Healthy & Safe Communities

Whether it’s protecting the public health, adding parks, improving pedestrian walkways or maintaining roads, the County of San Diego works to make sure communities are healthy and safe—that they are great places to live, work and play.

In September 2023, the County opened its $79 million Southeastern Live Well Center at Market Street and Euclid Ave. The County’s sixth Live Well Center offers food and nutrition assistance, family strengthening services, financial and employment assistance, public health, behavioral health, child support, restorative justice, services for older adults and people with disabilities, and military and veterans’ services . And the community played a central role in creating a center that reflected their wants, their needs and the area’s history, culture and art.   

The County’s new, state-of-the-art public health lab is going up in Kearny Mesa and will serve the entire region. The lab will be able to test for diseases like COVID-19 and emerging public health threats. The facility will open in spring 2025.   

To help protect county residents and the nearly 32 million people who visit each year, the County launched a new webpage tracking respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses in the South Bay. The page offers tips on steps to reduce exposure to persistent odors, what to do if you get sick from sewage-contaminated beaches and how to prevent it as well as links to other resources for people living near the Tijuana River Valley.

The County’s annual “Love Your Heart” campaign screened more than 58,000 people in February for high blood pressure and advised more than 800 people to seek immediate medical help. A new "Revive and Survive San Diego" initiative in partnership with UC San Diego Health is also underway to teach one million San Diegans hands-only CPR. 

To help families find good, affordable daycare, the County announced a new Child Care Blueprint. And it spread the word about California SUN Bucks, a new program that gives families with children who get free or reduced priced meals at school extra grocery money in the summer months. 

Thirteen of the County’s 33 libraries also hosted mobile food pantries, meals and snacks helping 14,000 residents in underserved communities. 

The Rancho San Diego and Julian Library branches expanded last year, and a new library is planned for Casa de Oro.

San Diegans can also explore some new parks. In December, the County opened its first equestrian park, the Dianne Jacob Lakeside Equestrian Park. And in May, the County opened its Four Gee Park in 4S Ranch.New parks in Alpine, Spring Valley and Fallbrook are also in the works.

To encourage walking, the County is improving traffic intersections in the unincorporated areas. An extra $40 million for road safety next year will go toward crosswalks , curb ramps, guardrails, new sidewalks and bike lanes.