November 13, 2018

San Diego Housing Commission’s Annual Report Highlights A ‘Decade Of Innovation’

Published online, the multimedia report for Fiscal Year 2018 includes a 10-year retrospective

SAN DIEGO, CA — The San Diego Housing Commission’s (SDHC) transformation into a housing agency recognized nationally for innovative approaches to providing housing assistance for low-income and homeless families is highlighted in SDHC’s Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Report, A Decade of Innovation, published on the agency’s website today.

“Leading the San Diego Housing Commission’s initiatives since my arrival in San Diego in September 2008 continues to be an honor, as the agency impacts the lives of thousands of households each day through our major program areas of rental assistance, homelessness solutions and affordable housing,” SDHC President & CEO Richard C. Gentry said.

SDHC’s accomplishments from Fiscal Year 2009 (July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009) to Fiscal Year 2018 (July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018) include:

• The reinstatement of SDHC’s federal “Moving to Work” (MTW) designation, which allows flexibility to implement innovative approaches to provide housing assistance to low-income households. SDHC is one of only 39 public housing authorities in the nation, out of 3,400, to receive the MTW designation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• The October 4, 2010, launch of the SDHC Achievement Academy, which has served more than 5,600 individuals, including helping to place more than 1,000 individuals in jobs. The SDHC Achievement Academy is one of the key partners in the collaboration among SDHC, the City of San Diego, and the San Diego Workforce Partnership that HUD selected to be an EnVision Center to promote financial self-reliance among federal rental assistance participants and public housing residents.
• The creation or preservation of more than 7,600 affordable rental housing units since July 1, 2008, through direct acquisitions, partnerships with developers, and administration of City land-use programs, such as inclusionary housing. In Fiscal Year 2018 alone, 946 affordable rental units were created or preserved, with more than 2,000 additional units pending completion.
• SDHC’s commitment of more than 4,000 federal rental housing vouchers to provide long-term housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness since July 1, 2010, when SDHC became one of the initial public housing agencies in the nation to receive approval from HUD to utilize rental housing voucher funding to address homelessness.
• The implementation of HOUSING FIRST – SAN DIEGO, SDHC’s homelessness action plan, which initially launched on November 12, 2014, with the current phase of the plan starting on July 1, 2017. The programs in the first three years of HOUSING FIRST – SAN DIEGO (2014 – 2017) created more than 2,900 housing opportunities for San Diegans experiencing homelessness. In the first year (Fiscal Year 2018) of the current phase, HOUSING FIRST – SAN DIEGO created an additional 2,068 housing opportunities for San Diegans experiencing homelessness.

The impact SDHC’s initiatives have on the lives of families with low income or experiencing homelessness is reflected in the stories of program participants, including videos embedded in SDHC’s multimedia Annual Report.

For example, in the last 10 years, Shavonne went from receiving rental assistance to owning her own daycare business and her own home. The SDHC Achievement Academy’s Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program helped her along the way, and she gives back today by speaking to current FSS program participants.

“It helped me obtain goals toward the bigger picture. Within the FSS program, it lays out a map, so if you’re not exactly sure about what you want to do, it kind of guides you —‘OK, let’s start here’—and then it builds from there,” Shavonne said.

In addition, SDHC’s Moving Home Rapid Rehousing program of HOUSING FIRST – SAN DIEGO helped Shanica and her teenage daughter leave a life of homelessness and move into an SDHC-owned affordable apartment.

“I’m going to do whatever I have to do to keep this place—to make sure she’s OK,” Shanica said. “I’m not going to give up. I’m going to stay in housing. I’m going to stay right here.”

SDHC’s Annual Report was produced in-house by the award-winning SDHC Communications & Government Relations Division.

For more information about SDHC, visit www.sdhc.org.

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Media Contact:

Scott Marshall
Vice President of Communications
San Diego Housing Commission
619-578-7138
scottm@sdhc.org