From housing to immigration, read our best stories of 2023

From housing problems to the plight of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border through Jacumba, inewsource has produced impactful, in-depth reporting on some of our region’s most pressing issues. This year, our work inspired change big and small — including elected officials’ calls for action and helping keep one unhoused resident in his long sought after home.

Here’s some of our best reporting of 2023.

Extremism in San Diego

Reporting on extremism and its ties to California, investigative reporter Jill Castellano broke news that a local neo-Nazi from Chula Vista had fled the United States, evading a hate crime charge in San Diego.

Robert Wilson, a public face of the hate group known as the Goyim Defense League, was supposed to stand trial for allegedly assaulting his neighbor while yelling homophobic slurs; instead, he surfaced in Poland where he stood outside the Auschwitz Memorial holding a sign with an antisemitic message, according to a photo of the incident that went viral on social media. He later was found guilty of projecting an antisemitic message on the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Castellano also covered a group of friends who visited a gun range near Mission Valley and later received threats from right-wing extremists. That story illustrated what can go wrong when two trends in American gun culture converge: More people from marginalized groups turning to firearms for protection, and some hate organizations fervently supporting Second Amendment rights.

Illegal rent increases

Investigative reporter Cody Dulaney dug into rent increases on some of San Diego’s most vulnerable residents. His findings: The Housing Commission has likely approved rent increases that exceed the state’s 10% cap on many tenants. A data analysis of one week of approved hikes found more than a fifth fitting the bill.

Following our reporting, City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera called for the public housing agency to claw back any illegal money that was paid to private landlords, either by the Housing Commission or tenants.

Also after our reporting, Housing Commission leaders said the state law capping rent increases for many tenants doesn’t apply to Section 8 voucher holders, but the state attorney general and attorneys suing the Housing Commission disagree. 

We highlighted one City Heights resident’s fight against her rent increase, and we also wrote about how you can look out for any illegal rent hikes yourself.

Encroachment citations

As San Diego grapples with its own homelessness crisis, officials have cracked down on tent encampments by citing unhoused people for encroachment — a city law that was intended to prevent trash cans from blocking a sidewalk. Dulaney reported on the arrest of Della Infante, who faced encroachment charges and was preparing to go to trial with the help of lawyers representing her free of charge. The city attorney’s office ultimately requested the charges against the 60-year-old be dismissed.

Evicted over paperwork

In June, Dulaney and visual journalist Zoë Meyers introduced you to Arley Adcock: After years of being unhoused, he finally was able to call a downtown San Diego studio home — only to be served an eviction notice several months later. The problem? A paperwork issue. Because a county contractor failed to file an extension for his since-expired housing voucher, Adcock was told he owed nearly $9,000 in unpaid rent. Following inewsource’s report, the county informed Adcock it had extended his voucher.

Migrants in Jacumba

inewsource’s Dulaney and investigative reporter Sofía Mejías-Pascoe, who covers the border and immigration, were among the first to report on a camp that continues to grow in the Jacumba desert following the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era law that allowed immigration officials to expel migrants from the U.S. border without assessing their claim to asylum. Hundreds of migrants, including young children, have sought shelter while waiting to be processed by immigration authorities, at times lacking food and water.

An aid group told inewsource that after the report, Border Patrol sent more resources to the encampments to help process migrants seeking asylum claims.