The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities of our San Diego region. In August, the San Diego Association of Governments found that 36 percent of Black and 36 percent of Hispanic San Diegans live in ZIP codes with both higher than average unemployment and COVID-19 cases, compared to just 13 percent of White San Diegans. In a community rich with diversity and blessed with so many resources, we must commit 2021 to working together in partnership, not as liberals and conservatives, but as people, as San Diegans, to address these inequities.
Working on the frontlines of unemployment, with families on the edge of homelessness, Interfaith Community Services sees the disproportionately negative impact COVID-19 has on minorities. We bring together diverse faith communities and people of comion to help people in need through comprehensive programs and services. Despite representing 29 percent of our North County population, 51 percent of our clients are Hispanic. The disparity is even greater among our Black and African American neighbors, who for less than 3 percent of our North County population, yet comprise 21 percent of our clients experiencing homelessness.
All San Diegans, and above all, our elected leaders, must commit to ing three proven-effective steps which will address these inequities and place our region on a just and moral footing for our generation and those who will follow.
First, we need to immediately the opening of local businesses. As an essential service provider, my organization has operated 24/7 since the COVID-19 closures, across numerous locations, safely providing food, shelter, counselling, treatment and housing. It has not been easy. It requires extensive personal protective equipment, restructuring of workspaces, disciplined behaviors and immediate testing and isolation when suspected COVID-19 exposures occur. But if we can do it with minimal resources and maximum focus on doing what is right, surely our elected leaders and all San Diegans can come together to function at our highest level possible while maintaining appropriate safety measures.
It is our shuttered and downsized local businesses where most of Interfaith’s minority clients work. As those businesses reopen and as people return to work, they face an old problem that has grown worse amid COVID-19: lack of affordable childcare. The second thing our elected leaders must focus on in 2021 is childcare and early education for low-income families. Our national failure to prioritize early education for all people, not just those above certain class levels, stunts economic growth, hurts families and places immigrant and minority children behind their peers. We must and we can do better.
The third thing our elected leaders must do in 2020 is vocational training for displaced workers seeking new careers in needed businesses amid our new COVID reality. This will benefit everyone. We have a wealth of expertise and business acumen among the diversity of our region. Our elected leaders have the opportunity to move beyond party and division, and to call upon our regional experts on each of the most pressing issues facing our community. It is up to all of us to share our expertise and innovation.
Together, through these three difficult yet very doable tasks – opening business, ing childcare, and creating new career pathways for those seeking work – we can overcome the crisis of our time and build a better San Diego for tomorrow.
Anglea is the CEO of Interfaith Community Services.
