The City of San Diego still has a few months to finalize its budget, and many are wondering what changes they may see.
Despite the potential cuts to programs, Mayor Todd Gloria says he's still focusing on the city's priorities, such as housing.
Housing will not be hit by the budget cuts, according to the city's planning department. The budget is making slashes to the general fund, which doesn't provide money for housing.
But ABC 10News still wanted to look into how the city was doing with their housing goals.
Here's what we found out:
The city issues building permits for property owners to building housing, but doesn't build housing itself.
The planning department said they're short of their goal.
So far, the city has permitted more than 25,000 new homes. But according to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA, San Diego must meet more than 82,000 more homes by 2029.
There are several hurdles to over come.
"Things that are largely outside of the city's control - the...development and whether it's occurring or not, relate to credit markets, interest rates, availability of labor and materials, and overall economic conditions," said Heidi Vonblum, the planning director for the city.
The City of San Diego is taking steps - like on Wednesday, when Councilmemebr Marni von Wilpert helped launch the H.O.P.E. teacher housing grant program.
It's a $1 million grant that will help educators achieve homeownership.
"We're building more housing where we can," said von Wilpert. "We're not building enough affordable housing. We need to make sure we have wholly housing programs going on. But we're doing the best we can to permit the housing, it's the developers will have to build them."
There are challenges, but efforts are being made to meet the city's long-term goals.
These building efforts come as the City of San Diego's population is projected to grow by 26% between 2012 and 2035, according to the city's general plan.
