clothes, Jordan betaine who runs the program is worried that conservatorships could violate people's trust

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And coming out here and speaking to people, you'll get to see a lot of the underlying issues are really deep-rooted in trauma and displacement. And this policies will actually perpetuate the trauma deeper by displacing them and removing them from their communities.

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But mayor Gloria says the problem can continue as it has. Something has to be done

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In San Diego. See it every single day of people who are clearly not capable of caring for themselves, being left on the streets, where they're vulnerable, sick. In some cases dying, it's absolutely unacceptable. We have to do something different. He will spend

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The next year working to change the law. Tonya thorn KPBS news,

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A state bill that took effect year requires everyone to separate and recycle their food waste. While many have found that complicated the city of San Diego plans to help you with complying K PBS reporter kitty Verado was at the news conference on Wednesday when mayor Todd Gloria announced the new plan,

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39% of San Diego's trash is organic waste. 15% of that is food waste. But if it's recycled, it can go from this to compost instead of ending up at the landfill, emitting toxic pollutants, that harm the environment, creating a lot

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Of good green collar

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Jobs. That's why me, Todd, Gloria held a news conference at Miramar greenery, the place where that transformation and takes place.

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You can literally yourself be a part of the solution. Uh, and the city is trying to empower individual San Diegos to be a part of that solution,

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Flank fight, environmental advocates and city leaders. Gloria announced the action. The city is taking to help San Diegos comply with Senate bill 1383 to recycle organic waste, to fight climate chain. The plan includes outreach and education, food recovery programs, and a new collection service just for organic waste. It's

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Gonna be a change similar to what many of us may remember when we started getting blue can service at our homes, uh, many, many decades ago, this will now occur with a green bin and it's critical to our plans around climate action.

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San Diegos will get special containers that will help them recycle food waste in their kitchens. Something Ryan Reto already does at kitchens for good. We

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Redirect, uh, food waste and rescue, um, and we're able to put into usable meals for the community, um, and experie people experiencing food insecurity within San Diego.

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It's part of San Diego's large. Your climate initiative called our climate. Our future that was adopted in 2015 and is now being updated. So with our updated climate action plan, we will have a goal of net zero by 2035. Jessica tot is with the salon center for environmental innovation, a nonprofit that has been working to get the community towards net zero for almost four decades. It's absolutely

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Wonderful to have the city of San Diego and the mayor's messaging behind this important issue of keeping organic material from going to our landfill. It's a very pressing

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Environmental issue. Renee Robertson, the director of environmental services with the city of San Diego says it will take time, but eventually recycling your organic food waste will become part of our everyday lives.

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This is a, uh, probably one of the fastest and easiest things that folks can do at their home, uh, to act positively climate change. Katie

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Verado K PBS news,

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The fees developers pay to build houses and businesses in San Diego county are about to go up. K PBS reporter. John Carroll has more on action taken on Wednesday by the San Diego county board of supervisors.

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The board will three to two to change. How VMT vehicle miles traveled V are charged. Developers had been taxed based on the number of trips generated by a house or a business. The change means developers will instead be taxed based on how many miles would be traveled. Matt Adams with the building industry association of San Diego says the a new approach will drive a stake through the heart of affordable housing.

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And that's what we have a real problem with because it's nearly impossible today to produce middle income housing. If you assess these type of fees from 30,000 to a half a million, it's never gonna be created,

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But a spokesperson with the climate action camp pain told KPBS the new rule will incentivize infill housing and disincentivize back country sprawl in areas that are prone to wildfires. John Carroll, KPBS news,

Speaker 1: (10:30)

The Marines at camp Pendleton unveiled the replacement for aging equipment that was used when nine troops drowned in 2020 K PBS military reporter Steve Walsh was there at the iron fist training exercise.

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The new amphibious combat vehicle is designed to be more powerful on land and safer in the water than the 1980s era personnel carrier, which sank off the coast in July, 2020, captain David Perez drivers now

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Have additional sensors. They have, um, a screen in front of them, a display panel that will tell 'em if something's wrong, it's not, uh, you don't have to manually go down there and

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Check something. The new vehicles used during the exercise will deploy with the Marines for the first time. At the end of the year, there have been issue used with the new vehicles, a ship to shore exercise, similar to the one where troops drown was canceled. After a problem was uncovered with the towing system, iron fist, a joint exercise with Japan has been going on for over a month. Steve Walsh, KPBS news

Speaker 1: (11:37)

Come a new state law requires schools to expand their mental health instruction. We'll have that. And more next, just after the break, A new California law will require schools to expand their mental health instruction. Educators say it would've been a welcome mandate before the pandemic and it's even more so now, K PCCs, Robert GU Grova

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Reports looking back on his high school days. Last deck gate in the San Gabriel valley stress was the only mental health topic that Matthew dip remembers his teachers ever mentioning. But dip does clearly remember his own struggles with mental health. In his early teens,

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I was in the process of recognizing that I was, that I was gay and not having the acceptance in my life and in my community to handle that realization.

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Dip says he had really deep anxiety from feeling like he had to hide his identity from his family and others. One day dip locked himself in his room and his mom called 9 1 1 because she was worried. He might hurt himself. Like

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Six policemen came to our house. They kicked down my door. They handcuffed me.

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Dip says experiencing two psychiatric holds as a teenager, traumatized them. And it inspired him to take action while attending UCLA and getting more involved with dance groups, dip helped start a nonprofit called cipher. Now he visits schools all over LA county, teaching kids about mental health. Here he is at one of his workshops.

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So our mission is to DET mental health through our urban dance workshops. And the way we do that is through one increasing mental health literacy people.

Speaker 17: (13:41)

But dip still doesn't think schools are doing enough to teach kids about mental health hit TV shows, including Netflix's 13 reasons why, and HBO's euphoria are taking up serious teen mental health issues. The other thing about

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Depression is it kind of collapsed this time. You find your whole days blending together to create one endless and suffocating loop.

Speaker 17: (14:01)

So why aren't California schools doing more to demystify depression and other common mental health struggles. That's slated to change, thanks to the state's new mental health education law, which will expand mental health curriculum for schools across the state. The new law require is the state department of education by 2024 to come up with a program for junior and high schools that covers symptoms of anxiety and depression, and to find serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Adrian Shelton is director of public policy for the California Alliance, which supported the bill. Like the young

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People were coming to us saying, this is the ly needed. We want this and

Speaker 17: (14:37)

We need your help. Shelton says mental health education across the state varies widely from district to district. Part of the idea behind the new law is to provide some consistency and have mandated mental health instruction. While Shelton thinks it's a huge step in the right direction. She doesn't think the law goes far enough for one, it only applies to schools that already have a dedicated health course. 40% of school districts don't teach health at all, and won't be required to comply Whitier union high school district school psychologist. Stephanie Murray says she would've liked to build to include elementary schools too.

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If you identify these things early, before it becomes a crisis, that's just so much more beneficial. Important.

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Marie says, since the beginning of the pandemic, she's seen a rise in anxiety among kids who are stressed out about everything from getting the virus to its effect on their parents financially. She also says kids are learning about suicide at a very young age.

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You want them to hear it from a trusted adult, or do you want them to hear it from the media or from

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Kids Murray's push for education underscores alarming national statistics in the first three quarters of 2021 children's hospital said, ER, visits for self injury and suicide attempts or ideation in children was at a 42% higher rate than during in 2019. We have

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Students that are still

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Struggling right now. The Vargas is a psychologist with the Downey unified school district. Really letting

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Students know where they can seek out the supports is gonna be vital for them to start moving in the right

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Direction. Vargas says his district currently runs grievance, anxiety and depression groups for students. He's not sure yet what the new required mental health curriculum might look like at his schools for its part, the LA unified school district, which offers health courses said in a statement that it's still reviewing the implications of the law and how it will impact existing curriculum offerings for mental health advocate, Matthew dip, the increased awareness can't come soon enough. I

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Like, wow. If I had had this younger, I think that would've just built such a foundation so that when I was experiencing those hard times, I could have navigated it a lot better.

Speaker 1: (16:41)

And that was KPCC C's Robert reporting Tecate based artist Irma, Sophia poet has had a much celebrated career. She won the San Diego art prize in 2016 and her work has been shown around the world. Much of her art is steeped in the border and gender, and it's informed by the textiles. She works with her solo exhibition, new man, a woman's gaze is opening this weekend at bread and salt. It's a study on gender and imagining a new form of masculinity. Ormo Sophia poet recently spoke with K PBS arts producer and editor, Julia Dixon Evans. Here's that interview. So

Speaker 23: (17:23)

This exhibition it's called new man a woman's gaze. It takes on gender specifically men, which is something we've seen in your work for a while. And in your artist statement, you're defining this hopeful new man as someone who quote blurs the violent gender binary. Can you tell us a little more about this?

Speaker 5: (17:45)

A new man started with a pandemic and when the pandemic started, you know, I started questioning my role as an artist. You know, if I wasn't able to do art, then what would I be doing? You know? And I started questioning also the infrastructure in which we live, you know, and, and how everything is so male orienting. And that's why, you know, the earth is in such a bad place because there isn't this balance, you know, between the feminine and the masculine. And a lot of my work has to do with that. So I started thinking about this and that's where the idea of new men came. So

Speaker 23: (18:19)

I wanted to ask you a little bit about some of these works in new man, a woman's gaze, some of the imagery is a bit explicit there's fall is, and the such that they're all obscured in sculpture or with sequin cloth. And I'd love to hear about a few of these works and the way that you chose those materials.

Speaker 5: (18:40)

Yeah. I chose a lot of sequence, a lot of be a lot of lace, a lot of soft colors, a lot of textures, because that is language of women. I think, you know, that really attracts us, you know, fabric is a femoral material. It's something that you can handle it with your hands. You know, it's a very easy to work with. So I wanted to use that material to express the feminine side in men. It's an iconic art. You see this all the time in all the pieces of new men, the fellas is in repost. And the idea behind all this is that I think we, as not only men, this society is a total is really geared into being like very, you know, doing things, you know, very gold already just do this, your gold, your ambition. You have to be very focused. And I think that just by being just by, you know, having no agendas at all, just being yourself, just enjoying the moment of the present. So that is what I wanted to express with the fellas in this condition.

Speaker 23: (19:46)

And so much is said about the man's gaze and how it's dictated generations of not just beauty standards, but art, societal structures, even policy. And there's something a bit playful about you turning it around to be the woman's gaze, but also still incredibly serious. So could you talk a little bit about what a woman's gaze means to

Speaker 5: (20:10)

You? A woman's gaze is giving us the permission to look and to have that power of being able to look without shame without inhibition, just with joy, you know, and all these materials are just emphasized this joy because it's a joyful experience. Uh, it's not castrating, there's no boundary. It's just very open and very sensual and, uh, very soft. So that's why I thought it was very important. Also, you know, putting that woman's gaze into the title of the show. First, it was only new men, but I said, you know, well, it doesn't have to do with sexual preferences. It doesn't have to do with sexual orientation or, or anything. That's why I wanted to kind of have that there. And what

Speaker 23: (20:55)

Role does art play in tackling gender

Speaker 5: (21:00)

Constructs? When you look at a piece of art that talks about something like a gender issue, you know, and it talks about a it through beauty and it talks about it through art and through colors and through textures and through all this, you know, it permeates into you on a very, um, subliminal and very, um, in another level that it's understood in a, in a different way. So I think art is very important in that sense. It gives it another layer. And another input that you can understand

Speaker 1: (21:29)

That was TA KA artist Irma, Sophia PODER speaking with KPBS arts producer and editor, Julia Dixon Evans, her exhibition, new man, a woman's gaze opens up bread and salt on Saturday with a reception from five to 8:00 PM. And that's sit for the podcast today as always, you can find more San Diego news online at kpbs dot org. I'm Anica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.