logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Interim Mayor Just Says No to City’s Winter Shelters

Jennifer Amanda Jones
February 11, 2014
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

 

Homeless

February 6, 2014; XETV-TV, San Diego 6

There are many ways that Todd Gloria, interim mayor of San Diego, is not like his predecessor, Bob Filner. His take on the issue of homelessness is one example. Filner, who resigned last year following multiple allegations of sexual harassment, hoped to keep San Diego’s city-sponsored winter shelters, typically only open Thanksgiving through Easter, available year-round. These shelters have not closed since November 2012.

Gloria believes the money could be better spent. In his “State of the City” address last week, he proposed that San Diego close the winter shelters and instead spend the $1.9 million in general funds on programs that he believes have proven more effective in reducing homelessness.

His proposal includes:

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • $800,000 in assessment and case management for the winter shelter, including case management services for veterans.
  • $400,000 to the Regional Task Force on the Homelessness to implement a coordinated Homeless Management Information System. This type of system is required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be in place in order to receive federal homeless dollars.
  • $120,000 for the Serial Inebriate Program for chronic homeless alcoholics cycling through various facilities, allowing the county to increases services from 12 to 32 individuals at any given time.
  • $80,000 for the Neil Good Day Center, a haven for many of San Diego’s homeless and a place where they can make phone calls, take showers, and use computers.
  • $40,000 to augment the San Diego Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Teams.
  • $150,000 for a storage facility, currently operated by Girls Think Tank, where more than 300 homeless may safely leave belongings while looking for work or attending doctor appointments.
  • $300,000 to fill a funding gap at Connections Housing, a downtown shelter providing 223 interim and supportive-housing beds.

The two mayoral candidates, David Alvarez and Kevin Faulconer, both appear to support Gloria’s proposal.

Gloria’s proposed changes are not without controversy. Many are concerned Gloria would in effect be closing the winter shelters and displacing the 375 people currently using those beds. “The representation that the tents were going to be open year-round is illusory,” he stated, according to San Diego City Beat. “It wasn’t funded that way, and it’s one of the things we’ve been trying to deal with.”

San Diego has an estimated 5,700 homeless residents, approximately 3,100 of whom live on the streets. San Diego also has a significant portion of migrant farmworkers living in makeshift housing in canyons near residential areas.

There is, clearly, a lot of work to be done. As Gloria stated in his address, “We cannot be America’s Finest City with thousands of our neighbors living on our streets.” Hopefully, the next mayor is as committed to underserved San Diegans as Gloria is.—Jennifer Amanda Jones

 

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Jennifer Amanda Jones

Jennifer Amanda Jones, Ph.D. is the Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the University of Florida. Her research interests include nonprofit management, philanthropic giving, and social enterprise initiatives. She is a member of Nu Lambda Mu, the international honor society for nonprofit scholars. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Jones was involved in research projects benchmarking the nonprofit sector in San Diego and in the State of California. Additionally, Dr. Jones has spent more than 15 years working with nonprofit organizations of various types and sizes. She also served on the board of directors for a community foundation.

More about: California Human ServicesInequalityNonprofit NewsPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Linking Our Fights to Win: On Combatting Elite Capture
Kitana Ananda and Olúfemi O. Táíwò
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of Housing Insecurity for Black Women
Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Maile Chand and Andrea Flynn
Black Women’s Pay Inequity Starts in the School System
Toni A. Wilson
The Human Impact of the Global Refugee Crisis Must Be Understood—And Acted Upon
Anmol Irfan

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Linking Our Fights to Win: On Combatting Elite Capture
Kitana Ananda and Olúfemi O. Táíwò
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.