Daily Business Report: Wednesday, January 28
Analysis: San Diego’s population is growing — is housing construction keeping up? Kind of.
By Bill Fulton| Times of San Diego
San Diego – surprisingly – added more people to its population between 2022 and 2025 than any other county in the state except for Riverside. But has housing construction kept up with the population growth?
Well, yes and no.
On the one hand, San Diego County added more housing units during that three-year period – about 36,000 – than any other county in the state except giant Los Angeles. That’s according to the latest figures from the demographers at the California Department of Finance.
San Diego Unified Goes Big on Educator Workforce Housing
By Jakob McWhinney | Voice of San Diego
San Diego Unified’s board on Monday night voted to advance a proposal to build 1,500 units of affordable educator workforce housing at its University Heights headquarters.
The proposal, from the Protea + Malick developer team, would also bring a slew of amenities, like parks, retail space, a public pool and more to the site.
The much-awaited vote was the culmination of more than a year of planning and preparation. It’s also part of a slow, but growing, movement to build affordable housing for school district employees on district-owned land across California to combat the state’s ongoing housing crisis.
The California Left’s Nonprofit Funding and Massive Fraud
By Katy Grimes| California Globe
The news on Friday stunned many Californians, when California’s U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the arrest of Alexander Soofer of Los Angeles, who was charged with wire fraud, and that officials seized his $125,000 Range Rover and LA mansion, after he was arrested for allegedly stealing millions in taxpayer funds meant to house and feed the homeless in Los Angeles. Soofer was contracted with the city and county of Los Angeles, to house and feed up to 600 homeless people. But instead, spent millions on a luxurious life, the Globe reported. Soofer stole approximately $23 million, Fox reported.
Not long after this blockbuster story, Essayli posted to X:
Leading Economic Experts Give 2026 San Diego Forecast at Annual Roundtable
By Workforce Partnership, PIC & USD
How will the rising cost of living, AI adoption and changes to federal funding affect local communities in 2026? On Thursday, Feb. 5, San Diego’s economic and workforce leaders will explore the region’s top challenges and related solutions at the 42nd Annual San Diego Economic Roundtable.
The University of San Diego (USD)’s Knauss School of Business, Policy & Innovation Center (PIC) and San Diego Workforce Partnership will host this free, highly anticipated event under the theme Building Solutions: Policy, Funding and Opportunity Shape San Diego’s Economy.
The event will take place at USD’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theatre from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public, USD students, staff and faculty (registration required).
PIC Chief Economist Daniel Enemark, PhD will serve as the annual event’s keynote speaker. He advocates for a more equitable labor market through his labor market analyses and economic reports. Before joining PIC, Enemark was the chief economist at San Diego Workforce Partnership. He has published peer-reviewed research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conducted behavioral economics experiments and taught policy evaluation at UCSD and USC. Enemark now leads a team of researchers who help leaders make smart, data-driven decisions – including analyzing the region’s equity gaps, higher education in South County and the state of the local Latino community.
Enemark’s keynote address focuses on what makes San Diego’s economy unique, what external factors will challenge us over the next year, and what local leaders can do to create economic opportunity for more San Diegans.
Following the keynote, a panel of experts will discuss their 2026 economic forecasts, the factors they see contributing to the growth or decline of San Diego’s labor market, and their own hiring activity. Jade Hindmon, host of KPBS Midday Edition, will moderate the panel.
Panelists include Caroline Smith, assistant chief administrative officer for the County of San Diego; Doug Levine, senior director of talent acquisition at UC San Diego Health; and Chee Lum, vice president and general manager of injection systems at BD.
For more information about the event and to register for free, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/economic-roundtable-2026-tickets-1977321882980?aff=oddtdtcreator
