The City of San Diego will hold public workshops to discuss housing in San Diego and ideas for future housing policies. At these workshops, residents will learn about housing trends within the city, share which housing topics are most important to them, discuss what barriers they face when it comes to housing and provide input on how the City can help senior citizens and the homeless.
The local workshop will take place 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1 at Crown Point Junior Music Academy Auditorium, 4033 Ingraham St.
“Creating more affordable housing opportunities is one of the City’s top priorities,” said Mike Hansen, the City’s planning director. “It’s an important part of planning for more complete and sustainable communities. This is why, as we draft our housing blueprint for the next eight years, it’s vital to hear from our residents.”
The workshops are part of an effort to update San Diego’s housing blueprint, also known as the Housing Element, of the City’s General Plan. The Housing Element, updated every eight years, considers the City’s needs regarding housing access, inventory, affordability and quality. It provides a policy framework intended to guide housing capacity citywide and identifies actions to help meet housing goals. While some of the City’s housing goals are likely to remain the same, such as enabling the construction of more, high quality housing, improving the existing housing stock and providing new affordable housing opportunities, City planners want to make sure the update enhances the quality of life for all citizens and is a model of sustainable development and growth.
The City will need to plan for approximately 108,000 new housing units for all income groups by 2029, which is the end of the eight-year cycle. For the City to meet that target, the annual number of units being produced would need to triple.
After conducting these workshops, City planners will prepare a draft Housing Element and release it for public review. Ultimately, the updated Housing Element will be submitted to the City Council for adoption.