San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
LONG BEACH NONPROFIT TO RUN SHELTER VILLAGE
Three-year deal signed; Chula Vista site will feature prefab units
A Long Beach-based nonprofit that offers homeless programs across four Southern California counties will run Chula Vista’s shelter village when it opens this summer.
The City Council last week unanimously approved a $5.7 million, threeyear agreement with City Net to run the year-round shelter at a city-owned vacant lot on 27th Street, near Faivre Street and Broadway.
Builder Pallet Shelter will assemble 66 prefab units to temporarily house more than 60 individuals. There will be a total bed capacity of 138, but city officials said they will start with fewer beds in the first year based on available funding. The site will also include two trailers for showers, restrooms and laundry, and two 400-square-foot units for meals and case management.
“Congratulations, by the way, for getting this far,” City Net Founder Brad Fieldhouse told council members. “These are huge lifts, to get projects like this that will be transformative (and) will change lives. We can testify to that in the places we’ve done it.”
The city wants its shelter program to help people transition from homelessness to permanent housing as quickly as possible. City Net officials said they have helped more than 3,000 people do just that. From March 2020 through April 2021, they assisted 41 people who were staying at a 56-bed village shelter in Riverside gain permanent housing.
“The moment that they’re brought into the shelter we assign them to a case manager so they can start on that housing plan. And it might be something as simple as getting an ID, working on their income, making sure that they know how to live … on their own,” said Rosie Littlejohn, the director of programs.
The city liked that the organization had experience in operating shelter villages, particularly those built by Pallet Shelter, and would have a community engagement specialist “who will work exclusively on building rapport, relationship, and ownership with the local community, churches, community service organizations, and relevant partner agencies,” City Net said in its proposal to the city.
Chula Vista began its search for an operator in October and selected City Net, the lowest bidder, over two other homeless organizations that have a history of working in San Diego County.
City Net pitched a $1.94 million plan to have about 25 employees with roles in case management, janitorial, security, housing and data entry. It proposed to offer life skills workshops, host movie nights and holiday meals and pay residents for volunteer work at the site “to combat nimby-ism.” Its budget also considered the possibility of the shelter reaching capacity at 138.
The city had also considered a two-in-one proposal: a $3 million effort to have the Alpha Project and SBCS, formerly known as South Bay Community Services, jointly run the shelter. Both organizations have long worked in Chula Vista and other parts of the county to help homeless people. The collaboration consisted of having 41 personnel on- and off-site maintaining the shelter and offering case management services. They have worked closely with the police department’s Homeless Outreach Team and planned to refer clients to the shelter via the outreach team.
Adjoin, a San Diegobased organization that serves veterans and people with disabilities, proposed a $2 million plan to have 14 fulltime employees who would offer housing navigation, health care coordination and case management. They said they would apply a “critical time intervention case management model as it is a short-term intervention that facilitates community integration and continuity of care by ensuring that each participant has ongoing ties to their community,” according to their proposal.
City Net officials said working with community organizations, including Adjoin, the Alpha Project and SBCS, is something they will continue doing so that people staying at the site will have access to more resources. The Long Beachbased nonprofit is also working with the city of San Diego, which hired it last year to connect homeless people with housing and other services.
Chula Vista’s effort to bring the prefab units comes after it backed out of a plan in 2020 to open a bridge shelter tent it had received for free. The nonprofit Lucky Duck Foundation lent the city the structure, which was valued at about $800,000 and had a capacity of 250 beds. At the time, the city was waiting for land use approval from the California Conservancy but then plans to use the tent fell through.
Some residents and community organizations criticized the city’s decision to forgo plans, especially as the winter months approached. Mayor Mary Casillas Salas has repeatedly said she was not convinced a tent would work in Chula Vista, which has 85 percent of its 800 homeless population living on the streets, according to the city.
“It certainly wasn’t ideal because there’s no privacy,” she said Tuesday about the tent.
Fieldhouse said the units, with features such as a locking door, power outlets and air conditioning, are a “gamechanger” in “preparing people to reintegrate back into the community” because they are cleaner, safer and more private.
A new study from the Rand Corp. showed that the most reported factors preventing homeless people from moving into housing were concerns about privacy and safety. About 80 percent said they would accept a private room in a shelter or hotel and less than one-third preferred a group setting.
The city is anticipating breaking ground in June and opening doors in the late summer.