By VINCE MEEHAN

Ethan van Thillo is the Executive Director and Founder of the Media Arts Center San Diego (MACSD), a local non-profit whose mission is to help amateur and independent movie makers get a foot in the door of the somewhat exclusive cinematography world. Until recently, his center was located in a modest building tucked away in North Park. But earlier this year, he found a different home at Park & Market, a new modern complex Downtown which doubles as a residential tower as well as an extension for UCSD.

Thillo is also the founder of the San Diego Latino Film Festival, which debuted 30 years ago as a small program that has grown into a 20,000-attendee event. However, Covid put the kibosh on most film festivals in 2020 and in-person movie attendance has yet to rebound completely since theaters have reopened. But Thillo is determined to get people back into the seats of theaters, especially screenings of the amateur or student films that he showcases. This year is looking to be on track as the breakout period for films in theaters as well as film festivals, and Thillo is ready to begin.

Thillo’s arts center serves as an incubator for San Diego and Tijuana’s future cinematographers and he goes through extra effort to make sure that nobody is left out. His youth programs are without equal. His center serves as a safe place for young film students to learn everything there is about the art and business of filmmaking.

“We have youth filmmaking programs like The Teen Producers Project and Youth Media Tech Camps,” Thillo offered. “We also have a video production department where we – it’s like a work readiness program – where young college students or recent college graduates get real world experience and produce content for other non-profits, organizations or even like news outlets like KPBS where we have a program called ‘Speak City Heights.’ And then we also run a movie theater!”

This theater, Digital Gym Cinema, was originally located in North Park but moved with the MACSD to Downtown last May in partnership with UCSD.

Thillo credits his passion for community service to his mother who served as his inspiration for becoming an educator, as well as a standout professor at his college who encouraged him to produce film festivals.

“My background was primarily with the Latino community. My mother was an educator and so I grew up watching her and learning from her in terms of what she did to help the community and young students, immigrants in particular. So when I went to UC Santa Cruz, I started taking Latin American studies classes and I had a cool Chicano Studies professor who said, ‘Hey, who wants to organize a Chicano film festival as part of your final student project?’ I naively said, ‘Yeah, sure, what the heck?’ Not knowing what the heck that was! I had to learn what exactly a Chicano film festival was,” Thillo explained.

He added that there is a whole cinema of U.S Mexican Americans in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. His professor taught him how to meet with filmmakers. In those early years he also learned how to market, fund and contact filmmakers.

Thillo created his own Latino film festival here in San Diego in the early ‘90s, which still runs to this day. In fact, next year’s festival in March marks a huge milestone: it will be the 30th San Diego Latino Film Festival. The film festival will screen 120 films in 11 days with screenings at four auditoriums at the AMC Mission Valley and the main Digital Gym Cinema at the Digital Art Center. Eighty guest filmmakers and actors will be on hand from Mexico City, Tijuana, Latin America and across the United States. Thillo hopes that some of his students will someday have a film showcased at the festival.

Thillo did hold the first post-Covid Latino film festival earlier this year, but the attendance was well below average. He says the public as a whole is still a bit leery about coming together inside an enclosed theater, but they’ve also gotten used to watching movies at home through Netflix or other streaming services. He’s hoping that people come around by next year to take the festival back to the special experience that it was pre-Covid.

“I think its gonna take some kind of reacquainting people about the movie experience. There’s nothing like seeing a movie in a movie theater – the surround sound, the big screen. Even our cinema which is not huge, but still you’re immersed in this wonderful experience that you can’t get at home you know? So we encourage people to come out,” he said.

MACSD is equipped to teach students everything about filmmaking from shooting to editing to what it takes to run a theater. The first floor of the new building features a large multi-purpose open room complete with a huge LED screen. It can also be converted toa set up for concerts or seminars with state-of-the-art sound and light technology. The second floor houses the 58-seat working theater complete with concessions and a café area. The third floor contains classrooms and offices for the filmmaking program. There is also a large outdoor patio with a large video screen that can be used for screenings or receptions.

Thillo credits his success to the community relationships that he fostered in the last 30 years. He is especially proud of being able to bring disadvantaged kids to his youth programs.

“For 30 years we’ve built incredible community partnerships and as a non-profit, you can’t really survive without community partnerships. With our Youth Media Education Programs, we’ll partner with affordable housing organizations and teach their youth, or with local schools, we’ll teach their students. Our radio production department will partner with news outlets or school districts as well,” he said.

At this year’s summer camps, a special grant allows underserved families to send their kids. Thillo sees the importance of providing at-risk kids an opportunity to attend summer camps and after school programs where they can channel their creative forces into positive art and set a career course at the same time. He feels that his media center is the perfect spot to do that.

The nonprofit also partnered with the library system to open a production studio inside the City Heights library.

“We’re encouraging families and students to come to this new space because just imagine if you can get a student to be involved with our camps at seven years old? Then they get involved with our Teen Producers Project, and then… hey, they wanna go on in filmmaking and go into the UCSD Communications department! That would be the perfect thing if these young students from different neighborhoods – like Logan Heights for example – start meeting all the other professors and teachers and everyone else here in this building. That would be pretty incredible.”

Thillo feels like the move to this Downtown creative hive was serendipitous, but he noted that his community relationships have always been the key to success for his foundation, especially in regards to UCSD.

MACSD and the Park & Market building in which it is housed is a brand new wonder to behold with its state-of-the-art features and design. It rivals anything found in Los Angeles. Thillo is not only excited about the media arts center, but also the other creative entities that are now populating the space. He sees this as nothing but a plus that all these powerful organizations will be sharing the same air and feeding off each other’s energy.

“There’s just so much synergy and so many things that are going to take place at this location,” Thillo said with the wave of a hand. “There’s all these wonderful entities that are also housed here, different offices from UCSD are having their Downtown locations here. Like the Qualcomm Institute is down here; UCSD Extension is down here. There’s a college from CETYS – a university from Tijuana that’s here, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, the Economic Development Corporation, and the Malin Burnham Center. So all these different entities will be communicating and working together, figuring out how to cross promote and do programs together.”

The San Diego Latino Film Festival returns in March of 2023 with the 30th festival. For more info, go to: SDLatinoFilm.com

By J.M. GARCIA

On a recent Sunday afternoon inside a flower shop near Balboa Park, Samira inhaled the fragrance of red roses and thought of her home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Vendors would put roses in pails of water outside their stalls. Sunflowers, too. Orange trees bloomed in the summer. The waters of the Kabul River passed her parent’s house. The frigid winter weather made her shake with cold, eager for the comforts of spring. The sun blistered the sky in summer making the days impossibly hot but the roses would remain deep red and cool.

“Just take your time,” she told a woman who entered the shop.

The woman fingered a sunflower and picked three. Samira wrapped them in brown paper and tied it with string. She rang up the purchase. The woman left, the bell on the door chimed and Samira sat and stared out the door surrounded by flowers and her memories.

Samira, who spoke on the condition that her real name would be withheld for the safety of her family in Afghanistan, arrived in San Diego last year. She is one of nearly 2,700 Afghans who have been resettled here since October. Now, a little over a year since the U.S. began withdrawing forc-es from Afghanistan and the Taliban resumed control, she continues to adjust to a new country without her family and where few people seem to remember what happened to Afghanistan or feel concern for those Afghans left behind.

Just four years old when a U.S. led military coalition toppled the Taliban after 9/11, Samira has little recall of their rule in the late 1990s. But she remembers when they left. She stood on the sec-ond floor of her family’s house and watched them drive out of Jalalabad, their faces grim, angry—her mother and father so happy.

Samira experienced the possibilities of an education denied to women when the Taliban ruled. She woke up early and attended school from seven to one. After school, she took a computer course and studied English. She later attended college and became a nurse. One of her favorite memories: accessing the internet for the first time and establishing an email account. At night, Samira, her parents and her four siblings, two brothers and two sisters, would sit together after dinner in one room and tell stories.

She noticed a change in Afghanistan after NATO formally ended its combat operations in Afghan-istan in 2014, leaving the Afghan army and police in charge of security. Insurgent bomb attacks increased. Her own father was injured on May 15, 2013, a day Samira remembers as if it was yes-terday.

A physician, he went out with the Afghan National Army that day to treat sick soldiers when a bomb exploded and shrapnel tore into his left arm. A neighbor heard the news but did not want to alarm the family. He asked for some clothes to bring to the hospital treating Samira’s father. Why do you need his clothes? Samira’s mother asked him, but instead of answering her he hurried away without explanation. Then a cousin called from Kabul and told them about the bombing. Samira’s mother tried to reach her husband but he did not answer his phone. Finally, an uncle called and told her he had been injured.

Incendiary devices exploded near Samira’s house, too many to count. It became normal to hear an explosion and the panicked screams the followed. A neighbor lost a son. Insurgents attached sticky bombs to cars. Her mother told Samira not to leave the house.

After the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, Samira applied for a U.S. visa. The previ-ous year, she had married an Afghan man who had been a translator for the American military. His job made him eligible for a Special Immigrant Visa, available to Afghans who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces. They had an unhappy marriage, however, and Samira’s husband left for the states without her, but because of his work for the Americans, Samira as his wife was also eligible for the Visa. Her mother and a brother took her to Kabul International Airport on Aug. 21, 2021. She held her mother for a long time, their faces wet with tears.

Two days later, Samira arrived in Washington, D.C. She suffered a panic attack and a nurse gave her medication. That evening she flew to Fort Bliss, Texas near El Paso and stayed in an army camp that had been expanded into a campus of dormitories and dining halls, community centers, and other services to support almost 10,000 refugees, about a third of them children. The summer heat, Samira thought, was worse than Jalalabad. She remained there for two months before she ar-rived in San Diego.

She shares an apartment with another Afghan woman she met in Texas. The San Diego based Alli-ance for African Assistance has helped them with housing and other needs. Samira’s husband lives in Washington. She wants to divorce him but he refuses to sign the papers.

Suffering from anxiety, Samira takes medication to help her sleep. She dreams of bomb blasts. In one dream, she told her father, ‘Let’s go away from here.’ ‘You’re in America,’ he said, ‘don’t wor-ry.’ Another time, she dreamt her parents were upset. When she called them, her mother said, ‘Your father was not feeling well. That’s why you had the dream.’ She misses her family. They live together without her. She talks to them every morning at 8 o’clock.

San Diego has brought on culture shock. San Diego women, she noticed, like to wear revealing clothes. She puts on long dresses and a headscarf. Men hug women. In Afghanistan, a woman would never hug a man outside of her family. The differences make her laugh and sometimes blush. She will continue working in the flower shop. She also has a part-time job at a supermarket. She wants to become a dental assistant, a position she held at her father’s clinic and plans to enroll in medical school. One day, she hopes the Taliban will leave Afghanistan so she can see her family again. For now she has her memories. The aromas of the flower shop fill her with images of Jala-labad. At these moments she feels at home.

By NICOLE ABRAMS

San Diego City Council voted 8-0 Aug. 2 to support an update of the City’s Climate Action Plan.

Councilmember Chris Cate was absent from the vote.

The update formalizes the City’s goal of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2035. The updated plan was introduced to the council committee by the Sustainability and Mobility Department and the City Planning Department. It is much more ambitious and comprehensive than the one made in 2015. It also reinforces the City’s standing as a statewide and national climate leader.

The San Diego City Council’s Environment Committee unanimously passed the updated 2022 Climate Action Plan (CAP) proposed by Mayor Todd Gloria on June 30.

Early this year, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released their annual report, which discussed the need for drastic change to address harmful greenhouse gas emissions and the growing threat of climate change. However, on the same day that this committee meeting occurred, the Supreme Court decided to severely limit the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions and fight against climate change.

According to Moriah Saldaña, the Climate Action Program Manager for the city of San Diego, action must be taken now to reverse the harmful effects of climate change.

“Without action, we will continue to see extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts and rainstorms. These extreme weather events will disrupt the supply chain, our food systems, and put pressure on the supply of fresh water,” she said at the June 30 committee meeting.

San Diego’s 2015 CAP had the main goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2035. This new plan has made it a priority to participate in national programs like the US Fair Share Goal, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 195% below 2005 levels by 2030. According to the US Climate Action Network, the US government has a goal of fully decarbonizing the economy.

The updated CAP is also involved with the Race to Zero Initiative, which is a global campaign to reduce carbon emissions to 0% by 2050. This new plan will continue to use the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) from the 2015 plan, a controversial act which assesses whether projects are significantly harmful to the environment. In addition, the CAP includes new sections that address the importance of clean air and reducing pollution.

During the committee meeting, the three main priorities of the plan that were discussed were climate equity, the creation of new and greener jobs, and the support from resourcing and crowd-funding.

The CAP emphasizes the need for community engagement when making decisions about addressing the climate crisis. The new CAP is much more detailed about its goals and includes specific strategies that will be used for the city to become a leader in the fight against climate change.

The updated CAP puts an emphasis on the need for climate equity. According to Saldaña, the definition of climate equity for the city of San Diego is, “addressing historical inequities suffered by people of color, allowing everyone to fairly share the same benefits and burdens from climate solutions, and attain full and equal access to opportunities regardless of one’s background and identity.”

The 2022 CAP will utilize the Climate Equity Index, which contains data that highlights the “communities of concern” that have been underserved and are the most impacted by climate change. In order to best implement this plan to improve climate equity and support these communities, the Sustainability and Mobility and City Planning Departments made sure to gain feedback from the people of the city to inform their decisions. The city held virtual open houses, forums, and surveys to learn how to create a plan that would best serve all the communities in the city. Drawn from this community feedback are four core benefits, which include improved air quality, a greener economy, improved public health, and resiliency.

Danielle Wilkerson, the Equity and Action Coordinator at San Diego 350, a volunteer organization that was formed to combat climate change, said to the city council committee, “I am here today in support of EHC’s proposal that 90% of CAP funding be invested in environmental justice communities, such as Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, and neighborhoods in southeast San Diego. These communities experience the harshest consequences of environmental racism. For example, in Barrio Logan there are three times more emergency room visits for asthma than the county’s average and five times more visits for asthma than La Jolla.”

Wilkerson stressed the importance of addressing the harm that has been done to these communities as a result of the environmental neglect and rise in pollution.

According to Council member Joe La Cava, the Chair of the Environment Committee, “All this feedback, all the work by staff really underscores the leading goal of this update: net zero by 2035. It will require a shift in how we power our buildings, move around the city, how we zero out our trash, reducing our reliance on imported water, expanding our tree canopy and wetlands, and much more. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but as we heard today, and we hear over and over, that work cannot wait.”

If the new CAP is passed by the full city council, it will be implemented by the end of February 2023 before the mayor’s next budget proposal.

By Kendra Sitton

A local transgender woman, Nikki Yach, is being held in jail for the duration of her trial for violence at a demonstration in Pacific Beach in early 2021.

At a bail hearing on Aug. 19 in San Diego Superior Court, the judge asked Deputy District Attorney Mackenzie Harvey to prove why Yach should be held without bail for the entire trial and Yach’s attorney, Jerry Leahy, to demonstrate what bail was within her means to pay but would still provide an incentive to show up to court.

Yach is one of 11 defendants facing charges related to an Antifa counterprotest of a right-wing protest in Pacific Beach in the days following the Capitol Insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The demonstration erupted into violence between the two groups and a criminal grand jury indicted 11 people associated with antifa in the aftermath.

Yach is charged with conspiracy to riot, multiple felony assaults, some related to her use of pepper spray and a stun gun as well as doing this while released on bail for another case.

In the hearing, Leahy said the incident was more complicated than the picture District Attorney Summer Stephan is painting and Yach was carrying the pepper spray and stun gun for self-defense use due to the threats she faces over her gender identity.

Harvey countered that Yach could not be released due to her history of assault convictions and the fact she had failed to show to some court dates in the past.

When they reconvened in the afternoon, the judge agreed with the DA’s argument to detain Yach without bail until the trial ends.

Yach was arrested on Dec. 30, 2021 from her apartment in Tijuana.

“She was stolen from my arms,” said GG Hubbard, Yach’s husband. The pair were cuddling in bed when police entered their home.

Lieutenant Amber Briggs, media relations director for the Sheriff’s Department, said “Ensuring safe housing for LGBTQ+ individuals begins during the booking process….all housing options are provided to individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. If the individual informs staff of a preference to [be] housed at a particular facility, the individual’s preference is taken into consideration in the classification and housing process. Taking into consideration the individual’s housing preference, if any, the individual is placed in a housing area with other individuals consistent with their gender identity.”

In a signed declaration to an attorney and according to her husband, Yach requested to be placed in Los Colinas with other women when she was booked. She was held in San Diego Central Jail, a men’s jail, for several months before being transferred to Vista Detention Facility which has an LGBT+ unit meant to protect vulnerable inmates from violence and sexual assault. However, it is not wheelchair accessible – forcing disabled LGBT+ inmates like Yach to choose between safety from violence and their medical needs.

Transgender women are at high risk of violence, especially sexual violence, while jailed. According to CNN, 59% of transgender prisoners in California reported being sexually assaulted compared to 4.4% of the general incarcerated population.

Kristina Frost, a transgender woman, sued the Sheriff’s Department after she was badly beaten and injured while placed in a cell with three men. In July, the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board found her complaints to be credible and the board’s investigators said it was the result of systemic failure on the part of the Sheriff’s Department.

In a signed statement, Yach said staff regularly misgender her and she is called slurs by inmates. Despite being on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), she has not been housed in women’s jails (Vista is coed). She claims her access to HRT was denied the first few months she was jailed.

Yach has multiple sclerosis and experiences occasional flares in the condition. She alleges medical neglect during her detention.

In a declaration in support of a class action lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department to improve jail conditions including its medical practices, Yach said she was willing to testify if called on as a witness about her experiences in the jail. According to the declaration, Yach entered the jail with a wheelchair but gave it up in order to be transferred to Vista to get away from a cellmate who groped her. During a flare in her condition, she asked for the wheelchair to be returned but she was instead transferred back to Central. Eventually, she was placed back in the cell block she had fled previously to find dried blood in it that other inmates said was from an inmate who had been attacked and was on life support.

“It seems like I must choose one aspect of my safety over the other, if the jail even lets me choose. Do I want my wheelchair? Or do I want to be housed in a unit where I have not been assaulted and am with other trans individuals?” Yach stated in her declaration.

The lawsuit follows a state audit that found San Diego County jails to be unsafe. The filthy conditions and mismanagement were one of the concerns in the report.

Hubbard, Yach’s partner, is concerned for her health and safety while in jail. According to him, Yach has a faulty defibrillator in her heart that needs to be replaced or she risks dying of a heart attack. Despite this, the jail has not scheduled heart surgery for Yach.

While this is the most severe instance of medical neglect, Hubbard said the neglect has been “constant.” For the first few months in jail, Yach said she was denied access to her hormone medications. Since then, receiving the correct amount of medication at the correct time has been inconsistent, according to Hubbard. According to the lawsuit and an interview with Hubbard, Yach’s access to mental healthcare has been limited unless she says she is suicidal, especially if Yach wishes to speak to a clinician without a Sheriff’s deputy present.

“Nikki is the love of my life. She’s saved my life on many occasions; she’s the most genuine, caring person I know,” Hubbard said. “So I’m very lucky to have her in my life. But I don’t know how long that’s going to be since she’s in the custody of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. And she’s dealing with all these medical issues that are going unattended. So I feel like our time is ticking.”

By VINCE MEEHAN

It would be difficult to live, shop or play in North Park with any frequency without knowing Angela Landsberg. Everybody knows Angela Landsberg. She has been the Executive Director of North Park Main Street (NPMS) for 11 years – becoming the face of the many small businesses on the neighborhood’s popular 30th Street.

San Diego City Council members know her, business owners know her, and Mayor Todd Gloria knows her – because Landsberg has led a very high-profile career at NPMS. But now, Landsberg is leaving NPMS to become the Executive Director for the San Diego County Dental Society (SDCDS). The move marks the end of an era in North Park but also the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in Landsberg’s life.

The SDCDS has been around since 1887 and is the largest professional organization representing dentists in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Membership is voluntary and the Society now has over 2,000 members in this association. It serves as the local arm of both the California Dental Association and the American Dental Association. The SDCDS includes a foundation called the San Diego County Dental Foundation (SDCDF), which was founded in 1992 by dentists in the San Diego County area to provide funding for dental health education and access to dental care as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Landsberg will also be Executive Director of this foundation, which is currently running a dental health clinic at San Diego Veteran’s Village (SDVV) in the Midway area. The SDVV works to house homeless veterans as well as provide them with essential health services. It was this service work that convinced Landsberg to leave her longtime post.

“I’ve had an increasing interest in working with the unsheltered population and creating programs to address the issue,” Landsberg noted. “So I was looking for my next career move to involve some elements of that and this job was perfect because it allowed me to continue my work – that I love doing – working for a membership organization. North Park Main Street was a membership organization, our members were small business owners and property owners, and the members of the San Diego County Dental Society are dentists, so we have a membership organization, and then we also have a foundation which is the other part of the work that I’m doing.”

At NPMS, Landsberg had direct interaction with the homeless population on a daily basis. Since Landsberg’s job at NPMS was to advocate for the local businesses, she had to face the homelessness crisis on a regular basis when business owners found unsheltered people in their storefronts or parking lots. But rather than looking at the homeless as adversaries of the small businesses she represented, she saw them as unsheltered humans that deserved to be helped as opposed to run out of town. This juxtaposition was a familiar theme that she found herself in quite often at NPMS. She called this the “awkward position of having to advocate for both sides” of a dispute that more often than not, pitted the City against some of her business owners, or in this case, the owners’ rights versus the unsheltered people’s rights. Her empathy for a population business owners worried would drive sales down led her to her current position where she can be a part of the solution and make a difference.

“The foundation that I am in charge of provides dental care to lots of individuals who would not otherwise have access to it and a big portion of that is a clinic that we have over at Veterans Village San Diego that provides restorative dental care to veterans. So we’re talking about giving people new smiles which is live-changing for them,” Landsberg said.

Landsberg credits her 11 years at NPMS with giving her the non-profit experience that landed her the leadership position at both the SDCDS and the SDCDF. Though she has no familiarity with dental specifics, her experience at NPMS is really the factor that will be key to her success. Working within the outlines of mission statements, seeking donations and planning events as well as her experience working with a board of directors was key in securing her new position.

“We’re working to improve the profession of dentistry and help increase the vitality of the community,” added Landsberg. “I’m having to learn the terms, but the functions of running a non-profit are very much the same.”

Landsberg is confident that she can transfer seamlessly into her new role. The SDCDF hosts a huge fundraising gala every year called “An Evening in Old Hollywood” to raise funds for the Geis Dental Clinic at the Veterans Village of San Diego. The Geis Dental Clinic provides the completely free comprehensive dental care to formerly homeless veterans currently residing at Veterans Village of San Diego. This year the event will be held at the Hilton Del Mar and it is always a fun and successful event. These type of events come second nature to Landsberg, who produced several events annually like The Taste of North Park, the North Park Music Fest and many more events that drew business to the neighborhood.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s that much different. I’m still networking, I’m building relationships, and I’m providing assistance to people. We do have events, and in fact, the dentistry society puts on quite a few events. Our events are not based necessarily around breweries and restaurants, but we do provide classes and e-classes so it’s good,” she said.

Landsberg leaves behind some big shoes to fill for the next leader of NPMS. The position has not been filled and NPMS is currently looking at candidates for the position.

“They (NPMS) are going to look for somebody who understands how to work with the community in collaborative ways, they’re going to look for someone who has a good finger on the pulse of what North Park currently is – where it’s been and where it’s going,” she said. “They are going to be looking for someone who can work well with a variety of different needs coming their way. You’ve got people who are like, ‘Well, I need this done,’ and the city will say, ‘Well, we need to make sure we are going to put a median in the center of the street to slow traffic,’ and you’re going to have businesses say, ‘well, you’re blocking our left hand turn lane which means people aren’t going to be able to get to my business.’ So, you have to negotiate and navigate through some really difficult conversations with opposing needs.”

She said that candidates should have experience in working with communities, understanding State, County and City policies as well as a working knowledge of how government agencies operate. They must possess a professional demeanor as well as the ability to run a meeting. Previously working with a non-profit is not necessarily a condition for hire.

“That can be learned really. That’s not something that I think is a necessary requirement. I think it’s those people skills that are really gonna make the difference. It’s somebody that knows how to hustle. Somebody who knows how to get things done – with minimal resources – and maximizing the resources that are available,” Landsberg said.

By JILL ALEXANDER

Something has been buzzing down at the San Diego Marriot Marquis Marina for quite some time and it looks like it isn’t going to subside.

In 2015, the Marriott Marquis Marina’s engineering team began a simple beekeeping program on one level of the venue and the idea took off.

These days at any given time, 150,000 to 350,000 “Marquis Bees” from several hives produce honeycomb used in the hotel’s restaurant, local breweries, and distilleries.

Helping the Planet

When their honey is not being added to a recipe or a honey-centric beer or cocktail, the Marquis Bees are doing their part to help the planet.

“Honeybees, bumble bees, and all pollinators are responsible for the development of many plant species that we see today as a result of centuries of cross-pollination. The honeybee alone pollinates up to 80% of wild flora across the globe – being massively responsible for the spread of flower blossoms making them a sort of artist,” Wilson said.

In the end, the cost of keeping the bees is not that high, and relatively speaking, it is insignificant in comparison to the benefits derived from ensuring that these invaluable pollinators thrive, even in urban spaces.

“The economic opportunities that exist from having docile honeybees massively outweigh the cost,” Wilson said.

Big-time Producers

It’s amazing to note that docile honeybee colonies, such as the Marquis Bees, will produce minimally, 2.5 gallons of honey annually without encroaching on the bees’ wintertime honey stores.

However, good weather, strong bee populations, and nearby blossoms will help encourage greater honey yields.

Also, each hive grows and shrinks through the seasons and around 50,000 bees per hive are at the height of their seasonal population.

As for the type of honey being produced at the Marriott Marquis Marina, it is considered a wildflower blend as the bees will gather nectar from places like Balboa Park, Coronado, and the many downtown manicured gardens.

The sustainable program now in its seventh year continues to be a popular one and there are plans to extend it, Wilson said.

“We are currently developing an amenity program with Hotel Executive Management that will utilize the honey in various ways making it available for all the guests to consume.”

Since 2015, the honey has been primarily used to drive alcohol sales in the Marina Kitchen with the following collaborations:

Honeycomb Harvest (Honey Cram Ale) – Monkey Paw Brewing – 2015

Beehive Black Lager (Shwarzbier) – Stone Brewing – Nov 2016

To Bee or not to Bee (Honey Lemon Golden Ale) – Pizza Port Brewing – March 2018

Rooftop IPA (Honey Citrus IPA) – Mother Earth Brewing

Honey, I Drank the Kids (San Diego Extra Pale Ale) – Thorn Brewing Co.

Honey Barrel Rum – Malahat Distilling

Popularity Soars

It’s no secret that honeybees are consistently growing in popularity across the planet as they are still the strongest and most silent contributors to the global food supply directly responsible for up to 35% of human-consumed produce.

“Indirectly, honeybees are used to pollinate plants such as alfalfa, carrots, onions, etc., to create seeds. Alfalfa is an incredibly commonly used food for cattle and therefore, the bees feed not only us, but also the cattle that we eat as well.

“As the Global Food Supply has been threatened with post-COVID supply chain breakdowns, the awareness around the need for bees and the localization of food production is growing dramatically,” Wilson said.

Beyond the need for bees, he added that they are some of the planet’s most gentle animals (when managed properly) that directly interact with humans.

Not to mention the number of bee facts is buzzworthy:

Bees are the only insect that creates food for humans without them being the food.

Honey does not expire.

Honeybees can recognize a human face, can count, and understand odd and even numbering.

Recipes and More

While the honey is collected year round it’s only harvested mid-summer, so the bees have enough honey during fall and winter when there is less pollen and nectar.

As mentioned, the honey is used in a variety of meals by Executive Chef Rafael (Rafa) Corniel, Wilson said.

“Honey is a great substitute when you want to add little sweetness to some dishes, we like incorporating sweet and spicy when using our honey, for example, we do Aleppo honey carrots for our roasted chicken dish, as well as a fresh honeycomb to pair with our local cheese and charcuterie plates,” Corniel said.

While the honey is not yet currently sold at the Marriott Marquis Marina, there have been discussions with the executive team as to how it can make this happen for the property to open additional revenue streams and give the guests some of the sweet rooftop abundances, Wilson said.

Care

The beehives are taken care of regularly and are maintained by Travis from Bee Leaf USA, a full-service beekeeping company that specializes in the “Rescue, Relocation, & Revival of Honeybee Colonies.”

Wilson added the company also rescues hives (in danger of extermination) from unwanted locations, takes them to the Rural Honeybee Sanctuary in SD County, and rehabilitates the hives until they are stable and become candidates for a beekeeping program like the Marquis Bees.

Travis, the property’s beekeeper was formerly a Marriott team member before pursuing a career in agriculture, Wilson said.

Guest involvement

Presently the Marquis Bees cannot be viewed up close by guests but that might change at some point.

“The hives can be seen from the southeast side of the south tower rooms when looking down onto the parking garage roof,” said Travis Wilson, San Diego Marriot Marquis Marina senior marketing manager.

Additionally, the hives can be seen from the meeting rooms on the third floor by the executive offices facing east.

“This provides a unique opportunity to make a ‘walk-up’ space for guests to learn about the bees with window decals, mock equipment, or signage to maximize the program from a marketing perspective,” he said.

By KENDRA SITTON

San Diego is set to be hit by another record-breaking heat wave over Labor Day weekend. As much as the skyrocketing temperatures are shocking, they are becoming routine in Southern California where the effects of climate change continue to worsen.

Amid efforts to stay cool and fight climate change, the city has a secret weapon: its urban forest. On an individual level, its easy to step under a shaded area and sense how much cooler it feels than being in direct sunlight. Expanded to a community level, a neighborhood with large, shady trees can be up to 20 degrees cooler than a neighborhood without mature trees populating the landscape.

“Trees are known to cool neighborhoods in the summer by reducing the heat island effect through shading and evapotranspiration where trees take up moisture through the soil and release [it] into the air through the leaves of the tree,” explained Brian Widener, City of San Diego Forester.

Many aspects of the built environment can make hot temperatures worse. Pavement, cement and the facades of large buildings can all be absorbant surfaces that heat up faster and trap heat longer than the natural environment. This heat island effect means urban areas can experience hotter temperatures than outlying rural areas.

Although the ocean breeze mitigates this in coastal parts of San Diego, another way to prevent this effect is through trees.

“Trees provide shade, support biodiversity, and help fight climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. Just as important, trees by way of their lush canopy, help reduce the heat island effect,” said Jimmie Webb, SDG&E’s Utility Forester.

The urban forest is an important aspect of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan since trees capture and store carbon. In the updated CAP, San Diego plans to plant 40,000 new trees by 2030 and 100,000 by 2035 – the deadline for the city reaching zero Green House Gas emissions. According to Widener, every effort is made to maintain the trees already growing on city streets and parks. Large trees have more carbon stored than young saplings so their loss is particularly impactful.

“As we increase the CO2 in our atmosphere that contributes to the increase in temperatures, trees are a great way to pull that carbon out of the atmosphere for long-term [storage] in the branches and trunks,” said Vince Mikulanis, director of Western operations for the Davey Resource Group.

SDG&E has made a similar pledge to plant 10,000 trees annually in its service area. At least 2500 of those trees will be within the city borders over the next decade. One of the reasons SDG&E made this commitment was due to the need to occasionally fell trees that disrupt power lines. Although removing trees is the last scenario after other options, such as trimming or reshaping the trees to grow around the power lines have failed, the utility found not all customers wanted the company to replace the trees on their property. They took this task on themselves and help empower customers who do want to plant trees through the Community Tree Rebate program and free consultations with arborists.

The city has a similar program, Free Tree SD, where residents can request a street tree to be planted near them as long as they commit to watering the tree for three years.

Despite efforts from arborists to keep trees alive, there are times when a tree has died or needs to be removed. Traditionally, a dead tree in the city would be chopped into firewood, sent to a landfill, or ground into wood chips. All of those methods mean that the carbon stored in the tree’s branches and trunk throughout its lifetime will be released back into the atmosphere when the wood is exposed to oxygen.

This carbon cycle is carbon neutral and a natural process. It would be fine if not for the massive amounts of greenhouse gases humans were already releasing into the atmosphere.

“In a world where we’re taking so much more from the earth than we’re giving back, we need ways in which we could slow down that decomposition, slow down that rerelease of greenhouse gas emissions back to the atmosphere,” said Tom Hamilton, the founder of Lumbercycle.

Lumbercycle is one of a few local organizations working to divert those trees from landfills by using them as urban timber. The ultimate goal is to have a sustainable urban forest. When a dead tree is turned into lumber that is then dried and made into a piece of furniture, the wood decomposes much slower. The tree’s carbon is sequestered inside that furniture rather than being released into the atmosphere.

The urban forest has untold other benefits economically and environmentally. Trees help manage stormwater drainage and filter out pollutants in the air. Dust and detritus are caught by leaves so the air is more clean. Studies have shown people will shop longer if there are shady trees outside a store and trees increase property value. Trees also improve cities’ walkability and mobility. Even pavement lasts longer when it is shaded, thus requiring less maintenance.

“Trees do sort of filter the air that we breathe. And that’s why planting in areas like Barrio Logan, where we’ve got the shipyards and that sort of activity, [is important] for the citizens that live in those areas,” said Mikulanis, who also serves on the San Diego Regional Urban Forests Council.

With the benefits of the urban forest increasingly clear, many entities have embraced tree planting efforts. The County of San Diego passed several initiatives on Wednesday, Aug. 31 as part of regional decarbonization framework, including expanding a tree-planting program.

“We are continuing progress on a new roadmap for regional decarbonization. Today we took actions to accelerate these efforts, including to create an equity-driven tree planting program to reduce heat in urban areas,” Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher said. “These are important steps to eliminate carbon emission and protect our environment; and taking these steps will make our region a better place to live for the next generation.”

Arborists and urban forest managers are focusing on ensuring the correct trees are planted for the future.

Some trees that have resided here for centuries are no longer compatible with the area’s hot temperature and drought conditions or will not be in the future as those issues worsen. For instance, the city cut down an entire grove of redwood trees near Balboa Park a few years ago. The native trees were over a hundred years old but could not survive current conditions.

Another tree foresters are moving away from are fan palms. While the palms are part of Southern California’s pop culture mythology, they require frequent maintenance to prevent them from being a fire hazard and do not provide much shade.

SDG&E tree planting programs focus on planting shade and fruit trees that will not interfere with power lines above and below ground.

“Part of my job is to inform the public about planting the right tree in the right place to avoid conflicts with utility infrastructure. Consequently, our vegetation management team monitors and cares for about half a million trees located near our infrastructure,” Webb said.

Lumbercycle is advocating that amid tree planting efforts, thought will be put into the entire life cycle of the tree, including what lumber it could become. One native species Hamilton hopes will be planted more is black acacia whose timber works as a walnut replacement since the popular tree does not grow locally.

For Lumbercycle’s part, San Diego’s Eucalyptus trees are a huge challenge. Since the trees grow in a spiral, it is difficult to dry the lumber evenly and it often cracks. Although supply of dead Eucalyptus outpaces Lumbercycle’s ability to utilize it, the organization has found creative uses for it. Since the wood is very hard, the nonprofit has turned it into planter boxes in community gardens. The density of the wood means it will rot much slower than other timber, such as pine. They have also used it for hundreds of simple benches.

“We can slab eucalyptus logs on a couple of log bases and because we found if you’re just gonna stick your tush on it, it doesn’t really matter if it warps a little bit or cracks a little bit,” Hamilton explained. “It could still be a really nice sit.”

The city of San Diego views the Eucalyptus trees as an important part of the urban forest.

“Eucalyptus trees are some of our largest tree species in the region and contribute significantly to the City’s climate action plan goals for tree canopy cover and the many other benefits that large trees provide to our communities,” said City Forester Widener. “Larger trees provide more benefits to our communities.”

In addition to what trees to plant, there is also a focus on where to plant. Mikulanis noted the need for trees in industrial areas where pollution harms the citizenry. Meanwhile, the city’s tree planting efforts until 2030 will largely focus on “Communities of Concern” that have low rates of opportunity according to the Climate Equity Index.

As part of the effort to equitably disperse trees, the city partnered with SDG&E to plant 400 trees in City Heights. Eventually, those trees will help cool and improve the walkability of the diverse yet poor neighborhood.

The partnership between the city, utilities, and nonprofit organizations will help the urban forest blunt climate change, keep neighborhoods cool, and provide useful lumber into the future.

By Kendra Sitton

COVID-19’s disruption of art industries has required many organizations to collaborate anew, retool productions and find creative solutions to stay afloat. In the case of the Women’s Film Festival San Diego, the solution was to fold into the region’s premiere film festival after struggling with the switch to virtual.

Now, the San Diego International Film Festival (SDIFF) returns to an in-person event with a brand new Women’s Series sponsored by the Women’s Museum of California – which previously hosted the Women’s Film Fest. This year’s combined hybrid event, includes in-person events at Westfield UTC, Balboa Park’s Museum of Photographic Arts, and the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center as well as digital screenings of movies from Wednesday, Oct. 19 to Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022.

The 40-year-old Women’s Museum hosted its 8th annual, and last, film fest in 2021.

“When we got into the pandemic and had to pivot away from an in-person film festival to a virtual film festival, we realized that we didn’t have the infrastructure to move into this new line of business very well,” explained Felicia Shaw, Executive Director of the Women’s Museum of CA. “We recognized that there was already another organization in town with San Diego International Film Festival that was screening women’s film and we said, ‘What are we doing here? Why are we working at cross purposes?’”

The museum leadership reached out to Tonya Mantooth, CEO and Artistic Director of SDIFF to discuss bringing their audiences together. Mantooth and Shaw realized combining their efforts to highlight woman filmmakers under one roof could lead to new opportunities. They both wanted to urge audiences to support female filmmakers and the need for investment dollars to get more films on screen.

“It’s better to come together and leverage all of our contacts in order to accomplish this goal,” Mantooth said. “I’m so excited to not only kick this off this year but to continue growing over time.”

As to turning this abstract idea into a reality, the film fest opened up submissions to any films that had at least two of the three major roles – director, producer, writer – needed to be women. Not wanting to limit creativity, the storyline of the film did not need to be female-centric.

After a selection process, the slate of the Women’s Series has six feature films and four documentaries. The film festival circuit is an important way for women filmmakers to get feedback on their work, find devoted audiences, and secure future funding.

While Mantooth noted that this is currently the best time in history to be a female filmmaker, there are still concerning gender parity disparities. She noted that this is especially apparent in short films.

“A man has an easier time getting funded,” she said. That funding also means short films from men will largely have higher production value than those from women, which can give the filmmaker more experience ahead of securing larger projects. “[Men] can exercise the process in a way that the abundance of females don’t.”

The documentaries and fiction features that make up the Women’s Series often focus on social issues. The festival is promoting three films in particular, the first being “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” which is based on the bestselling book by Jeanne Theoharis and produced by journalist Soledad O-Brien. The documentary focused on her lifetime of civil rights organizing and activism before and after the Montgomery Bus Boycott – which was intentionally obscured during her trial for remaining seated on a segregated bus so she would not be painted as a radical communist while being used as a test case to challenge Jim Crow laws.

The second film Mantooth and Shaw are highlighting, “With This Breath I Fly,” is also a documentary, this one focusing on the complicity of the European Union in supporting Afghanistan’s justice system during the international occupation of the country. Two women speak out about being imprisoned for ‘moral crimes’ after being raped and suffering violent domestic abuse as well as the EU’s efforts to censor their voices.

The most promoted film of the entire festival is director Alison Jayne Wilson’s debut film “Exit – A Journey Out of the Heart of Human Trafficking,” a documentary about how three women in extreme poverty are tricked into moving to Spain for a job and instead being exploited in the sex industry. For these three women, trying to leave comes with extreme difficulties and not all of them will make it.

The festival aims to raise awareness about human trafficking during this year’s event, especially as San Diego is a hotspot for sex trafficking. Dr. Brook Parker-Bello, an activist against human trafficking, will receive the Humanitarian Award at the Night of the Stars Tribute on Thursday, Oct. 20.

The new Women’s Series will be interspersed throughout the weekend’s film fest with a special award at the end of the event.

SDIFF offers a variety of ticket types at different price points. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit sdfilmfest.com.

By MADISON BEVERIDGE

Since 1983, Live and Let Live Alano Club (LLLAC) has made it their mission to provide a safe, sober, community-focused space for LGBTQ+ individuals in San Diego. Yet after fundraising losses during COVID-19, the club closed its doors on Park Blvd. while struggling to pay the rent to continue its life-saving work. Whether that closure is temporary or permanent is up in the air – and depends upon the success of finding a new permanent location.

“We really served our community so consistently,” said former board member Richard Correale of the club’s 39-year history before its recent closure.

LLLAC was founded after the realization that the city lacked a social environment for LGBTQ+ people that was not a nightclub or bar. In hopes of creating a space that fostered community involvement and recovery, the Alano Club did just that and has widened its offerings to include 12-step recovery programs. In addition to offering an uplifting sober community and standard meetings like Narcotics Anonymous, San Diego’s Alano Club tailored their services to unique communities like trans people in recovery and the kink community as well as those who wanted to attend Alcoholics Anonymous but without the religious aspect.

Before its recent closure, the club prided itself on being open every day of the year – including on holidays. They offered recovery support to 40,000 participants annually. A main goal was to focus on “long-haul” support for people in recovery to ensure participants have access to resources to ensure a lifetime of sobriety. It is this goal that made LLLAC such a robust community for those in search of support.

In 2019, they moved to a new location on University Ave. and Park Blvd. However, they have been unable to pay the rent or find a cheaper alternate location.

Despite financial struggles since the pandemic began, they continued to offer important services to the community.

“This year, we joined with the County of San Diego and the San Diego Harm Reduction Coalition to distribute Naloxone,” Dian Lee, the most recent program manager for LLLAC, said. “To date, this has saved numerous LGBTQ+ lives.”

Naloxone is a medicine that reverses opioid overdoses, something Lee said is a notable issue in the community.

“Multiple studies show that addiction to substance abuse is significantly more prevalent in our community,” Lee said.

In surveys of the U.S. population, LGBT+ people were more than twice as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to have a substance use disorder. Multiple factors contributed to this issue, including night life and bars being a historically safe space for LGBT+ people as well as LGBT+ people depending upon substances to cope with the social stigma and discrimination they experience for their sexual orientation and gender expression.

“Systemic discrimination and lack of competent care in the healthcare system can deeply exacerbate these issues even and especially for individuals seeking support. Organizations like Live and Let Live Alano Club create safe and welcoming spaces for our LGBTQ siblings seeking compassionate care in their recovery journey and a sober space to feel an ongoing sense of community,” said Fernando Lopez, the Executive Director of San Diego Pride.

SD Pride partnered with the Alano Club to host Recovery Village inside the Pride Festival annually as an intentional space for sober community members to gather together, find resources and even attend NA and AA meetings throughout the weekend. After years of providing tailored services LGBT+ people, the Alano Club may not be able to continue, at least in the form of a neighborhood center.

“We remain hopeful that LLLAC will find a way to overcome their current obstacles and are committed to ensuring the sober community is welcomed and well served at our festival,” Lopez said.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, LLLAC lost a great deal of their sponsors. Several gay bars in Hillcrest used to donate a portion of their proceeds to the Alano Club but those proceeds diminished during quarantine restrictions. Support from paying members, coffee bar sales, fundraising events, and donations from local LGBTQ+ businesses were not enough to pay for rent on a storefront in Hillcrest.

With a growing need for support to continue their work in the LGBTQ+ community, the organization began fundraising to found a permanent LGBT+ recovery center. They also reached out to other nonprofits and government officials to plead for alternative interventions but did not find an underwritten or subsidized location.

Moving to a new space and continuing support for recovering members of the community will only be possible with help from members of the public, Lee said. The organization is still fundraising to open a new recovery center.

If LLLAC can find a permanent home, they will be able to continue offering assistance to those in the LGBTQ+ community that need their support.

“Anyone seeking recovery is welcome —regardless of sexual orientation, religion, sex, race,” Lee said.

Information on how to donate, how to seek support, meeting and event info can be found at lllac.org/donate.

By J.M. GARCIA

Katrina Lewis-Gutierrez starts work at ten in the morning by opening a box of paper cups while standing behind the counter of the Häagen-Dazs store in Fashion Valley. She enjoys the early hours. She gets more done working by herself and spends her time restocking for the afternoon and evening rush.

“You have chocolate?” Someone asks, poking their head in the door.

“Of course.”

“I’ll be by after lunch.”

“I’ll be here,” Lewis-Gutierrez responded.

She wears a black T-shirt with a the Häagen-Dazs logo and ties her long hair in a braided ponytail. From her neat appearance, many customers with a stereotype of what a homeless person looks like would not guess that Lewis-Gutierrez does not have housing.

She has been at the store for about a year and earns about $1,600 a month working part-time. Of all the jobs she has had, this ranks as one of her favorites. A four-year-old girl named Sophie recently asked her to be her best friend. Lewis-Gutierrez smiled and agreed. She has gotten to know a hairdresser and her three daughters.

Another customer cried when she told him she had applied for a job at a Target store off Interstate 805. It would be an opportunity to work there and convenient. She has lived in a 1982 Chevrolet P30 Winnebago with her fiancé on a side street across from the store for almost two years.

Of the nearly 8,500 homeless people in San Diego County, more than 700 live in vehicles, according to an annual countywide survey. Almost 500 emergency housing vouchers became available last year to address housing insecurity worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lewis-Gutierrez received one but a year later, red tape and the bias of some landlords toward homeless people has made it difficult for her to find a home before the voucher expires.

“One landlord told me, ‘All people on Section 8 have bed bugs,’” Lewis-Gutierrez, 39, said. “Rather than clump me in with a category, they should look at me as a completely different person.”

Lewis-Gutierrez grew up in a small, quiet town in Utah. During her high school senior year she met a young man and became pregnant. They married and had two more children by the time she was 24. She said her husband introduced her to heroin and pills. That led to years of substance use and a four-month prison sentence. They divorced in 2016 and the state took the children, turning them over to their father’s aunt. The following year, Lewis-Gutierrez moved to San Diego with a truck driver and stopped using drugs. But when he died of cancer in 2018, she became homeless and resumed her drug habit. With the support of her fiancé, Teddy Medhin, who she met at a 7/11 store the same year, Lewis-Gutierrez stopped using drugs again and has been clean and sober since 2019.

Like Lewis-Gutierrez, Medhin, 39, had a substance use disorder and spent time in prison. He said he has been drug-free for five years. He works at a gas station.

“I’m doing this sobriety for me,” Lewis-Gutierrez said. “A lot of homeless don’t quit because you quit and then you look around at the bushes and dirt you’re staying in and think, ‘I’m by myself and this is it,’ and you get high to get away from your life. You have to take the person out of the environment.”

Living in a dilapidated Winnebago may not be that far removed from staying outside but Lewis-Gutierrez prefers it to sleeping in the riverbed behind Fashion Valley Mall like she once did. She and Medhin have organized their work schedules so that one of them can always be with the Winnebago to prevent someone from stealing it or breaking in. Once they find a place to rent, they hope to work the same hours so they can be home together.

“Katrina has struggled to find a landlord not too stringent on background checks,” said Cory Stapleton, an outreach worker with the nonprofit, People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). “Homeless people face a lot obstacles and discrimination getting access to housing. Happens all the time in different ways.”

The emergency housing voucher issued to Lewis-Gutierrez applies only to San Diego County. She has asked to have it transferred to the city so that she can look for housing near her job. However, according to Stapleton, the city has not agreed to the transfer.

“We’ve been working to provide the paperwork,” Stapleton said, “but so far the city hasn’t accepted her request. She has a resource but she can’t find a home. It’s an unfortunate disconnect between the county and the city.”

Meanwhile, the city said the process is easy and landlords have plenty of incentives to rent to previously homeless households.

Transferring a voucher, also known as porting, should not be an issue, said Azucena Valladolid, executive vice president of rental assistant and workforce development with the SD housing commission.

“There’s a lot of flexibility,” Valladolid said. “There’re no restriction on transfers. We have many transfers. They just asks their caseworker to transfer to another jurisdiction. It’s an easy process.”

In addition, she said, emergency housing vouchers include incentives for landlords including $500 for the first unit landlords rent to a homeless household and $250 for each additional unit; up to two times the contract rent in security deposits and an average of $100 in utility assistance per household; a contingency fund to help landlords cover repairs and other expenses that exceed security deposits; and the support of San Diego Housing Commission housing specialists.

The vouchers were provided to the San Diego House Commission by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They became valid in July 2021 and last a year. Lewis-Gutierrez has had to apply for extensions to keep hers valid. Under the Housing Choice Voucher Program, the federal government pays the rent of homeless household or those at risk of homelessness. The tenant pays a pre-determined portion of the rent based on their income.

The disconnect between the bureaucratic systems and programs in the city and county are an ongoing issue for those trying to access services. At a joint meeting on Monday, Oct. 3, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher and San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera pledged to work together to build 10,000 units of affordable housing on government property and streamline the processes of building new housing. Both city and county unanimously voted in favor of the resolution.

Valladolid said 480 emergency housing vouchers were issued last year and 449 voucher recipients have found housing. The remaining 31 recipients, like Lewis-Gutierrez, continue their search for a landlord willing to rent to them.

“I’m talking to a landlord now who is willing to work with me but she doesn’t have any openings,” Lewis-Gutierrez said.

For now, Lewis-Gutierrez makes the best of what she has. She speaks with her mother in Utah every day. Her children, she said, feel ambivalent about her. Her oldest son joined the Marines. Another son will soon graduate from high school. Her youngest, a 13-year-old daughter, is active in sports.

At night, two stray cats rescued by Lewis-Gutierrez and Medhin perch on the Winnebago’s dashboard and watch them sweep the sidewalk outside of Target. Nine other people live in their vehicles on the same street. A man in a white car works construction. Two home healthcare nurses live in a green car. A man who receives disability assistance stays in an RV.

“I want just a little yard, a cute garden and to feel safe,” Lewis-Gutierrez said. “Something comfortable. Something Teddy and I can call our own.”