San Diego sees progress in housing the homeless
The city adapted to pandemic by unifying shelter services at its Convention Center.
SAN DIEGO — The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the nation and the economy, but it also may have led to new advances in successfully housing homeless people in San Diego.
In April, the city opened Operation Shelter to Home at the San Diego Convention Center after closing its bridge shelters, which were considered too crowded to be safe during the outbreak.
When the city transferred 765 people from the shelters to the Convention Center, only 50 were matched with housing resources such as vouchers or rent subsidies.
Three months later, 600 have been matched with resources and 300 people have moved into housing. The shelter has about 1,200 people, including many who were taken in off the street, and the city is projecting 700 people may have moved into housing by the end of September.
“I think the fact that we’ve learned a lot and been able to dig into the system and recalibrate it didn’t happen by accident,” said Lisa Jones, senior vice president of Homeless Housing Innovations at the San Diego Housing Commission.
With everyone under one roof, Jones said, service providers were able to streamline various efforts, communicate more efficiently and create a more client-centered approach to helping homeless people.
Rather than using housing navigators, people who help someone find housing, the new approach is to use system navigators to help people through the entire process of finding an appropriate home.
In one example, Regional Task Force on the Homeless Chief Executive Tamera Kohler said staff members at the Convention Center have worked more closely with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in acquiring VA Supportive Housing vouchers.
Jones said system navigators work with a cohort of 50 people to help them not just find housing but actually move in. In the past, a homeless person might have been connected with a housing provider, but then lose the opportunity because of a lost cellphone that left the individual out of touch with the organization. In another scenario, the homeless person might turn down the opportunity because the housing unit was not a good fit.
“We can’t assume this housing project is the resource they want just because they’re matched to it,” Jones said. “They may have different needs. We need to be responsive to that.”
System navigators will stick with the person they are working with, make sure that individual stays in touch with the housing provider, and make sure the housing itself fits the person’s needs, she said.
Weekly meetings have been stepped up to daily meetings with partners working together to find housing for each member of the cohort going through the system, Jones said.
When someday the pandemic subsides and the Convention Center shelter shuts down, Jones and Kohler said, the new process will be replicated in other shelters, with partnerships made within the venue continuing.
While the system of connecting people to housing resources is being improved, Jones and Kohler are encouraged that more affordable housing units are coming within months.
The Link in East Village will provide 72 permanent support housing units to homeless people and 14 studios for households earning 50% or less of the area median income.
Father Joe’s Villages is expected to open Benson Place in the Nestor neighborhood next month, providing housing for about 100 homeless people with physical and mental issues.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said consolidating resources at the Convention Center has helped create a system that will have a long-lasting effect.
“The future of San Diego’s homeless system will be shaped by all that our teams have learned from being in one central location during this pandemic,” he said. “We’re identifying barriers and breaking them down to get people housed quickly. San Diego will exit this crisis with fewer people experiencing homelessness, not more.”
Of the people who have been housed through Operation Shelter to Home, 26% have moved into permanent supportive housing, 24% have gone on to other longerterm housing such as substance abuse treatment facilities, nursing homes or transitional housing, 22% have moved in with friends or family members, 11% have moved into rapid rehousing, 11% have rented units with no subsidy and 6% have rented units with other subsidy assistance.