By Dr. John E Warren, Publisher
On May 30, 2019, residents of Southeastern San Diego filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego and San Diego County to stop what they called “the concentration of poverty in select neighborhoods, all of which are predominantly non-white.”
The lawsuit named the City of San Diego, the Housing Authority for the City of San Dego and the San Diego Housing Commission, named members of the San Diego City Council. The suit states that the combined efforts of defendants have denied equal housing and have created a disparate impact on minorities in San Diego, California.
The plaintiffs are residents and interested parties: Patrice Baker, Gloria Cooper, Lesslie Dudley, Letitia Flynn, Kathleen Macleod, Eileen Osborne and Khalada Salaam-Alaji. The group is represented by attorney Michael J. Aguirre and his law firm Aguirre & Severson, LLP. Aguirre is a former City Attorney for the City of San Diego and has a long history of bringing suits such as the one that created district elections for the City of San Diego some twenty years ago.
The 36-page lawsuit details how defendants’ aggressive policies have led to “community disintegration, lack of economic development, underperforming schools, lack of adequate retail services and few employment opportunities resulting in an Apartheid-like environment ripe with institutional racism and comprehensive governmental policies that are perpetuating racia segregation.”
The lawsuit is a “substantive document” and, based on the content, should be taken very seriously by all involved. It identifies the neighborhoods making up Southeastern San Diego. The demographics from that area’s Community Plan indicate that there are 57,000 residents, 84% of which are Hispanic, 8% Black and 4% White with 2% Asian. The suit identifies specific land use acres in Single-family housing, Multifamily housing, community facilities, parks, open spaces, cemeteries and vacant land.
The lawsuit accuses the San Diego Housing Commission of “disproportionately impacting Section 8 Vouchers in the affected areas. It states that the SDHC “is engaged in the business of owning, leasing, and managing more than 3,500 rental housing units, including 189 federal public housing units.
Of particular interest to many members of the Southeastern San Diego community is the opposition raised to the proposed Southeastern San Diego Live Well Center intended to replace outdated County facilities. The suit says the project would “concentrate low income facilities into a single regional center and perpetuate the concentration of poverty the City has already placed in the Affected Communities. It should be noted here that this newspaper has followed this project from the very beginning and has found nothing but efforts to include the community in the planning process.
All the plaintiffs of this lawsuit are long time residents of the community, some for more than 40 to 50 years.
