SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- The San Diego City Council is meeting for the first time in weeks, and housing and homelessness will be a big topic of discussion.
At the Monday afternoon meeting, the council could adopt a new ordinance that would give Mayor Todd Gloria power to declare local housing and homelessness emergencies.
Declaring either would allow the mayor to surpass council approval for a month to address either situation.
The mayor could make and enforce rules they would think are necessary to address the emergency, create contracts for services, and suspend competitive bidding requirements.
The criteria for both are different.
For the mayor to declare a housing emergency, the city’s housing supply must be at least 40 percent below its production goals.
For the mayor to declare a local homelessness emergency, the number of unhoused people would need to be more than two times the total number of shelter beds, or the total number of unsheltered people in the point-in-time count will have to have grown by more than 20 percent in a year.
Homelessness has been a hot topic among some San Diegans before today's meeting.
Over the weekend, protesters questioned why Gloria's proposed 1,000-bed shelter wasn't on the agenda.
