San Diego County Mayors Are Addressing Homelessness

The San Diego Rescue Mission recently hosted the fifth annual Mayors Symposium, where mayors from all 18 cities in San Diego County came together to discuss homelessness. Veronica Carter and Bret Burkhart talked to the Chief of Staff at San Diego Rescue Mission, Paul Armstrong.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
San Diego Rescue Mission hosted the fifth annual Mayors Symposium.
It was called bringing together leadership from all eighteen cities
in San Diego County. It was a closed door discussion
on how to approach homelessness.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
On the Coconus. Lifeline is Paul Armstrong.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
He is the chief of staff at San Diego Rescue Mission. Paul,
thank you so much for joining us on San Diego's
Morning News.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
This symposium.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Was it designed to talk about homelessness or were there
other issues involved and then this just popped up and
kind of dominated the conversation.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
No, this is the primary reason for the symposium. So
this is the fifth time we've been able to gether
the mayors, and we just we know that this is
a regional issue and so we look to bring all
of the mayors together to just look at this from
a regional perspective and give them a chance to talk
about what's worked in what they're seeing and just be
a safe space to talk.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So what did you got come up with?

Speaker 4 (01:02):
Well, we solved everything now I wish now it was
a good opportunity. There's a great opportunity to talk about
the importance data very specifically We champion for what's known
as a by name list, where you really know what
who the people are who are experiencing homelessness. We just
talked about, you know that the reality is we have

(01:24):
to do what's known as the point in time count,
but that number doesn't give us what's actually happening. Both
the point and the by name lists we use in
Vista Incinitas as well as our kfh's monthly report, really
gives us a more accurate picture that we need to
be concerned that more people are calling into homelessness and
leading homelessness, and that we really need to be coordinating

(01:46):
our efforts and working together more effectively.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah. I was going to piggyback on that.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Paul Armstrong is the chief of staff for San Diego
Rescue Mission. Is San Diego County doing enough to address
the homeless issue as a regional issue, because, as you say,
collaboration is.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Going to be key.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, And I think that was one of the things
that did come out is we definitely want to look
at more engaging the county more. They control the help
in Human Services budget, which is the behavioral health and
substitute treatment, and so they are a critical player and
I think we need to be going, Hey, how's the
coordination between the cities and the county, And it seems like,

(02:28):
at least from the mayor's perspective, there's room to grow there.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Then are you pretty encouraged by teamwork?

Speaker 4 (02:37):
I am. You know, one of the nice things about
the Mayor's Symposium is that it is for the mayor's
and we have a variety of political perspectives, but we
also know that there's a common issue that we've got
to address with this homelessness. And what we found as
any time people can rally around the common cause, you're

(02:57):
able to find common ground, and when you find common ground,
we can find a way forward.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
This is a fifth annual mayor Symposium. What was the
county involved in any way? We continue to the theme here.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, so this really was a focus for Meres to
be able to get together. We did have the county
attend last year, and I think we are looking next
year when we do a fifth annual one that we
will most likely be essentially engaging with the county so
they can join the conversation.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
All right, Well, you know this isn't a topic that's
going to continue and we're glad that you guys are
working together to try to come up with a solution.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Yeah, thank you. We're going to keep plugging away and
we're going to get ahead of this thing, all right.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Paul Armstrong, the chief of staff at San Diego Rescue Mission,