Homelessness Solution Goes Beyond Providing Housing

Isidore: “After being homeless on the street and in shelters and groups, homeless people don’t want roommates; they want their own space.”

SAN DIEGO—It’s important to find a wraparound approach that includes social services that tackle what got the homeless into the homeless situation in the first place, otherwise we have a revolving problem, CREW San Diego president and VP of marketing and business development for Johnson & Jennings General Contracting Jackie Isidore tell GlobeSt.com. CREW-SD recently hosted an educational event titled “Homelessness and the Impact on Commercial Real Estate” to explore the issue and what San Diego is doing about it. We spoke exclusively with Isidore after the event about the takeaways.

GlobeSt.com: Why did you choose this topic?

Isidore: The education committee chose it because so many citizens are impacted homelessness, but what’s not talked about much is its impact on commercial real estate. We were also interested to know what the City and County are doing about this problem, which affects our industry. The panel was pretty varied; it included Melissa Peterman, VP of Homeless Housing Innovations for the San Diego Housing Commission; developer Danny Fitzgerald, a real state professional who specifically works to build affordable housing; and Susan Bower, County of San Diego HHSA.