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As homelessness spikes across San Diego County, it’s hard to tell what Supervisor Lawson-Remer is doing on the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, upon which she serves as Vice Chair.
Homelessness is, without any doubt, a growing problem in San Diego County. For the 22nd month in a row, the number of people becoming homeless in San Diego County outpaced the number moving into homes. The degree to which it is rising varies from region to region—for instance, the North Coastal region saw a 10% spike from 2023 while in North Inland County it rose by a massive 34%—but the common thread across all corners of the County is that it’s only getting worse.
That data comes from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness (RTFH), which “[provides] essential data and insights on the issue of homelessness, informing policy and driving system design and performance” with the goal of “preventing and alleviating homelessness in San Diego.” The RTFH has two Boards: the RTFH Board of Directors and the Regional Continuum of Care Council (RCCC)—also known as the CoC Board of Directors.
The CoC Board is made up of both representatives from regional organizations and elected officials—the highest ranking of which is, at the time of writing, San Diego Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer. More than just a member, she also happens to be the Board’s Vice Chair.
The only problem is that Lawson-Remer doesn’t exactly have a great committee attendance record. It was recently discovered that she missed a staggering 74% of her committee and subcommittee votes, excluding Board of Supervisor meetings. There were some committees to which Lawson-Remer is assigned which she has never attended—not even once. Naturally, this begs the question: how involved is Lawson-Remer with the efforts of the Regional Task Force which she Vice Chairs?
It’s hard to tell.
Typically, one would look to an organization’s meeting minutes to determine who was in attendance. Unfortunately, the RTFH website does not make them easy to find. It also hasn’t been uploading their minutes in several years. The most recent one they’ve made available is from August 25, 2021, which results in a “Page Not Found” message.
You can submit a request for a report, but must “provide 14 business days advanced notice for all requests.” That’s after waiting up to three business days waiting to hear back about estimated time and cost. We tried calling several times and were never able to reach a live representative.
But this wouldn’t be the first time the RTFH has faced scrutiny for a lack of transparency. The San Diego County Taxpayers Association, a watchdog group, has also called upon the organization to improve transparency and foster increased collaboration around homelessness data. “Only then will it be possible to fully evaluate what organizations are effective,” the head of the taxpayers association said.
“So much money is going into homelessness services and it is unclear to you and me whether that money is working,” said Haney Hong, the group’s president and CEO.
RTFH CEO Tamera Kohler believes the organization must limit what is released in the interest of personal privacy. She stated that “RTFH does not share private client level data because it is personal protected information,” and that “people experiencing homelessness deserve the same privacy protections as everyone else.”
It turns out that even Supervisor Lawson-Remer herself has voiced support for the San Diego County Taxpayers Association’s proposal.
“Making information accessible promotes transparency and data-sharing and creates greater efficiencies when different organizations collaborate,” Lawson-Remer said in a statement.
But to call for openness is one thing; to actually have openness is another. Lawson-Remer’s opponent for the 3rd Supervisorial District, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, says that when it comes to homelessness, Lawson-Remer has “a whole lot of bark, and zero bite.”
“She’s had four years to attack the problem at its root, seeing how it was done in other cities like San Diego, but has chosen to sit on her hands,” wrote Faulconer in a piece published on The Coast News. “While money has increased, so, too, has the number of homeless individuals living on our streets.”
While Faulconer did not challenge the efficacy of the RTFH itself, he has accused Lawson-Remer and her allies of being irresponsible with taxpayer dollars and “throwing money at the problem without an actual solution in place that gets people off the streets and into a place of their own.”
“It’s only because it’s an election year and Terra Lawson-Remer is on the ballot that she’s emerged with a plan,” wrote Faulconer. “The reality is that for many homeless San Diegans, it’s too late. Just last year, over 500 homeless individuals perished on our streets, which have become open-air drug markets flowing with fentanyl. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Lawson-Remer’s best defense against Faulconer’s claims would be to pull up receipts—to prove to doubters that she is participating in the RTFH meetings; that she provides valuable feedback and doesn’t miss votes; and that those meetings are yielding positive results for San Diegans.
Those receipts either don’t exist or are being obfuscated—hopefully not intentionally.
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