Last week, several dozen dignitaries, local business leaders and a seven-member mariachi band dressed in matching powder blue charro suits gathered in a courtyard in the bustling heart of west Chula Vista.
The crowd was there to mark the grand opening of a new South County career center operated by the San Diego Workforce Partnership. The Partnership is a regional nonprofit providing career counseling, job training and other employment services to more than 70,000 San Diego County residents per year.
Partnership CEO Rachel Bereza said the new South County career center, located on the ground floor of a recently built four-story office building near the corner of H Street and 3rd Avenue, is part of an ongoing effort to bring employment services as close as possible to the highest-need areas of San Diego County.
South County, Bereza said, is one of those areas.
Residents in the region, she said, face some of San Diego County’s starkest disparities in income, education and job security. A series of maps created by the Partnership shows South County census tracts with some of the county’s highest employment-related needs.
“We have to be bridging the gap,” Bereza said.
That goal – bridging the gap between South County’s needs and opportunities – is increasingly a top focus of regional leaders.
Recently elected South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said in an interview this week that one of her priorities in office is addressing “the cost of living in our community and putting working families first.”
State Assemblymember David Alvarez recently passed legislation aimed at fast-tracking the development of a four-year university in Chula Vista.
The city of Chula Vista has begun drafting a five-year strategic plan to address homelessness. National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez recently voiced support for an effort led by local community organizers to adopt a citywide rent control ordinance.
There are signs that such efforts to help South County’s neediest are gaining traction.
Last month, SBCS, formerly known as South Bay Community Services, one of the region’s largest service providers to people facing homelessness, domestic violence, healthcare needs and other challenges, opened a new $34 million service center across the street from Chula Vista City Hall.
The center will enable the organization to offer counseling, housing, youth development and other services to roughly 60,000 people per year.
“Our community depends on us, and the need is greater than ever,” SBCS CEO Kathie Lembo said at the opening of the new center.
Also last month, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan unveiled a new family justice center in National City that will provide counseling, legal assistance and other services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and similar crimes.
The center, Stephan said, would help to “dismantle generational cycles of trauma.”
At a luncheon gathering earlier this year at the San Diego Rescue Mission’s South County Lighthouse homeless shelter in National City, staff celebrated the graduation of former shelter resident Joshua Herron from the Rescue Mission’s two-year recovery and life skills program.
Herron was the first resident of the year-old Lighthouse shelter to graduate from the organization’s Mission Academy program. He said he stumbled into the shelter homeless and addicted to drugs. Now, he said, he worked as a restaurant cook and lived with his wife in a San Diego-area apartment.
Despite such milestones, regional leaders said South County’s network of care services remains a work in progress and is at risk of being overwhelmed by a rising tide of need.
Bereza said the Workforce Partnership’s ongoing tracking of regional job layoffs shows 1,000 more layoffs in the last quarter compared to the same period last year.
“We’re beginning to see job openings are starting to flatten,” Bereza said. “We’re at five percent unemployment [in San Diego County], outpacing state and federal unemployment…For job openings we have, we’re receiving record numbers of applications.”
Bereza said 32,000 people applied to fill just 800 openings at the new Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista earlier this year. Three thousand people attended a Gaylord job fair at Southwestern College, some sleeping in their cars in a parking lot to ensure a place in line, Bereza said.
“It was astronomical,” she said of the crowd at the job fair.
Aguirre said she has long complained of a chronic lack of county-provided services for homeless people and people struggling with addiction in South County. One especially glaring example, she said: A total absence of substance use detox beds.
Aguirre said county supervisors recently approved funding for 44 detox beds, most likely located in downtown San Diego. But “we can do a whole lot more,” Aguirre said. “There needs to be a whole continuum of care from treatment to permanent supportive housing.”
“We know that we’re needed now more than ever,” Bereza said of services such as the Workforce Partnership’s employment offerings. “I want people to know we’re here for them.”
In Other News
The Sweetwater Authority water agency has enacted a six-month delay on late fees and water shutoffs for customers unable to pay their water bills because of the recent federal government shutdown. The authority’s governing board approved the temporary moratorium on fees and shutoffs at its Wednesday board meeting. “Sweetwater Authority remains steadfast in its commitment to serving our community with compassion and responsibility,” said board chair Manny Delgado. For more information, call 619-420-1413.
The Port of San Diego announced this week it has begun providing so-called onshore power to one of the main automobile cargo ships berthed at the National City Marine Terminal. Onshore power hooks cargo ships to the mainland electrical grid, enabling ships to turn off their polluting diesel engines while loading and unloading cargo. Pasha Automotive Services’ cargo ship MV Jean Anne, which transports cars, trucks and heavy machinery between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii, was the first to connect to the port’s onshore power terminal on Oct. 31. Port officials said their goal is to convert all ships to using onshore power in a bid to reduce emissions.
inewsource has been covering National School District’s search for a new superintendent, following current superintendent Leighangela Brady’s recent announcement that she plans to retire next year. It’s a tough job. The small National City district faces a $16 million deficit.
The city of Chula Vista is distributing sandbags to residents in anticipation of a major winter storm forecast for the San Diego region. Residents are eligible to receive up to 10 sandbags per household. Distribution takes place 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Chula Vista Public Works Facility, 1800 Maxwell Rd. Recipients must show proof of residency, such as a driver’s license or utility bill.