SAN DIEGO (CNS) - In his fourth annual State of the City address, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced plans to add at least 1,000 new shelter beds for homeless people, a labor agreement for the city's large construction projects, and a new executive order to expedite certain housing projects, and the mayor said his office is making progress on those plans Thursday.
Gloria, who is running for re-election, touted accomplishments over his mayoral tenure and laid out his goals going forward for addressing homelessness, housing affordability, public safety and infrastructure during Wednesday night's speech at the Balboa Theatre.
In what Gloria called "the largest homeless services proposals this city has ever pursued," he announced plans for 1,000 new beds at sites such as H Barracks near San Diego International Airport and the Old Downtown Central Library on E Street.
"We plan to create additional shelter space along with hundreds of new affordable, permanent homes for low-income and formerly homeless San Diegans," said Gloria, who applauded prior homelessness initiatives such as the Unsafe Camping Ordinance passed by the city council last year, which he said has reduced homelessness throughout downtown.
Gloria also said city homelessness initiatives have gotten more than 3,600 people into permanent housing over the past three years.
The mayor also announced the launch of a philanthropic campaign called San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness, which Gloria said has already received $250,000 in donations.
Gloria also announced plans to rename a street near Petco Park after recently deceased Padres owner Peter Seidler, who Gloria said "acted on his compassion for people experiencing homelessness every single day."
The mayor identified housing shortages as one of the root causes of local homelessness and to that end, announced the signing of an executive order that will require city planning officials to process applications under the Complete Communities program within 30 days.
Gloria said the process usually takes up to a year. The program incentivizes building housing near transit and he said accounted for 1,000 of the new homes permitted last year.
Gloria also announced a project labor agreement for all major construction projects in the city, which he said "will ensure city projects get done on time and on budget" and "provide the city with a reliable source of highly skilled workers for all city construction projects; encourage the employment of local residents for these good-paying jobs; and meet high standards for worker health and safety."
The agreement will go before the city council in the coming month.
Gloria said efforts would continue to repair damaged roadways and said that during his tenure, 627 miles of city streets have been repaired or resurfaced, while 61,305 potholes were filled in 2023.
On the public safety front, Gloria touted data he said showed citywide decreases this year in murders, rapes, robberies, and burglaries, which he partially attributed to aggressive San Diego police recruitment and retention efforts.
The mayor also said he will support efforts to amend Proposition 47, which was approved by voters in 2014 and reclassified certain drug and theft crimes as misdemeanors. Gloria contended the law has contributed to an uptick in organized criminal networks targeting businesses "with little to no consequence."
The unifying theme of Gloria's speech was progress and its sometimes gradual and frustrating journey, which he said "can be a tricky beast" that "doesn't look the same to everyone."
But Gloria said, "the state of our city is getting stronger every day. We are stronger than yesterday, and we'll be even stronger tomorrow. We have more work to do, but we have proven that, together, we are up to the task. We will keep making progress, we will keep getting things done until the job is done."
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