Opinion |

Another hopeful zig-zag on homelessness in San Diego

A centrally located, permanent shelter with 1,000 beds and numerous on-site services seems like a good idea, given the breadth of San Diego’s homelessness problem.

The question is whether the surprise proposal by Mayor Todd Gloria on Thursday for the city to enter into a long-term lease for such a facility in Middletown is too good to be true.

This would be by far the city’s largest homeless shelter, but there’s reason to be cautious. San Diego has a years-long history of careening from one approach on homelessness to another. Some big plans have fallen through under various mayoral administrations, including this one.

The latest big thing was going to be a temporary shelter for up to 700 people with requisite services at the abandoned Navy H Barracks just west of San Diego International Airport. Despite intense opposition from Point Loma residents, the Gloria administration seemed all in on moving ahead.

Publicly, that changed Thursday morning when the mayor held a news conference at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street, the location of the new proposed facility. At the same time, the administration said it was no longer considering the H Barracks shelter, but possibly a “safe parking lot” there with 200 spaces for people who sleep in their vehicles.

The Middletown project had never before surfaced publicly and seemingly came out of the blue. But a spokesperson said Gloria had actually been considering that location before H Barracks, according to David Garrick of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

On its face, the Middletown plan has some advantages over H Barracks. For one, the latter shelter was projected to be there for only five years, at which time the city’s Pure Water recycling system is expected to take over the site.

The new site doesn’t appear to be very close to schools, homes, recreation or commercial areas — the proximity to such triggered loud opposition to the airport location, particularly from nearby Liberty Station.

But homeless shelter sites almost always draw opposition. Whether this one does and, if so, how much remains to be seen. Little Italy and Mission Hills aren’t that far a way.

This is an expensive real estate deal and comes at a time when the city, like many other public agencies, is facing a serious budget crunch.

Unlike the big and small tents at other homeless shelter sites, this one would be an actual building.

Gloria’s office said money to turn an existing warehouse into the shelter and operate the facility will be paid through a combination of local, state and federal funds, along “with significant contributions from generous local donors.”

Renovations at the 65,000 square-foot building are expected to cost $18 million and rent would be $1.9 million annually over the course of a 35-year lease, with two five-year renewal options. The shelter operations are projected to cost $30 million a year.

Gloria said the shelter would provide on-site security, meals, housing advice and assistance, and case management services. That’s in addition to showers, restrooms, a commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, and dining and recreation areas.

Many of those services and amenities are available at existing shelters, but this would be on a grand scale.

In many ways, the project’s scope and functions would mirror the proposal for Sunbreak Ranch, a large homeless facility proposed by George Mullen, an East Village businessman and artist.

The Gloria administration has been cool to the Sunbreak plan, but not necessarily to the basic concept. Such a large, full-service facility has been established in other cities, notably San Antonio, Texas, and has been contemplated at various times in San Diego.

The mayor and his aides object to Mullen’s proposal to put Sunbreak Ranch far from the city core, where it’s easier to coordinate services — and no actual site has been secured. They also are leery of the notion of, if not forcing people to the camp, strongly leveraging them into it.

Visions for a large, comprehensive “campus” to house and assist homeless people with the goal of getting them back on their feet have come and gone in San Diego.

The most ambitious proposal, and perhaps the one closest to actually happening, was back around 2016-17. Homeless advocates and service providers, civic leaders and elected officials planned to construct buildings that would provide various types of housing and shelter 2,000 to 3,000 people.

The project, which at the time largely flew under the radar, had considerable support, architectural renderings and a site.

It was going to be built at the municipal maintenance lot at 20th and B streets on the southern border of Balboa Park. That is now the location of a “safe sleeping site” that has capacity for more than 130 tents for homeless people. The lot also was used as a temporary shelter during the 2016-18 deadly hepatitis A outbreak.

The details of the demise of the campus proposal are unclear, but the project ran into some powerful opposition and then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer pulled the plug late in the game.

More recently, large tent camps were proposed for Balboa Park, including at Inspiration Point. Eventually, a site with a 400-tent capacity was opened at Lot O in the park.

In the years before all that, the city vacillated between making tent shelters the priority, then permanent housing under a “housing first” policy and back again. San Diego still seeks to move homeless people into transitional and permanent housing. But those are difficult to obtain with California’s high costs and regulatory demands.

Circumstances change and policies need to adapt. Homelessness has become more acute and triage action is needed. But the shifting approaches at times have been jarring — symbolically underscored by Thursday’s big-shelter switch.

Gloria says he has more than doubled the number of options for unhoused San Diegans since he’s been mayor. But the Middletown project is unlike anything this administration or any other has done. The financial, political and logistical challenges could be daunting.

Let’s see if Gloria sticks with it.