A facility where the homeless in downtown San Diego store belongings while they look for work or go to medical appointments is getting a new location, Interim Mayor Todd Gloria announced today.
The homeless storage center has been operating on a lot for about a year, but the owner, St. Vincent de Paul, needs the property for other uses.
The Girls Think Tank, a nonprofit that runs the storage center, has been scrambling for a couple of months to find a new site.
Beginning May 1, that will be a parking lot at 252 16th St. The property is owned by the San Diego Housing Commission, which runs the city’s homeless programs.
“The storage center has taken, literally, tons of objects and belongings off of our streets and out of our canyons,” Gloria said at his weekly news briefing. “In some instances, homeless individuals have been able to get jobs and other needed assistance because they were no longer having to lug all of their belongings with them.”
Heather Pollock, the executive director of Girls Think Tank, said St. Vincent de Paul Villages will allow them to remain at the current site until April 30. Then they’ll move 300 storage bins over to the new location, she said.
Gloria thanked St. Vincent de Paul and private donors who have funded the program, including parishioners at Harbor Presbyterian Church, the Downtown Fellowship of Churches and Ministries, Keith Jones of Ace Parking, Jerry Navarra of Jerome’s Furniture and downtown homeless advocate David Ross.
–City News Service