Local institutions were scrambling Wednesday to find extra emergency overnight shelter space to accommodate scores of people living on the street downtown in the aftermath of a winter rain storm that has caused plunging nighttime temperatures.
The Neil Good Day Center at 299 17th St. was opened for the first time Tuesday night and will reopen again tonight.
A last-minute appeal by Bob McElroy, head of the Alpha Project which has operated the center for years, secured the city’s agreement to open it as an emergency nighttime shelter despite problems with permitting and questions over the building’s safety. The city agreed to let Alpha Project open the shelter after agreeing to pay for staffing it.
St. Vincent de Paul Village at 1501 Imperial Ave. near Petco Park, which provides a full array of homeless services, put cots and mats in its dining room Tuesday night, and will again tonight, to get more homeless off the streets. Check in time at St. Vincent’s temporary overnight shelter is 4 to 7 p.m. with a 4 a.m. wake up call New Year’s Day to clear out the dining room in time to serve meals.
— City News Service
