Equity continues to be a driving force in the City's Fiscal Year 2026 Draft Budget – and every day in our operations. In order to fulfill our mission of making San Diego work for all of our residents, our spending decisions must make equity a guiding principle and protect critical programs and investments are protected in the communities that rely on them most. 

Through the City’s Budget Equity Framework, departments integrated equity into their decision-making by participating in Equity-Centered Coaching sessions and submitting Budget Equity Impact Statements to evaluate how proposed changes could affect San Diego’s diverse communities. Progress is being tracked through a new Tactical Equity Plan Dashboard, ensuring transparency and accountability in delivering equitable services across the city. 

Equity is also embedded into how the City selects infrastructure projects, with scoring criteria that prioritize investments in communities historically left behind. This ensures that resources flow toward neighborhoods that have faced decades of disinvestment. 

Equity is further incorporated into operational plans like the City’s Pavement Management Plan, where street repair decisions now consider neighborhood equity factors—not just pavement condition—helping ensure that communities with equity needs – primarily those that have been historically underserved -- receive the infrastructure investments they deserve. 

In addition to these process improvements, the Draft Budget protects important programs that expand access and opportunity, including: 

• SD Access 4 All and Free Public Wi-Fi: This initiative has provided more than 3 million free Wi-Fi sessions and served over 280,000 unique users annually. It offers free internet access at libraries, parks, and recreation centers, mobile hotspot lending, digital skills training, and personalized multilingual tech support to help residents connect to affordable internet and essential services. 

• Language Access and Inclusive Public Engagement: The City continues to invest in breaking down barriers to civic participation through translation and interpretation services, multilingual outreach events, accessible election support, and targeted engagement with historically underrepresented communities. 

• No Shots Fired Program: This community-based violence prevention program focuses on interrupting cycles of gun violence through direct outreach and intervention strategies, helping to keep neighborhoods safe. 

• Eviction Prevention and Housing Instability Prevention Programs: These programs offer vital support to keep families housed. The Housing Instability Prevention Program provides shallow rental subsidies to low-income residents, while the Eviction Prevention Program, operated by the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, delivers free legal services to tenants facing eviction. 

• Employ and Empower Intern Program: This program expands opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds to access meaningful City internships, ensuring that career pathways into public service are more equitable and inclusive. 

• Employee Learning & Development: With the February 2025 organization structure change that moved the Department of Race & Equity into the Human Resources department, integrating equity-focused training content into Citywide learning programs is expanding.   

• Opportunity Fund: Now embedded in the Parks and Recreation Department, this fund increases access to recreational programming for children in underserved neighborhoods, helping ensure every child has the chance to participate in enriching activities regardless of their family’s income. 

• Build Better SD Initiative: This initiative modernizes how Development Impact Fees (DIF) are collected and invested, ensuring that neighborhoods with the greatest needs receive their fair share of new parks, libraries, fire stations, and mobility improvements.  

• Parks for All of Us Initiative: This effort ensures equitable investment in parks across San Diego by prioritizing new park projects and upgrades in communities that have historically lacked access to quality recreational spaces, leading to major upgrades in over a dozen parks in communities with equity needs. 

• Environmental Justice Element: Incorporated into the City's General Plan, this policy framework ensures that future planning decisions address disparities in air quality, access to parks, mobility, and other environmental factors that have historically impacted low-income communities and communities of color. 

• Climate Equity Fund: This assists communities of concern to effectively respond to the impacts of climate change. To be funded, projects must be in areas determined to have very low, low, or moderate access to opportunity in the Climate Equity Index. The fund supplements resources available to accelerate the implementation of projects that advance climate justice, resilience, and adaptation in disadvantaged communities. 

• Small Contractor Boot Camp: The City's Purchasing and Contracting Department launched this free training series to help small, disadvantaged, minority, and woman-owned businesses successfully compete for City construction contracts—expanding economic opportunities and advancing business equity. 

• Trash Service Rate Assistance Program: The City plans to provide subsidies for seniors and low-income residents alongside the implementation of fee for trash service.   

By protecting these programs and continuing to reform internal practices and policies, the City remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring that every San Diegan—regardless of race, income, or neighborhood—has the opportunity to thrive.