Addressing homelessness is my top priority as your Mayor. Every single day, we are working to get people off the street, connected to services, and on a path to securing permanent housing. This weekly e-newsletter provides updates on each of these efforts and how we are ending homelessness in our City one person at a time. 

Latest News

Reforming Conservatorship Laws Will Save Lives


Having worked to reduce homelessness for the better part of two decades, I’ve spoken with countless people living on the streets and in shelters, and I learned long ago that everyone has a unique story about how they came to be without a place to call home. 

 

Many simply can’t afford a place to live. Some have struggled with drug addiction. Others haven’t been able to overcome the effects of past trauma in their lives. And then, there are those who are unable to tell their story at all because they suffer from such serious mental illness that they are not reachable in a conversation. 

 

Under my administration, the City of San Diego is developing solutions to meet all of these unique circumstances, and it’s that latter group – those with severe mental illness – who I’m working to help through advocacy at the state Capitol.  

 

We see the need for this advocacy represented every day on our streets. It might be someone you’ve seen screaming at someone only they can see. Maybe it’s someone half-naked, sleeping in a doorway. 

 

The painful, but real-life truth of the matter is: These are folks who are so severely mentally ill, they're incapable of taking care of themselves or recognizing the need for them to seek help. And our current mental health system makes it next to impossible to get them care. What that means is means they’re left to suffer and die on our streets. 

 

I can’t accept that, and that’s why I’ve been pushing mental health reform in our State Captiol and why I am such a strong supporter of Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman’s package of legislation to reform California’s conservatorship laws and compel treatment for some extremely sick people who can’t help themselves. 

 

The two bills Senator Eggman has introduced will modernize our State’s behavioral health care system by broadening the definition of “gravely disabled” to include the inability to attend to one’s own medical care and self-protection, and also by creating a real-time online dashboard of available beds at nearby psychiatric and substance-abuse facilities. 

 

It's long past time to address the heartbreaking tragedy unfolding on the streets of San Diego and across California, and I will do everything in my power to help get it done. 

 

Shelter Update

Residents at Golden Hall Shelter to be Relocated Over Next Several Months 


Since 2019, the City of San Diego has been using Golden Hall, a part of our Downtown Civic Center, as a homeless shelter under a temporary emergency permit.


The shelter is unsuited for long-term residency, and continuing to use it as a shelter would require at least $4 million in major improvements simply to bring the dilapidated facility up to code to permit for residential use.


Instead of investing millions into a building we expect to be torn down as part of the Civic Center redevelopment, the City instead will be relocating every resident at the shelter to more suitable locations.


In Golden Hall, there are 324 beds for individuals at Golden Hall, 164 beds for families and 46 beds for transition-age youth. Every person sheltered there will be relocated to sites that are more suitable as living spaces. No one will be sent back out to the streets. 


We already have identified a new shelter for the families residing in Golden Hall; they will be placed in a former hotel in Barrio Logan that the City recently leased. We are in the process of identifying suitable sites for the rest of the residents currently in Golden Hall. 


As with all City-funded shelters, we’re helping the folks in Golden Hall get connected to permanent housing, which is always our ultimate goal. 

Outreach Corner

Partner Profile: Department of Motor Vehicles 


Twice a month, the City’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department (HSSD) hosts Community Coordinated Access to Resources and Engagement (CARE) events in areas with a high concentration of unhoused people.  


SSD is not alone in these coordinated outreach efforts; they partner with the County of San Diego and other local agencies and nonprofits to provide immediate, on-the-spot services and access to shelter and other resources to people living on the streets. 


The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is one of our CARE event community partners. The DMV offers unhoused individuals the opportunity to apply for and obtain photo identification cards on-site. A DMV identification card makes it easier to get food stamps, obtain disability benefits, open a bank account, find a place to live and get a job. 

 

Other services provided at CARE events include access to case management, health education, public benefits and access to necessary documents required to secure housing, like birth certificates. Connection to supportive services like primary care referrals, mental health and substance abuse treatment and veterinary services for their pets are other resources.

Understanding the City’s Shelter System 


The City of San Diego has contracts with various service providers throughout the city to provide shelter options for individuals to stabilize in a safe, sanitary environment while they are connected to permanent or other long-term housing.  

 

The shelters listed below are City-funded or included as part of the City’s Coordinated Intake System for shelter placements. (Note: These do not represent all shelters operating within the City of San Diego.) 

 

  • Alpha Project Bridge Shelter I  
  • Alpha Project Bridge Shelter II  
  • Community Harm Reduction Shelter  
  • Community Harm Reduction Safe Haven 
  • Father Joe’s Villages Bishop Maher Center  
  • Father Joe’s Villages Paul Mirabile Center  
  • Golden Hall, First Floor  
  • Golden Hall, Second Floor  
  • Old Central Library Women’s Shelter 
  • PATH Connections Housing  
  • Rachel’s Promise Women’s Shelter  
  • Rosecrans Shelter  
  • Seniors Landing  
  • San Diego Youth Services  
  • Urban Street Angels Youth Shelter   


News Stories of Interest...


Psychiatric help added to outreach team (San Diego Union-Tribune) 

 

Downtown homeless population takes slight dip in February (San Diego Union-Tribune) 

 

Podcast - City of Tents: Veterans Row (KCRW) 

 

Housing Commish HQ Could House a Shelter (Voice of San Diego) 

 

Homeless encampments — and the debate over what to do about them — explained (Vox) 

Office of the Mayor

202 C St., 11th Floor

San Diego, CA 92101

619-236-6330

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