FATHER JOE’S PREPARES FOR MOVE

Nonprofit to transition back to Golden Hall, set to open women’s shelter

With funding for the homeless shelter at the San Diego Convention Center expiring at the end of March, the service providers overseeing hundreds of clients at the venue are preparing to move back into revamped shelters they last operated in early 2020.

The Alpha Project and Father Joe’s Villages share duties at the city’s Shelter to Home program at the Convention Center, which had 818 clients as of Wednesday.

Deacon Jim Vargas, president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages, sees the transition as a positive move because moving back to Golden Hall in downtown San Diego will create shelter beds for children and transitional aged youths, something that is not provided at the adults-only Convention Center shelter.

“One of the reasons I’m really interested in going back to Golden Hall is, we were one of the only shelters that had families, and we’ll be able to have families again,” he said.

Besides preparing for the move, Vargas said this has been an eventful time for Father Joe’s Villages. The nonprofit recently opened a

COURTESY FATHER JOE’S VILLAGES Antionette Miles (left) hands a towel to a homeless person as part of a distribution led by Team Mulvaney through Father Joe’s.