The San Diego City Council has delayed a decision on whether to convert an empty warehouse into one of the nation’s largest homeless shelters, following a pair of critical reports from San Diego’s top budget and legal officials that questioned whether the project was the best use of taxpayer funds.
The move keeps alive Mayor Todd Gloria’s hopes to potentially install more than 1,000 beds in the Middletown facility while extending a period of uncertainty for San Diego’s overtaxed shelters.
The region’s system had nowhere near enough room for everybody asking for help even before the city was set to lose 700-plus spots in the coming months.
“The need for shelter is clear,” Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said Monday during an hours-long hearing that lasted beyond 11 p.m. “We’re going to need more than shelter to get us out of this.”
Leaders voted 7-2 to continue negotiations and return to the proposal later, perhaps as soon as July 30. Even then, there’s no guarantee the project will pass as a majority of the council appeared deeply skeptical of the 30-year lease.
The current version of the deal would cost $1.95 per square foot, a charge that would increase 3.5 percent every year, eventually pushing the monthly bill past $320,500. Renovations could require at least $18 million and annual operating costs are estimated at $26.4 million. Combined with insurance, maintenance and property taxes, taxpayers could end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three decades.
Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica said funding the shelter, which has been named “Hope @ Vine,” could pull money from affordable housing and he noted that there did not appear to be a long-term plan to pay for it all. The city attorney’s office concluded in a separate report that the lease, as is, “does not adequately protect the City’s legal or financial interests.”
People behind and in front of the dais brought up 101 Ash St., the agreement that has cost residents millions for a building that’s unusable because of asbestos.
“We cannot afford another large-scale mistake,” said Councilmember Kent Lee.
There were also concerns about the overall vision. Several formerly homeless people said they’d rather stay on the streets than go into a room packed with bunk beds. Sandy Myskowski, who has stayed at several local shelters, said she struggles with PTSD after being assaulted in one facility.
“This is not safe for women,” Myskowski said about the newest proposal.
City officials acknowledged that other properties on the market might be cheaper while arguing that the location, by Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street, was an especially good spot. The nearly 65,000 square foot space could be adapted to help changing populations. Two trolley stops are in walking distance. No houses are next door.
“It checks every box,” said Stephen Cushman, the lead negotiator for the city.
Last-minute talks over the weekend led to some changes in the lease, which was only released publicly last week, including a pledge by the owner to address any environmental issues regardless of when they’re found. (The decades-old building has not yet been tested for asbestos or lead.) The city should also receive a share of the profits if the property is sold within five years, even if San Diego’s the buyer.
The site’s owner, San Diego businessman Doug Hamm, told the council that his Christian faith was partly why he wanted to create a place for the most vulnerable and added that he’d already turned down potentially more lucrative offers.
“This matters to me,” he said.
Plus, proponents repeatedly returned to the fact that hundreds of people living outside continue to die each year in San Diego.
The shelter would create challenges the city has only faced temporarily, during the pandemic, when it housed more than 1,000 people in the convention center. Just a few shelters nationwide can hold that many and most have far more floor space.
The project would likely take a year-and-a-half to launch.
In the meantime, officials estimate San Diego will lose access to 732 beds by January. There are multiple reasons why — permits are expiring for some facilities, others sit on land scheduled for new development — but they all complicate a crisis that has grown every month for more than two straight years.
One city representative said killing the warehouse proposal increased the likelihood that San Diego would install a pair of large tents, each of which could hold 300 people, on an empty plot near the airport. The H Barracks site is currently planned as a safe parking lot for people to sleep in their vehicles, but two sprung shelters were part of the permit recently approved by the Coastal Commission.
Other proposals are smaller scale. Officials said around 200 spots could be added by the fall to the city’s designated camping areas near Balboa Park.
Furthermore, 1,000 people might not even end up staying in the warehouse. Sarah Jarman, director of the city’s homelessness strategies and solutions department, said an exact population number couldn’t be pinned down until later.
During a break at the meeting, Tamera Kohler, CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, said a recent tour of the site left her strongly questioning whether the property could effectively hold that many.
Council chambers were largely full Monday afternoon and more than 100 people asked to speak. Several held banners in the back (“No To Mega Homeless Shelter Here”) near others who sported buttons for Larry Turner, who’s opposing Gloria in the upcoming Nov. 5 general election. Pre-printed signs in support of the shelter (“Vote For Hope @ Vine”) were handed out partway through the meeting.
Lee and Vivian Moreno were the two “no” votes. Both have suggested that they may not support the proposal in any form.
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