The San Diego City Council has heard the first proposals for temporary homeless shelters around the city to make up for hundreds of shelter beds set to be lost.
Future developments at Golden Hall, Father Joe’s Paul Mirabile Center and Rachel’s Promise Shelter, along with the scheduled closure of several temporary shelters, means that the city’s current shelter bed count of 2,508 could drop precipitously in December and early next year.
Those three shelters represent more than 650 beds.
The informational item Tuesday looked at city- and privately owned sites in seven of San Diego’s nine council districts, including libraries and community centers.
The site that drew the biggest backlash from the public came from a misunderstanding. The Balboa Park Activity Center had been proposed by City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera as an emergency shelter because he believed Golden Hall and the Mirabile Center were scheduled to close in early October.
However, Golden Hall and the center will not close until the end of December, owing to discussions between city staff and the fire marshal. Elo-Rivera acknowledged the confusion.
But the activity center has been set aside as a shelter before. For four months, families in need stayed there after January’s record-setting flooding in Southeastern San Diego.
Still, multiple members of the public objected to further use of the center, making the case that the facility was widely used for athletics and the community. They urged the council to find somewhere else.
Councilman Stephen Whitburn was clear in his opposition.
“The Balboa Park Activity Center is not a part of this short-term action plan,” he said.
While the city has added 930 sites to a range of shelter options – including traditional shelters, repurposed motels and safe sleeping sites for those in vehicles – the number of homeless in the city has continued to outpace available space.
The number of homeless in the region increased by around 20% between 2022 and 2023, but a less dramatic increase in the city – less than 5% – was recorded in this year’s Point-in-Time count.
Sarah Jarman, director of the city’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department, said the quickest way to increase the number of shelter spaces would be an expansion of the ongoing Safe Sleeping sites, such as the O Lot in Balboa Park, which already has space for 408 tents.
Earlier this month, an agenda item which could have given the mayor new authority to act amid a homelessness and housing emergency was pulled by Elo-Rivera before the meeting.
If passed eventually passed by the council, the action as written would grant the mayor the power to – during a declared local housing and/or homelessness emergency – “make orders and directives to address the emergency, procure contracts to uphold standards of living for homeless San Diegans, suspend certain regulations to procure contracts, including City Council approval for contracts under $5 million, and accept and spend any grant monies to respond to the emergency,” a city staff report reads.
On Sept. 6, the city put out a call, open through Oct. 7, asking for property owners to offer up locations as future shelter sites.
The request for information came as Mayor Todd Gloria’s efforts to establish a proposed “mega shelter” remain under negotiation.
Gloria’s ambitious 30-year lease proposal for a 65,000 square-foot commercial building and its potential transformation into a massive homeless shelter and campus were delayed in July, with discussions meant to pick up again in the fall.
The shelter, Hope @ Vine, was proposed at a cost of $1.95 per square foot, with annual 3.5% rent increases and an estimated $12.5 million in facility maintenance costs over the term. The council balked at that price point and said it needed more details.
More concrete proposals for temporary shelter also will be brought back to the council this fall.
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