JUAN DEL RIO: VOICE FOR THE POOR

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Democratic Candidate, 4th Supervisorial District
April 14, 2010 (San Diego) -- As a housing counselor, Juan del Rio voices alarm over seeing many hard-working families falling into poverty. “This past year has seen a 70% increase in people without permanent housing in our County and all indicators are the situation is going to get worse,” he says. “So many people, who never thought they would be homeless, are turning to shelters and food banks, but while charities and the cities in San Diego County struggle to keep up with the overwhelming demand for services, the County is MIA!”
Del Rio is running on the bilingual slogan “The One Voice for the Poor/La Unica Voz para los Pobres.” He calls incumbent Ron Roberts “entrenched” and believes the Supervisor has “lost his perspective because he feels invincible.”

Del Rio supports term limits for Supervisors, though the ballot initiative would not be retroacative. “For Ron Roberts, I’m his retroactive clause,” Del Rios quips.
San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) statistics indicate that the County has fallen short on its fair-share formula to facilitate affordable housing development, Del Rio says. For those left homeless, he pledges, “I will be relentless in their defense” if elected. “I will not rest until every one of them has a place to live.”
He also sees a “desperate need for low cost mass transportation” including transportation in areas that will help low and moderate income people. He wants to see hours for public transportation expanded as well. Del Rio also suggests taking Supervisors’ discretionary funds and using them to provide tickets for the homeless and others who cannot afford transportation to housing, work or services.
Del Rio takes the term “running for office” literally. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, he is running through a different neighborhood in his district, meeting with area residents.
His career includes 35 years serving the community in non-profit organizations, providing direct social services including affordable housing finance and development, neighborhood planning and advocacy, senior citizen services and advocacy, youth development and other safety-net issues. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego in urban and rural development/planning, he earned a master’s degree in urban development.
A former U.S. Marine, he is currently the acting program director with Bayside Community Center in San Diego, a HUD-approved housing counseling agency. He has worked with state and national housing efforts and nonprofits, also serving as a community volunteer for many organizations. Del Rio has worked as a teacher in the San Diego Unified School District teaching Spanish, ESL, special education and Spanish immersion in urban neighborhoods. He is the father of three grown children and recently married Jeeni Criscenzo, former Congressional candidate and an active community organizer.
Del Rio hopes that collectively, four Democrats in the race will garner enough votes to prevent Roberts from obtaining more than 50% and trigger a run-off election in November. He believes Roberts has grown “arrogant” in declaring he will only leave office if he decides to retire.
“One of us will garner enough votes so we will be in a head to head vote in November,” del Rio predicts with confidence.
For more information on Juan del Rio, visit www.delrio4supervisor.com .

 

 


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