San Diego still has a housing shortage and its homeless population continues to grow.
But recent actions and announcements by local, state and federal officials suggest some movement toward building more homes.
The flurry of developments in recent weeks may not necessarily be game-changers, but they promise at least incremental steps in the long slog of trying to make housing more available and, ideally, affordable.
Mayor Todd Gloria last week announced a new program to speed up the permitting process for homes built under the city’s “Complete Communities” program.
In short, the 3-year-old program gives incentives for projects that include homes priced for lower- and moderate-income residents located near transit lines and other amenities.
Under the new action, the permit process for qualified projects has been reduced to a 30-day review period, rather than the months it can take. The change results from an executive order Gloria announced in his State of the City address in January.
“As a renter myself, I keenly understand the housing crisis we’re in — the rent is too high, and homeownership is seemingly unattainable,” the mayor said in a statement on Friday. “We change this by building a lot more housing and getting shovels in the ground as quickly as possible.”
Gloria sought to keep expectations in check, adding, “We are not going to end this housing affordability crisis overnight.”
For years, the city has moved consistently to facilitate more housing, though results have been slow. However, Gloria also announced San Diego had a “banner year” of issuing housing permits in 2023.
He said the city issued permits for 9,691 new homes — more than an 80 percent increase over 2022. The city had averaged just over 5,000 housing permits in the previous five years. Last year’s total was the highest since at least 2005, according to the city.
But to put that into context, experts say San Diego needs about 100,000 more housing units and about 13,500 must be built annually.
Axios San Diego added a note of caution on the permit number, saying that HUD’s preliminary 2023 data for San Diego is much lower than the city’s total, coming in roughly in line with recent years — not above them.
“We have a raised eyebrow, but we would be glad if it’s true,” Lori Holt Pfeiler, president and CEO of the San Diego Building Industry Association, told Axios.
Streamlining the development process is supposed to reduce costs. Increasing supply, in the theory of some, is supposed to help moderate housing prices, though advocates and critics present conflicting data about how true that is.
Gloria called Complete Communities a “popular program,” but not everyone is a fan. While the program requires projects to include a percentage of affordable housing units, some housing advocates said in a Voice of San Diego commentary that it’s not enough given the size of the density bonuses developers receive.
Meanwhile, more legislation has been introduced in Sacramento to open up coastal areas to more housing — in part by shrinking the authority of the California Coastal Commission.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 423, which extends a previous law expediting and encouraging greater housing density and affordable homes — and expanding it to certain coastal areas that had been exempt.
The law only applies to communities that failed to adopt a housing plan approved by the state, which is the case in some coastal cities that object to the potential for significantly increased housing.
Cities also complain about losing local control under this and other state bills that force them to allow more homes to be built. At one point, the cities of Carlsbad, Del Mar and San Marcos were listed among opponents to the bill.
The Coastal Commission initially opposed SB 423, but went neutral after its author, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, agreed to prohibit development in areas subject to sea-level rise.
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, this year has authored two bills that could increase coastal development, according to KPBS. SB 1077 would streamline the process to build accessory dwelling units in the coastal zone, while SB 1092 would limit the commission’s appeals process.
KPBS also reported that Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego, is carrying Assembly Bill 2560 to increase mixed-income housing in coastal areas, elevating an equity component to the push for more seaside development.
“Every corner of the state needs affordable housing,” Alvarez said in a statement last year. “That means the Coastal Act should not be used as an excuse to keep California’s coastal cities exclusively for the wealthy. We must prioritize a well-rounded approach for the future.”
The Wiener law and bills like Blakespear’s and Alvarez’s generally would allow projects to receive ministerial approval of development and avoid certain public hearings and environmental legal challenges.
Targeting the coastal zone for more development is a notable change in California politics.
The commission was created through the voter-approved Coastal Act in 1972 and charged with protecting the shoreline largely through regulating development.
From early on, the Coastal Commission has been the bane of many developers and some Republicans who have contended the and its bureaucrats have strangled reasonable coastal development.
But some progressive Democrats that safeguarding the coastal environment are now saying the commission has gone too far in stifling housing — a claim disputed by some commissioners.
Those seeking to loosen the commission’s reins dismiss as alarmist contentions that the California coast some day could look like Miami Beach, maintaining their legislation will still allow for adequate protection and beach access.
On the homeless front, federal Veterans Affairs officials said they are optimistic about achieving their goal of housing more than 800 homeless veterans in San Diego this year.
The VA last week said it already had helped house 318 veterans locally and was well on its way toward meeting its goal.
That would be welcome news in the wake of some negative developments.
In November, Blake Nelson of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that hundreds of housing vouchers allotted to San Diego County specifically for homeless veterans went unused.
Earlier last year, the annual point-in-time homeless count showed a dramatic increase in unhoused people, including a 19 percent jump in homeless veterans.
The trend for all homeless people was depressing, but possibly even more so regarding veterans.
As the region has struggled with rising homelessness in recent years, previous reductions in the unhoused veteran population had been one of the few bright spots.
