NOT-SO-NEW HOMELESS SHELTER
Downtown S.D.’s Golden Hall re-activated as temporary facility with men on one floor, families and youth on other
Parents and their young children who have been living without a permanent home have begun moving into a newly re-activated shelter in downtown’s Golden Hall as the city enters the next stage of its efforts to shelter homeless San Diegans.
“This facility is not originally designed to be a shelter, but it does have all the amenities that an individual could need,” Mayor Todd Gloria said Tuesday morning at the venue in the San Diego Concourse, which includes City Hall and the Civic Theatre. “Meals, showers, restrooms, security, services for mental health, job training and housing navigation.”
Father Joe’s Villages is operating the shelter, which on Tuesday had 273 men on the ground floor and seven family members and five youths on the second floor. Its capacity is 526.
Most clients there now had been staying at the San Diego Convention Center as part of Operation Shelter to Home, which at one time held up to 1,300 people. About 550 remained when the shelter shut down last week and people were relocated to Golden Hall or two tented shelters operated by the Alpha Project.
While the convention center shelter provided services to about 4,000 people over the past year, it did not have accommodations for families with children. Deacon Jim
for decades before closing in 2002 when it lost its space downtown to a new development.
Museum officials and community donors rallied to raise money and find a new space, and the New Children’s Museum was opened in 2007 in its current downtown location on Island Avenue.
The museum expects to emerge in May from the closure caused by the coronavirus. The collective bargaining agreement calls for employees to be rehired as the jobs are needed. Last year, the museum laid off 33 union members and 17 nonunion employees.
Members of the museum’s union were pleased that an agreement was reached.
“We love our work and we are proud to serve the museum’s mission with passion and dedication,” said Jill Grant, a senior playworker who helped lead negotiations. “Our goal throughout this process has been to create a sustainable future for NCM workers.”
The museum raises and spends about $5 million a year and holds current assets of approximately $20 million, according to federal tax filings.