Council Grapples With Report on Policing Impacts Unhoused Black San Diegans (Voice of San Diego)
“San Diego City Councilmembers on Tuesday grappled with takeaways from a San Diego State study that found that negative police encounters left unhoused Black San Diegans reluctant to accept services and aid.” Read more here.
Disconnect Between How SDPD Says It Interacts With Homeless and What Unhoused People Report: Study (NBC 7 San Diego)
“‘What we’re sharing today, are data that really indicate that police are not the best positioned to be first-responders to homelessness,’ Welsh-Carroll said. ‘The folks that we spoke with shared a lot of, quite frankly, overtly racist and homophobic slurs that police will use.'” Read more here.
‘I know I’m Black, but I’m not a criminal’ | SDSU researchers find racism in SDPD’s treatment of unhoused Black people (CBS 8)
“Researchers at San Diego State University say negative interactions with police are driving Black people who are experiencing homelessness away from services and housing opportunities.” Read more here.
Study Highlights San Diego Police Handling of Homeless Issues (KOGO News)
Researchers from San Diego State University told members of the San Diego City Council on Tuesday that officers are only offering shelters and other services 13 percent of the time and some officers are being hostile toward the homeless. Read more here.
HSS’ Nicolas Gutierrez III and Megan Welsh Carroll recognized as top MCJC student and faculty
SDSU School of Public Affairs named Nicolas Gutierrez III as the 2021-22 “Most Outstanding Student” and Dr. Megan Welsh Carroll as the 2021-22 “Most Influential Faculty Member” in the Criminal Justice and Criminology master’s program.
Co-PIs Shawn Flanigan and Megan Welsh receive JHHSA’s Best Article Award
“Congratulations to Shawn Flanigan and Megan Welsh on the selection of their paper, ‘Unmet Needs of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness Near San Diego Waterways: The Roles of Displacement and Overburdened Service Systems’ as the best article published in the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration’s Vol 43 (2021). We are pleased to make this paper freely available to all readers.” Read more here.
HSS’ Nicolas Gutierrez III named 2022 Public Administration Theory Network Fellow
“The Public Administration Theory Network Fellows program is designed to help nurture critical and theoretical scholarship in the field of public administration through a variety of events hosted at the annual conference.” Read more here.
Tackling COVID-19 in San Diego: SDSU Projects Address Vulnerable Communities (SDSU NewsCenter)
“Shawn Flanigan and Megan Welsh, professors in the School of Public Affairs, are surveying unsheltered homeless individuals to understand how people are coping and surviving during shelter-in-place orders, which have disrupted access to needed services and resources.” Read more here.
Student Scholarship Shines at the 2022 Student Research Symposium (SDSU NewsCenter)
HSS student researchers, Nicolas Gutierrez III (Dean’s Award: College of Professional Studies & Fine Arts) and Becki Alvarado (Summer Undergraduate Research Program Award), were among the award recipients at the 2022 Student Research Symposium. Read more here.
Stopped by police in San Diego? A lot depends on where you live, drive (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“While the difference is not large, the stops-per-crime ratio was far higher in some areas than others. And a comparison of similar beats — or those that have about the same number of reported crimes and similar population totals — revealed significant racial disparities.” Read more here.
HSS’ Nicolas Gutierrez III named CSU Sally Casanova Scholar (SDSU NewsCenter)
“‘This research is important because it comes at a time when government officials in Los Angeles are ditching service-oriented approaches to homelessness in favor of criminalizing its most vulnerable residents,’ said Gutierrez. ‘While my work focuses on Los Angeles, the city represents a microcosm of our nation’s homelessness crisis and inhumane responses.'” Read more here.
San Diego Still Can’t Solve Its Public Restroom Problem (Voice of San Diego)
“Having access to public restrooms is an issue San Diego’s homeless population grapples with every day, and it’s an issue that’s knocked on the doors of San Diego’s public officials for decades. Still, access to public restrooms is lacking, and it’s contributing to public health threats that have sickened many.” Read more here.
Looking to Keep Imperial Beach Above Water (NBC7)
“Welsh is another SDSU professor who will manage to engage the community with their opinions and solutions. She suggested simply investing in rain barrels to harvest rainwater could help prevent water from flowing into storm drains and compounding the problem.” Read more here.
Opinion: Universal bathroom access in San Diego could help save lives. Here’s how. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“We must prioritize universal bathroom access for all San Diegans. Here’s how we can do it. Instead of using police to criminalize life-sustaining activities like urination, let’s invest in bathrooms as part of the solution.” Read more here.
Commentary: Our research showed racial disparities in San Diego police stops. Our report was shelved. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“We earnestly believed that providing data on police officer behavior would help to eliminate racial disparities. But we were wrong. Why? Because police departments should not be trusted to reform themselves.” Read more here.
Why Cities Must End Their Reliance on Police To Manage Homelessness – And How They Can Do It (Scholars Strategy Network)
“In this way, criminalization actually perpetuates homelessness: if our goal is to eliminate homelessness from our city streets, criminalization is counterproductive.” Read more here.
Increasing Access to Public Bathrooms Is Critical for San Diegans’ Health (Scholars Strategy Network)
“Short-term solutions, such as temporary porta-potties and handwashing stations, are insufficient to meet the needs of the County’s growing homeless population. In order to prevent future infectious disease outbreaks, San Diego’s policymakers should immediately begin work to expand the availability and accessibility of permanent, public bathrooms.” Read more here.
University of California Tobacco Related-Disease Research Program (TRDRP) Emergency COVID-19 Research Seed Funding, Co-PIs Megan Welsh and Shawn Flanigan
This grant funds a rapid response research project entitled “Service Utilization and Survival Strategies of Unsheltered Homeless During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Using mobile phone text messaging technology, this project examined the survival strategies and service utilization patterns of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in San Diego during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here.