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Center of Gay Power

Gay and Lesbian Center Buys Downtown Building to House Gay Youth

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

The San Diego Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Center, known around Hillcrest as "The Center," has purchased a 24 unit apartment building at 1640 Broadway for housing for what it describes as "youth 18-24 including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and HIV-positive young adults." It will be known as the Sunburst Project and is scheduled to open in October.

In its May 16 newsletter, the Center City Development Corporation announced that its board approved financing for homeless youth housing in East Village as part of an "owner participation agreement with the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center to develop a homeless youth housing project."

According to the newsletter, the development corporation was to provide $2,545,000 towards its acquisition and rehabilitation of the property, to convert it into "permanent rental housing serving homeless youth between the ages of 18-24 years with mental illness, substance abuse problems, or HIV/AIDS. A total of 24 units will be reserved for very low-income persons with 55-year affordability restrictions." The board approved the financing by a 5-1 vote, with treasurer Jennifer LeSar recusing herself. (Total financing for the project was reported as $4,123,000).

A real estate developer as well as the investment manager and senior vice president at Bank of America, LeSar was appointed to the CCDC board in September 2002 by Mayor Dick Murphy and the City Council. Councilwoman Toni Atkins, currently serving as Deputy Mayor, recused herself from the vote to approve Le Sar's appointment. It was not widely known at the time, but LeSar and Atkins are lovers. Their relationship was made public in August 2005 by iN Los Angeles a magazine aimed at homosexuals.

LeSar received the Champion of Pride award in 2005 for her "faithful leadership and compassion." In its September 8 feature on LeSar, the Gay and Lesbian Times reported that she "helped The Center procure the 24-unit complex on Broadway, in downtown San Diego, and supervised its financing and approvals." The award program featured a congratulatory advertisement to LeSar from several prominent supporters of The Center, including Atkins.

This is not LeSar's only involvement with The Center. From 1999 to 2004, she served as The Center's Chairman. Atkins, meanwhile, was elected to succeed Christine Kehoe as Third District Councilwoman in 2000. During that time, the Center has been the recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funds and grants.

LeSar is not the only Center insider benefiting from Atkins' largesse with taxpayer money. In 2004, while LeSar was on the Center's Board, Atkins voted in favor of the city paying the ACLU $950,000 to cover legal fees in the Balboa Park property-lease dispute with the Boy Scouts. The Center's current Board Chair, Richard Valdez, is a member of the ACLU's Board of Directors. Center Vice-Chair Dale Kelly Bankhead is the ACLU Public Affairs Director for San Diego and Imperial Counties. And Center board member M.E. Stephens served as co-council on the Boy Scout case.

Another Center Board member, Kevin Tilden, chaired Atkins campaigns for City Council. He also chaired lesbian district attorney Bonnie Dumanis' campaign in 2002, which led one observer of the gay community to comment, "Now you can see how they've set this up. They've elected one of their own as the watchdog who should prosecute any illegalities, to insure that they will go untouched."

Atkins did not recuse herself on July 19 when the City Council voted to approve financing for the Sunburst Project. Instead, she was ebullient at the result of the vote. "I am personally pleased to have been a part of this project, and that the city of San Diego made a financial commitment to help direct the lives of these teenagers and stop the cycle of homelessness and despair."

The nepotistic tendencies of LeSar, Atkins and The Center's inner circle become more apparent when examining the history of the Sunburst Project. The need for homosexual youth housing was the result of a collaborative study conducted in 2002 by the Center and other local agencies. These agencies included Walden Family Services, YMCA Youth and Family Services, and the Metropolitan Community Church. The Metropolitan Community Church has long had close ties to The Center, but the other agencies' connections are less obvious. The director of mental health services at Walden Family Services is Dr. Heather Berberet who also happens to be the lesbian partner of Delores Jacobs, chief executive officer of the Center. The Director of YMCA Youth and Family Services, Laura Mustari lives with her partner Jane Fantel with whom she shares three children.

The result of the collaborative study was an estimate that 30 percent of all homeless youth in San Diego County are either Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgendered. One local psychiatrist, speaking on condition of anonymity called the 30 percent estimate "ridiculous." The observer of the gay community concurred. "These people oversaw the survey collection. They could say anything they wanted. They say that they identified 400 gay or homeless youth in their study, but where's the proof?"

The Center is largely funded and enjoys nonprofit tax status. A copy of a 2003-2004 audit reveals that on December 7, 2001 the Center entered into an agreement with the city for a community development block grant which was expanded in March and August of 2003, for a total of $1,122,832. The primary purpose of the grant was to remodel and improve The Center's Centre Street headquarters. For 2003 and 2004, The Center was awarded $3,046,178 in grants. The Center employs about 50 people including Jacobs, who earns a yearly salary of $122,000 plus benefits.

With the city paying an average of over $2 million a year in grants and subsidies to the Center, the working taxpayer might be surprised to see how some of that money is spent. For example, on March 10-13, the Center hosted the Mr. San Diego Leather contest, in which men clad in leather -- sometimes covering only their crotches -- simulated sex acts and beatings with leather objects. One Center-sponsored event that took place off-site that weekend was an S&M Leather Slave Auction held at The Hole, a homosexual leather bar in Loma Portal. Upcoming events for this year include a marriage equity town hall meeting. According to Center director of public policy, A. J. Davis, this will be a forum where people can "learn about the current efforts to repeal existing domestic partnership rights and to amend the California constitution to create a permanent ban on marriage for same-sex couples in California by amending the California State Constitution."

On Halloween, the Center will host Nightmare on Normal Street, a homosexual Halloween party, emceed by Outrageous Nicole, the regular host of a dating game held weekly at Flicks, at which contestants win pornographic DVD's.

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