Here’s the City’s Plan to Respond to Two Big Shelter Closures

Mayor Todd Gloria and other city officials want to open more than 200 homeless shelter beds at troubled Veterans Village of San Diego and a San Diego Rescue Mission shelter in National City to help address the impending closure of two large shelters. 

The plan, developed by city and Housing Commission leaders, also calls for the city to repurpose 56 beds in a transitional housing program for homeless people dealing with chronic alcoholism and to deploy funding to help residents of other homeless shelters move into housing. 

The City Council previously voted to expand two homeless campsites, a process that the city announced last week is already underway. 

All told, the proposed plan would deliver at least 258 shelter beds and 235 tents at now-underutilized sites to respond to the loss of 614 beds at two shelters operated by Father Joe’s Villages by the end of the year. 

Gloria said the city’s also in talks with another unspecified 100-bed facility it hopes can serve seniors and families in private spaces.  

The proposal follows City Council direction to come up with a plan and weeks of work by the city, its housing agency and the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. It also follows discussions with service providers and current and formerly homeless San Diegans who shared input. 

Based on that feedback, many of the new beds won’t be in packed shelters and some new offerings focus on specific populations. 

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all intervention,” Gloria said. “It’s not moving everyone en masse to another location.” 

Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who made the motion in July to have city officials confer with stakeholders on a short-term shelter plan, praised how outside input helped shape the proposed solutions. 

“It’s been about having a process that would guide us toward multiple options that seemed not just acceptable but good for folks who have been there before and are there now and know what it takes to get into a better place,” Elo-Rivera said. 

The Housing Commission says this work continues. 

Father Joe’s and city housing agency officials are conferring with Golden Hall residents about their next steps. As of Thursday, the city reported that more than half of the 165 people who remained at the shelter next to City Hall want to move to other shelter programs while a third expressed interest in one of the city’s safe campsites.   

For now, the city expects to shut down the Golden Hall shelter on Dec. 20 and to have most of its new beds ready to go by early December. 

The city’s housing agency reports that all 199 clients staying at the Paul Mirabile Center shelter, which Father Joe’s plans to convert into a sober living and detox facility next year, plan to remain there. 

Gloria cheered the progress the city has made in the past few months. 

“We’ve been working with the Housing Commission and our nonprofit partners to meet the commitment that I’ve made, which is that no one served at our shelters would be forced to return to the street,” Gloria said. “We are accomplishing and will accomplish that goal.” 

Here are details on the new proposed shelter options. 

Veterans Village of San Diego: At least 165 new beds 

The nonprofit that has long served veterans, homeless San Diegans and people struggling with addiction was recently forced to stop treating people with substance use disorders. The state revoked its license after concerns about client safety and other issues documented in a series of inewsource stories.  

VVSD was devastated by the state’s decision but ultimately decided not to fight it. Beds have since sat empty. 

Gloria and Casey Snell, a senior vice president at the Housing Commission, said the city saw this as an opportunity to swiftly provide new city shelter beds by Dec. 1. 

Snell said VVSD’s headquarters boasts two-bedroom apartments and multiple types of rooms with private bathrooms, most of which have just a few beds.  

For now, the Housing Commission expects to dedicate at least 30 beds in the facility’s apartments to seniors and to provide 100 beds for single men and 35 veterans in its other spaces. The agency plans to have Father Joe’s oversee services for seniors and single men while VVSD will serve veterans. 

Gloria and Snell said they are confident future shelter residents at the Pacific Highway campus will be well-served despite concerns surrounding VVSD. 

“I believe with the Housing Commission’s oversight we can make sure that the right services, the right provider is on site to make sure that anyone who’s there is well cared for,” Gloria said. 

The Rescue Mission’s South County Lighthouse: 37 new beds 

This summer, the Rescue Mission opened a 162-bed shelter in National City that it’s slowly been ramping up ever since. 

Now the city of San Diego wants to partner with the nonprofit, which historically has avoided government contracts, to provide 37 beds for single men at its National City shelter campus.  

Rescue Mission vice president Paul Armstrong said about 90 of the shelter’s beds were full as of late last week and that it expects to soon fill another 35 beds.  

A contract with the city would put the new shelter at full capacity. 

Though the Rescue Mission shelter isn’t in the city of San Diego, Armstrong said it has drawn clients from San Ysidro, which is far from the city’s downtown homeless service hub. 

Gloria said he sees the new capacity in South Bay as an important resource for the region. 

“I’m a mayor that fully understands that San Diego is a South Bay city, neighborhoods like San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and others do have homeless populations, and have every reason to access this regional South Bay resource,” Gloria said. 

Serial Inebriate Program: 56 repurposed beds 

For more than two decades, the city has partnered with the county on a transitional housing program historically offered to homeless repeat offenders struggling with alcoholism.  It now wants to repurpose beds at apartment buildings in City Heights that Gloria said have sometimes sat empty under the program’s existing model. 

While the program operated by TURN Behavioral Health Services will still serve homeless San Diegans dealing with alcohol addiction and other behavioral health challenges, Snell said adding it to the city’s shelter network will increase access and make it easier to fund the program over the long haul as funding has dried up for transitional housing. The program will continue to provide treatment services and other more intensive support. 

Snell said the program expects to initially prioritize welcoming Golden Hall residents who may have alcohol use disorder as existing residents move out. The city previously stopped welcoming newcomers to the transitional program to prepare for the shift. 

In-Progress Safe Sleeping Expansion: 235 new tents 

Following a City Council vote to bolster contracts earlier this month, the city announced last week that it was in the process of adding new tents at its two campsites in Balboa Park. 

Once the homeless campsite expansion is complete, the city says the program’s capacity will be 760 tents that can accommodate up to two residents each. Intakes associated with the expansion are set to begin in November. 

There have been concerns about the conditions and housing outcomes associated with the two sites.  

Councilmembers, city officials and some formerly homeless San Diegans have said they believe the sites provide an important option for people uncomfortable in traditional shelter programs. 

The Shelter Diversion Plan: Impact TBD 

The city is preparing to launch an initiative on Nov. 1 with the Regional Task Force on Homelessness to aid people who have struggled to move out of shelters or are homeless for the first time. 

Snell said the city’s housing agency will work with providers and others to explore what it would take to help people who are newly homeless or who may have some income or support to leave shelter. 

That could mean linking a shelter resident with funds for a security deposit and three months of rent to make moving into an apartment more feasible, reconnecting someone with family or helping them find housing they could share to minimize costs. 

The Task Force is expected to help the city swiftly ramp up diversion resources and nonprofit Catholic Charities has been pulled in to help manage individual cases. 

“This will create an opportunity hopefully for folks who just need a little bit of support to exit shelter,” Snell said. 

The goal is also to help make room in shelters for others in need. 

Other Plans in the Works 

Gloria’s team said the city expects to present details on the unspecified 100-bed facility for seniors and families at a Dec. 10 City Council meeting. The Housing Commission is also set to open a shelter for LGBT youth at its headquarters next year.  

The city and its housing agency are also reviewing responses to their requests for property owners and others to pitch properties that could house shelters.  

Gloria spokesperson Rachel Laing said the city expects to settle on three to five potential options it can more closely evaluate and begin negotiations on. She said the city is also continuing to analyze its own properties that could serve as shelter sites. 

For now, Gloria said he sees a 1,000-bed shelter campus at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street that Gloria that the City Council punted on this summer as the city’s best long-term permanent shelter option. 

He said Friday that lease negotiations continue with the owner of the Middletown warehouse. 

“The deal terms are getting more favorable – from my perspective – for the city. As soon as we have a deal that I can stand behind, I’ll take that back to the City Council,” Gloria said. “If we can’t get one, and that’s a possibility, then we’ll cease negotiations and we’ll move on to other options.”