Each and every day, hundreds of people come through the doors of the Neil Good Day Center in the East Village. For many, it is one of the few places they can seek refuge off of the streets. For others, it is a place where they can find the basic dignities that life on the street too often denies: medical care, laundry, showers, restrooms, haircuts and pet care.
It is a place where people who are ready to begin their transition out of homelessness can connect to vital services that will support their journeys, whether that be housing placement programs or job seeking support. In 2025 alone, we served 6,712 people.
All of this is at risk of vanishing within a matter of weeks.
Earlier this month, Mayor Todd Gloria presented his draft budget. His proposal, should it pass, would mean the loss of over $4.5 million in funding for services provided by Father Joe’s Villages that support our neighbors experiencing homelessness. And it would mean that funding for the Day Center would be cut entirely.
Funding for the Day Center constitutes less than 1% of the city’s total spending on homelessness. Yet the services that we provide translate to tens of thousands of dollars saved by taxpayers per year.
Between June 2023 and June 2024, 942 people participated in more than 2,100 conversations with our staff about shelter alternatives. Since 2024, 211 households were able to exit shelter faster or avoid entering it in the first place because of direct diversion assistance. Out of those 211 households, 126 were helped in the past year alone.
These savings extend beyond shelter usage. Because of the Day Center, people are also able to receive medical care and behavioral health care, avoiding ambulances and emergency rooms. Our work at the Day Center ensures that more San Diegans experiencing homelessness have more access to life-saving substance use care, a crucial step for many in transitioning out of life on the streets.
Regardless of the outcome of the budget, Father Joe’s Villages believes in the life saving interventions of this work and the positive impact on the community it provides. We are willing to continue to care for our neighbors, with only philanthropic dollars at whatever level of service it affords, to keep Day Center operations accessible.
We understand that the city faces a massive deficit. Such a deficit may require difficult choices. But such choices need not come at the expense of our most vulnerable. After all, the mark of a strong and vibrant society is how it cares for its most vulnerable.
Let us imagine a San Diego without the Day Center. It is a San Diego where thousands of people have nowhere to go except the streets; where we face heightened risks of outbreaks of hepatitis A and other diseases because people lack restrooms and showers. It is a place where people face the indignities of having nowhere to store their belongings or an address to list on their job applications. Closing the Day Center will mean that thousands of people lose access to a vital resource where they can begin working towards a better tomorrow.
This is not the fate that any one of us, especially our neighbors experiencing homelessness, should have to accept.
We ask the City Council and our Mayor: to reconsider these cuts. While our leaders face difficult choices in this budget, the Day Center is not a line item. It is part of an array of comprehensive resources that complement shelters and housing, where people receive the support they need to leave the streets behind for good. Cutting it will not save money in the end. Closure will deepen our ongoing homeless crisis and shift costs elsewhere.
Our community has a part to play as well: your voices are powerful. We ask that you engage in the city’s next public comment period on May 18. Advocate that the city reject these cuts to the Day Center. If San Diego hopes to end unsheltered homelessness, it cannot afford to lose the Day Center.
Deacon Jim Vargas is president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages.
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