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| City committee will make a decision on homeless service center proposal |
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| San Diego Cities - San Diego |
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| Tuesday, 06 July 2010 09:16 |
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The city’s Land Use and Housing Committee (LU&H) is expected to make a decision at its July 14 meeting on whether to support the San Diego Housing Commission’s recommendation to establish a new permanent homeless service center in downtown’s World Trade Center building, 1250 Sixth Ave. The commission first presented the recommendation to LU&H in April, but committee members decided to table the issue for 90 days to provide more time for public outreach, amid protests from community members and local business representatives about the center’s proposed location in the heart of the city’s financial district. The plan endorsed by the commission would create a “one-stop” homeless service center at the WTC that would house up to 225 homeless people and provide assistance such as medical and mental health care, case management and job hunting resources, all under one roof. The plan was submitted by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) in response to a request for proposals issued in April 2009. Under its proposal, PATH would work with Affirmed Housing Group to create 150 interim beds and 75 permanent supportive housing units in the WTC, then partner with Family Health Centers of San Diego for ongoing services. A selection committee comprised of representatives from the city of San Diego, Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) and the commission, as well as community members from several community organizations, chose that proposal over another option, which was submitted by Father Joe’s Villages, a non-profit entity that has provided homeless services through St. Vincent de Paul Village for more than 60 years. Originally, the selection committee rejected both proposals because each called for new construction of facilities. The committee then asked both teams to revise their submissions with a strategy for utilizing an existing building. The PATH/Affirmed team came back with a proposal for the WTC site, while Father Joe’s declined to revise its proposal, Fisher said. Caryl Iseman, a 10-year East Village resident who was part of the selection committee and who also co-chaired the homeless advisory committee during the building of Petco Park, said that after thoroughly evaluating both proposals, she was confident that PATH had the best solution, and she criticized some of the temporary services proposed by Father Joe’s that she said promote homelessness rather than breaking the cycle that drives it. “His proposal frankly has all the things that most of the residents in East Village oppose: a lot of shelter beds, which we really didn’t want, the in-and-out [services] like the Neil Good Day Centers, which we really don’t want … what people don’t understand is that, while its good that you are helping the homeless, you’re not really [helping them] — you are enabling them to be homeless rather than being a solution,” Iseman said. “You enable them when they know that they can bed down for a night, but then they are back on the street the next day. They’ll keep doing this and doing this and doing this as long as no one breaks the cycle.” Father Joe, however, is adamant that the programs he currently runs are not contributing to the problem. “People who say that have not been down there, and don’t see what we do …We have everything a homeless person needs to go through rehabilitation on the same site — we have medical, we have dental, we have psychiatric, we have addiction, we have job training, we have literacy, computer training — you name it, we have it on site.” He said he believes the best way to address homelessness is to provide both temporary and permanent solutions that will benefit a variety of people. “Emergency is not the only answer; permanent is not the only answer. You need to have a continuum where people will get the type of program they need to put their lives back together,” he said. If the committee approves PATH’s plan, it will move to the City Council, which will vote on whether to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the PATH/Affirmed team. That agreement would allow the developer/operator to begin evaluating what needs to happen in order to make the proposed project a reality, said Cissy Fisher, vice president, special housing initiatives for the Commission. 
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