{"id":176764,"date":"2026-02-13T17:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176764\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:27:08","slug":"sen-blakespear-presents-county-with-1-67m-check-for-veteran-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176764\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Blakespear presents county with $1.67M check for veteran housing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/oceanside-VA.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/oceanside-VA.jpg\" alt=\"oceanside VA\" class=\"wp-image-74649\" style=\"width:808px;height:auto\"  \/><\/a>Veterans Affairs Medical Center \u2013 Oceanside. (Photo courtesy of the VA)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sd38.senate.ca.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sen. Catherine S. Blakespear<\/a>, D-Encinitas, Thursday presented a $1.67 million check to San Diego County on Thursday to fund a program intended to provide affordable housing to veterans.<\/p>\n<p>The money awarded Thursday will be used for the Homelessness Prevention Landlord Incentive Program, which provides direct payments to landlords to lower rental costs for veterans who qualify for assistance through the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the county invested $683,900 in landlord incentives, helping secure housing for 243 veterans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe landlord incentive program reduces barriers that keep people from renting an apartment,\u201d Blakespear said. \u201cLandlords need a security deposit and the assurance that any damage to the unit will be covered, among other things, in order to rent their units.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am thrilled that I was able to secure state funding to support a system for the men and women who have served this country to get quickly into places to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the county, once a landlord agrees to rent to the veteran with a VASH voucher, a lease is signed and rental assistance begins. This assistance is paid directly to landlords, not tenants, and can be used for things like leasing bonuses, application fees, security deposits and a landlord assurance fund.<\/p>\n<p>Blakespear presented the check to San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a win for the balance sheet \u2014 it\u2019s a lifeline for San Diegans,\u201d Aguirre said. \u201cIt is far more humane and fiscally responsible to keep a roof over someone\u2019s head today than to build a shelter bed tomorrow, and this funding allows us to move from reactive crisis management to proactive prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A veteran at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness can apply for assistance through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The voucher works like rental assistance, and the veteran can use the voucher to look for housing on the open rental market.<\/p>\n<p>More than 189,000 veterans live in San Diego County, along with around 115,000 active-duty military personnel.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 City News Service<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veterans Affairs Medical Center \u2013 Oceanside. (Photo courtesy of the VA) Sen. Catherine S. Blakespear, D-Encinitas, Thursday presented&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[17100,74,76,75,84161],"class_list":{"0":"post-176764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-catherine-blakespear","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news","12":"tag-veteran-housing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}