After a meeting that stretched past 11 p.m. Monday night, the San Diego City Council delayed a decision on Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed 1,000-bed homeless shelter until next week to allow further negotiation with the landlord.
Gloria last week announced a tentative 30-year lease deal for the vacant commercial building at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street 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.
“Today’s hearing was an opportunity to get feedback from the City Council and the public on our Hope @ Vine proposal,” he said. “My administration is happy to continue refining the current proposal, but council members must provide specific negotiating points, which I am immediately requesting from them.”
The city’s independent budget analyst is urging the council to use caution in considering the deal, lest the city find itself mired in another bad real estate deal such as 101 Ash Street. His report found cheaper warehouse space in Otay Mesa and Miramar, though Councilman Stephen Whitburn said those areas are too far from transit and other services.
During the hours-long meeting, a majority of in-person and online participants opposed the shelter due to lack of community input on how it would effect surrounding areas and concerns about ineffective use of taxpayer funds for previous projects. Some previously unhoused people said a large shelter would be unwelcoming and unsafe.
”I do not see the answer in a 1,000 bed shelter, it would drive me nuts. I would rather stay outside in the dirt,” said Julie Burke, a previously unhoused man.
But many organizations working to end homelessness offered support for the project.
“While the proposed Hope @ Vine shelter is not perfect, nothing is perfect in addressing homelessness,” said Drew Moser, CEO of the Lucky Duck Foundation, before the meeting. “The proposed costs and speed of activating Hope @ Vine are much more efficient and timely than the cost or speed of adding or acquiring housing, as well as the worst possible alternative: doing nothing.”
“Committing to a meaningful number of new emergency shelter beds is critical for reducing the significant levels of homelessness and addiction that plague San Diego’s city streets,” Moser said.
Under the proposal presented to the council, the city would have authorization to spend up to $18 million to modernize and adapt the existing structure into a “transformative campus,” with the ability to create separate shelters for distinct populations including seniors and families.
Site improvements call for a commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, dining areas, indoor and outdoor recreation areas, showers and restrooms. Proposed onsite services include job training, meals, housing navigation and behavioral health services with annual operating costs anticipated to be $26.4 million.
According to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness’ most recent Point in Time Count, roughly 3,000 people are unsheltered in the city of San Diego.
City News Service contributed to this article.
