HOMELESS REFLECT, PREPARE AS SHELTER SET FOR CLOSURE
Clients found safety, space during pandemic at San Diego Convention Center, which will shut after 1 year
Waking up in the shelter at the San Diego Convention Center for the past year has been a surreal experience for Jimmy Wood.
“I used to work here,” he said, recalling the days when he would set up and tear down display areas for large conventions, including Comic-Con International.
He had held the steady job since 2013 and also worked at Tivoli Bar and Grill in downtown San Diego.
“I wouldn’t say I was setting the world on fire, but my rent was paid and I had some money in my pocket, and I had some good people around,” he said. “But I was always just one paycheck away from hurting bad.”
That hurt came in March 2020, when the pandemic caused all conventions to cancel and all bars to close. He ended up on the street that same month, but soon learned about an opportunity to move into a large, new shelter at the very place he used to work.
The shelter, officially known as Operation Shelter to Home, opened April 1 last year and at its peak accommodated about 1,300 people in separate areas run by the Alpha Project, Father Joe’s Village and Veterans Village of San Diego. VVSD no longer oversees any clients at the shelter.
Wood and other Father Joe’s clients this week will move out of the shelter and into Golden Hall at the San Diego Concourse. Alpha Project clients will move into two large tented shelters in downtown San Diego.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Wood, 54, a San Diego County native. “I think it’s another chapter in this book that’s ending.”
Wood said he hopes that in a year, he has his old job back and a woman in his life.
“I want to go back to living again, rather than just existing,” he said.
The shelter is in what had been one of the most heavily used areas during major conventions, including Hall H, where major Hollywood stars would appear each year at Comic-Con to promote upcoming blockbusters.
Closing the shelter will allow the venue to eventually return to its intended use, but just when that will be is uncertain. Maren Dougherty, director of marketing and communications for the Convention Center, said no events are scheduled at the venue until August.
Letisha Vazquez, 51, is a Father Joe’s client who has been homeless three years. Before coming to the Convention Center, she had been living at one of the Alpha Project’s tent shelters. Vazquez said she had been working two jobs and was doing well, but then got the flu, which developed into pneumonia. She then was hospitalized with meningitis, lost her jobs and was out on the street.
Having stayed at both the tent shelter and the Convention Center, Vazquez said she has no preference.
“What’s important is the people who care for us,” she said. “I say, ‘Thank you, Jesus,’ because we have this place.”
San Diego native Doug Clayborn, 57, also had been at an Alpha Project tent before coming to the Convention Center shelter. Homeless since 2018, he said he is struggling to overcome the trauma of his father’s death from Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, but is trying to look forward and is studying to be certified as a Java developer. “I learned the hard way that you have to make the best of where you are,” he said about which shelter he preferred. “If all I did was look back on yesterday, I’d never look forward to tomorrow.”
Father Joe’s client Jerry Limon, 46, said he moved to San Diego from Corpus Christi, Texas, because he had heard about the shelter, where he has lived six months.
“I freaked out,” he said about his first impression of the shelter. “I’d never seen a place like this. I almost cried.”
Limon said he had stayed in Texas shelters where he had to pay $10 a night, and was surprised to see everything was free at the Convention Center. He said he is taking classes to finally learn to read, and is excited about the move.
“Right now I have a chance to do something in my life,” he said.
James Sneed, 61, moved to San Diego 35 years ago and has been homeless for 15 years. Last May, his leg was shattered when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver downtown.
He had never been in a shelter before, but decided to move into the Convention Center because of his injury.
“You’ve got to be healthy enough not to let the street beat you up,” he said about the danger of living without shelter.
That danger became graphically apparent last week when a car crashed into a group of homeless people who had gathered in a tunnel at San Diego City College, killing three and injuring several others.
Sneed admits he has anger issues that sometimes have been triggered by people stealing things at the shelter, but he said he is learning to not let little things annoy him.
The upcoming move has left him anxious, but he said he’ll give Golden Hall a chance, at least for a couple of weeks.
“When it rained, I used to sleep at the overhang there,” he said. “Now I’m going to try the inside.”
Father Joe’s client Joe Hunt, 61, is on disability and had been in several shelters, including the Convention Center, but had returned to the streets last year. After a winter storm flooded his tent, he decided to return to the Convention Center.
“I don’t mind the space here, but it’s huge,” he said about the shelter. “Everything is so far away, and my energy level isn’t always great.”
Hunt said he looks forward to moving into the smaller quarters of Golden Hall, where showers and bathrooms will be easier to get to.
“And the cot here is killing my lower back,” he said. “Now I’ll be in a bed.”
Father Joe’s President and CEO Deacon Jim Vargas said the Convention Center had been a godsend because it allowed their clients to be kept safe while also serving more people.
“In the time we’ve been there in one year, we’ve had 2,000 people we’ve helped, and about 550 we’ve helped into permanent housing,” he said.
Alpha Project President and CEO Bob McElroy said the year had been challenging, but also a tremendous blessing.
“We’ve always talked about coordinated intake, we’ve talked about navigation centers, and we’ve talked about combining resources,” he said. “We actually did that there. We really saw close coordination between the city, the county, the Housing Commission, the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, police department, fire and even lifeguards.”
McElroy said he’s looking forward to moving back into the tented bridge shelters, which he said are more cozy and have a greater sense of community than the large shelter.
Workers at the yearlong operation included 220 employees from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, with 90 assisting with the set-up in March and April 2020. City staff members also included 87 people from the library, one from the city attorney’s office, six from the city auditor’s office, six from the mayor’s office, two from the printshop, two from the communications department, five from the homeless strategies division and others from Fleet, Special Event and City TV.
About 130 Convention Center staff members also provided support for cleaning, public safety, security, building services, event management, grounds support and skilled trades such as plumbing.
City staff members from human resources, finance and information technology were indirectly involved, and technology partners were ON Site and Smart City.
Centerplate provided 1,083,736 boxed meals prepared and served by 83 employees.
In all, the shelter accommodated 4,190 clients since April, with 743 individuals and one family placed in permanent housing. A total of 1,339 individuals and 43 families at the shelter moved to housing of some sort while at the shelter.