San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn’s homeless plan moving to council committee
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn has created a plan to address the homeless crisis that continues to get worse and worse.
Whitburn proposed a new ordinance that would ban homeless encampments on public property if shelter beds are available. Whitburn’s plan would also prevent people from camping in places like parks, transit stations, or near schools whether beds are available or not.
It is one of the most aggressive proposals to come from a local elected leader in some time, but was met with strong support from the public.
Whitburn’s proposed ordinance has the support of Mayor Todd Gloria, who has been on blast for his failures relating to addressing our now record-high homeless population. Gloria has said his goal is to remove encampments that are “bad for people living, working, and going to school around them.”
San Diego’s homeless crisis has gotten so bad that last year, San Diego icon Bill Walton and the Lucky Duck Foundation held a press conference that made national news where Walton called on Gloria to resign as a result of his failures.
Whitburn’s plan still needs to go through the legislative process at city council, but it seems to be stalled. On Thursday, the proposal will go before the city’s Land Use and Housing Committee.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn joined KUSI’s Lauren Phinney on Good Morning San Diego to explain why his plan is stalled, and what he plans to do to get the needed votes.
KUSI began the interview by asking Whitburn about the pending MTS investigation into the sexual assault allegations made against former Chair, Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who is in rehab. Whitburn is now Active Chair of MTS.
Regarding the MTS investigation, Whitburn said, “the Board of Directors of MTS voted last week to have an outside council conduct a fully independent investigation that will report directly to the Board of Directors on their findings. It is the intent of the Board of Directors to make those findings to public once they are available.”
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