San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
HOMELESS CENTER CUTS HOURS
Funding woes force downtown S.D.’S Neil Good facility to pare weekday access, close weekends starting Monday
At a time when millions of dollars are being spent locally on homeless services, the only drop-in center in San Diego County for people living on the street is cutting its weekday hours and preparing to close on weekends.
The Neil Good Day Center in downtown San Diego is operated by Father Joe’s Villages under contract with the city of San Diego’s Housing Commission. Deacon Jim Vargas, president and CEO of Father Joe’s, said rising costs have caused the cutbacks, at least until the current contract ends with the close of the fiscal year on June 30.
The center, named after Neil Good, the late homeless advocate and former chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, opened at 299 17th St. in 1991. The building is a place where homeless people can have mail delivered, do their laundry, charge phones, store items and meet with case workers who can connect them with shelter or housing.
It’s also a respite for people who otherwise would spend their day in a tent, on the sidewalk or just looking for a place where they feel welcome.
“It’s a safe zone,” said Edward Marsh, who has been living on the street for the past six months. “It’s a place where you can come and don’t have to worry about the law.”
Marsh, 54, said he goes to the center every day to watch TV, charge his phone and sometimes do laundry. Good-hearted people sometimes give food to people outside the center, and even his threemonth old puppy, King, has received free dog food and vaccines from people who stop by.
“They do a lot of good things for people,” he said. “When they shut down (on weekends), a lot of people are going to be at a loss of where to go.”
The center is open 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week. Beginning Monday, its hours will be 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and closed on weekends.
Scott Marshall, vice president of communications and government relations for the Housing Commission, said the contract to run the center is $650,000 through the end of this fiscal year. The reduced hours are the result of higher operating costs due to inflation and the general costs of running the program, he said.
Vargas said funding from the Housing Commission has been
augmented by philanthropic donations, but that hasn’t been enough to keep operations going at the same level through the end of June.
“It’s almost at end of fiscal year, and the good news is we’ve been able to fight the expense overruns,” he said, explaining how the cutbacks will keep the center running through the remaining four months of their contract.
Vargas said there could be additional dollars available in a renewed contract for the next fiscal year, but it is too early to say.
“These are not discussions we’ve even begun to have with the Housing Commission,” he said.
Until then, clients who rely on the center are preparing for the change, said Paul Sheck, program manager at Neil Good.
“‘Where am I going to charge my phone?’” he said about the questions he’s hearing. “‘Where am I going to use the restroom?’”
A count of homeless people living outdoors in the surrounding neighborhood is conducted one night each month by the Downtown San Diego Partnership, and the latest count shows the population at almost 2,000.
Sheck said the population is much higher when counted over time. In the last fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022, the center saw 5,932 unduplicated visits, meaning each visit was from a different person, he said. There were 830 meetings with case workers, 2,517 computer sessions, 3,069 laundry uses and 32,527 mail sessions in that time.
“If people don’t get their mail here, they’re not going to get it delivered to a tent,” Sheck said. “This is a vital service that we do here for people to stay in touch.”
The first six months of the new contract year already has seen 5,027 unduplicated visits, he said. During the chilly last couple of months, he said the center had given out at least 350 sleeping bags and 400 blankets.
The center also is a place to go for people interested in finding a shelter bed. Clients line up at 8 a.m. to meet with someone who assesses their needs and then passes their name on to the San Diego Housing Commission. The shelters fill up fast, however, and Sheck said people are turned away every day.
They do find other help, however. Sheck said he will personally walk someone trying to overcome addiction to the medical clinic at Father Joe’s Villages a few blocks away.
“Case management here is unlike case management anywhere else,” he said. “It’s kind of like a triage.” Sheck said a woman lived outside the shelter for 22 years and a man who sought help at the center was on the street 19 years. Both found housing after case managers worked with them over time.
“Even I walk around and see people and say, ‘What will it take to get you off the street?’” he said. “’How can we help you? What can we do?’”
The cutbacks will mean an end to the 56-bin storage room at the center, which was used by 649 people in the previous fiscal year. Sheck said people sometimes stored blankets and other items during the day and take them out to use at night, and he did not want those to be locked away where people couldn’t get them during the weekends. There are other storage areas for homeless people in the area, but Sheck said one that is nearby also is closed on Sundays.
Brynda Howard, 52, lives in a shelter run by the Alpha Project and said she uses the center every other day to check her mail and store things. Not being able to come on weekends will be inconvenient, she said.
Another client who gave his name just as Rico A, 64, has been homeless for three years and likes to come to the center to do laundry and relax.
“This is a safe place,” he said. “I watch TV here sometimes, and it keeps cops from always hassling you. In here, it’s peaceful.”
He’s disappointed that the storage area will no longer be available because he would use it to store things if he had an appointment, such as ones he has had lately while trying to get housing.
“They need more hours, and they’re taking hours away,” he said.
Reuben Degato, 63, lives on 17th Street and said he and other people are upset about the cutbacks, particularly because the restrooms will be unavailable on weekends.
“It makes no sense,” he said. “I’m not going to walk way all the way down to the Civic Center to use the bathroom. I’m too old for that.”