As the homelessness crisis in San Diego continues to grow, a new hire in the mayor’s office is working to bring new ideas and considerations to the forefront.
Stacie Spector was recently hired by Mayor Kevin Faulconer as the Senior Advisor for Housing Solutions for the City of San Diego. She spends her days coordinating with homeless service providers, offering resources and finding ways the city can help in their efforts.
She also tours facilities in every corner of the city, meeting face-to-face with the homeless people of the region.
By taking a closer look at all of the programs and services working to combat the crisis, the city will better understand what’s missing and how it can promote collaboration and maximize the resources that are being spent.
Spector says that while service providers like The Alpha Project, Father Joe’s Mission, the San Diego Rescue Project and PATH deserve a tremendous amount of credit for what they do with individuals, the city needs to take a holistic approach and work backwards to fill the holes.
“We’re kind of in an unprecedented time in San Diego and the Mayor has seized upon that,” Spector said. “He looked around and said ‘you know, this problem is not getting better, and it’s really time.’ We’ve never been more poised to be a more instrumental player in this and we need to step up the program.”
Spector says that the number of homeless people in San Diego is unacceptable for herself, county leadership and the Mayor, and San Diegans have been expressing the same sentiment for years.
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“It is [heartbreaking],” San Diego resident Phil Wexler said “I feel bad for these people, I’m not angry at them. I think in some cases it’s a disease and in some cases it’s just bad luck. But either way, it’s heartbreaking.”
