SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Bankers Hill is a safe place where those without a home can come to, especially those looking to sing.
“Voices of Our City is a creative community for people impacted by homelessness,” Steph Johnson, CEO of Voices of Our City Choir, said. “We use the healing power of music and the arts, community building, mutual aid, support to help people that are experiencing homelessness move out of homelessness for good.”
The non-profit’s been around since 2017, helping more than 275 unhoused people find new purpose in the arts while getting them connected to resources.
“We are currently anticipating just a little over $86,000 this year in grants from the City,” Lindsey Seegers, Exec. Director of Voices of Our City. “For the last 5 years, we've been really fortunate to receive significant support from the City of San Diego as a small arts nonprofit. We're usually receiving about $100,000 of support each year.”
On Wednesday, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and the City released its proposed budget for the next fiscal year. It comes with close to $12 million in cuts to arts and culture grants as the City’s trying to overcome a $118 million deficit.
“This budget still includes roughly $2 million in funding for arts and culture operations here at the city. We'll continue to spend millions on public art, as required by our CIP program. So, there's still money that is in there, but there's no doubt this is a significant reduction,” Gloria said.
Johnson told ABC 10News this kind of reduction would wreck the rhythm of the work they’re doing through the arts.
“Operational funding and support to do the projects that we do in the city to help bring, um, a mission to, to, to where it needs to be, which is with marginalized communities, um, this impacts cuts to this type of work,” Johnson said.
Other local organizations are pushing back on the proposed budget cuts in the Fiscal Year 2027 for the City of San Diego.
“Cutting funding to arts and culture at this level will have decimating, long-term consequences for San Diego’s economy and identity,” said Christine Martinez, manager of Arts+Culture:San Diego, said in a press release sent to ABC 10News. “These organizations are small businesses, employers, educators and community anchors. We are urging the Mayor to maintain FY26 funding levels in FY27 to ensure stability for a sector that gives so much back to our city. Many of our community’s arts organizations simply won’t survive without this funding.”
Mayor Gloria said the cuts need to happen to balance the budget for America’s Finest City.
“Going forward, we can continue to work with our partners in the arts and culture community to make this hopefully a temporary situation, but right now this is what the situation demands,” Gloria said.
But Voices of Our City Choir said this demand may be too much.
“We are providing that safe, calm, welcoming space for people who are experiencing homelessness to stabilize their lives, and so it's not just a cut to the arts, this is a cut to people experiencing homelessness,” Seegers said.
