Morning Report: Encinitas(?!) Is Meeting Its Housing Goals
Of all the cities one might expect to be on track to meet its housing goals, Encinitas does not jump to the top of the list. But that’s exactly where […] The post Morning Report: Encinitas(?!) Is Meeting Its Housing Goals appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
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Of all the cities one might expect to be on track to meet its housing goals, Encinitas does not jump to the top of the list. But that’s exactly where it is.
Our Will Huntsberry crunched the numbers and just five places are currently on track to meet their state-mandated housing goals. Encinitas — one of the most notorious NIMBY enclaves in all of California — is closer to hitting its overall goal than any other city in San Diego.
The other places are unincorporated San Diego County, San Marcos, (gasp!) Del Mar and Chula Vista.
There is one important caveat to the numbers. Each city is assigned an overall number of houses to produce. Within that number a certain number of homes are supposed to be affordable to people of lower income levels. Nowhere in the county is hitting its affordable housing targets. Only the five above are on track to hit their overall goal.
How do Encinitas residents feel about that new housing?
“They hate it,” Mayor Bruce Ehlers told Huntsberry.
As hard as Encinitas has fought against new housing, state housing laws have essentially forced it on the city.
Understanding the Housing Crisis
The number of houses a city produces is one thing, but if you want to actually understand the roots of the housing crisis, our social media producer Bella Ross has just the thing for you.
In a new installment of San Diego 101 she unpacks the many factors stunting housing production across the state (while cloaked in enough VHS fuzz to transport you back to a time when your rent was… well… a lot lower).
If you already feel caught up on the basics (thanks to this newsletter, of course), at least watch long enough to catch our fearless reporter Lisa Halverstadt acting as a NIMBY.
P.S. Huntsberry and Ross’s stories are part of a new Public Matters housing series, “In Whose Backyard?” You can check out the other stories here.
North County Report: ICE Arrests Are Ramping Up
Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have increased nationwide since the Trump Administration took office in January, including in North County.
Our Tigist Layne took a look at ICE arrest data in North County cities and found that the number of arrests so far in 2025 is close to surpassing the total number of arrests in 2024. And a larger share of arrests this year have involved people with no criminal convictions or charges.
Also: The deal between the Del Mar Fairgrounds and the city of Del Mar to build an affordable housing project at the Fairgrounds property just hit another bump in the road.
Read the North County Report here.
In Other News
- An effort to recall a Poway councilmember is moving forward, NBC 7 reports. Officials have determined that supporters of the recall effort collected enough valid signatures. Now, the City Council will hold a vote to schedule an election.
- An audit of the city of San Diego’s response to the January 2024 floods has found that the city was not prepared to help residents through the disaster. (NBC 7)
- Barrio Logan is now home to a $300 million battery storage facility. (Union-Tribune)
- We proudly scooped The Washington Post in gassing up the rising local punk act Intermission, which landed a laudatory review yesterday from the newspaper’s music critic. If you hit the paywall, fret not: ours is free ????
- Clarification: We updated yesterday’s Morning Report to clarify how the state’s surplus land law applies to a proposed hotel in Mission Bay. Read the updated post here.
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry, Bella Ross and Tigist Layne. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
The post Morning Report: Encinitas(?!) Is Meeting Its Housing Goals appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
