November 4, 2021
San Diego Housing Commission’s Multimedia Annual Report Highlights the Agency’s Positive Impact in a Year Dominated by COVID-19
Personal stories and program data are featured in the online report at www.sdhc.org
SAN DIEGO, CA — In a fiscal year dominated once again by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) implemented new programs in response to the pandemic and continued ongoing housing assistance programs that helped thousands of San Diego households.
These efforts are featured in SDHC’s multimedia Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Annual Report, published today on SDHC’s website at www.sdhc.org.
“With leadership, commitment and collaboration, the San Diego Housing Commission remains an organization San Diego can rely on for innovative housing solutions,” SDHC President & CEO Richard C. Gentry said. “Mayor Todd Gloria, the San Diego City Council, and the Housing Commission’s Board of Commissioners provide outstanding leadership. In addition, I thank our exceptional staff and the many organizations we collaborate with for working together to address housing challenges.”
SDHC’s FY 2021 Annual Report combines the personal stories of the people SDHC’s programs have helped, including embedded videos, and important program data and descriptions that reflect the agency’s positive impact during the fiscal year, from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021. The report also includes “updates” about several program activities that have occurred since the fiscal year ended.
For the second consecutive year, SDHC’s Annual Report includes a special COVID-19 Response section. Among the programs featured in this section is the City of San Diego COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program. This program, which launched in March and continues to help families each day, has issued payments totaling more than $115 million to help pay rent and utilities for more than 13,000 households with low income experiencing financial hardship due to or during the pandemic.
During FY 2021, SDHC also developed a new agencywide Strategic Plan to guide SDHC in the years ahead. This Strategic Plan provides a mission, purpose, core values, strategic priorities and a broader vision for SDHC—Everyone in the City of San Diego has a home they can afford.
With a majority of its staff continuing to work from home, SDHC also continued its ongoing programs without disruption, providing federal rental assistance, implementing homelessness solutions, creating and preserving affordable housing, and supporting and advancing important policy initiatives:
- SDHC helped more than 19,000 households with low income pay their rent during FY 2021.
- The rental assistance program paid more than $197 million to landlords on behalf of these low-income households.
- SDHC’s homelessness action plan, HOUSING FIRST – SAN DIEGO created more than 1,100 housing solutions during FY 2021; overall, this plan has created more than 9,800 housing solutions in less than seven years for San Diegans experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
- Homelessness programs funded by SDHC and/or the City of San Diego served more than 12,000 households.
- Close 1,400 affordable rental housing units were completed during FY 2021, and more than 2,900 additional units that have received approvals were pending completion in FY 2021.
- SDHC also completed a pilot program that produced “lessons learned” to help San Diegans interested in building accessory dwelling units, an important source of new housing.
As a special recognition of the work by SDHC’s staff across multiple departments during the fiscal year, the Annual Report’s cover page includes images of many of the SDHC staff who made the agency’s programs possible and successful in FY 2021.
SDHC’s Annual Report was produced in-house by the award-winning SDHC Communications & Government Relations Division.
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Media Contact:
Scott Marshall
Vice President of Communications
San Diego Housing Commission
619-578-7138
