By Christy Scannell
SDUN Senior Editor

A survey of homeless people in downtown San Diego later this month could serve as a model for a similar effort in Uptown.

Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit organization that manages downtown’s business improvement district, is teaming with Common Ground, an international group seeking to end homelessness, to register the estimated 800 people living on downtown streets. Joined by several other nonprofits as well as volunteers, Registry Week’s goal is to prioritize the most vulnerable individuals and place them in housing while also assisting them with social services. More than 125 homes have been designated for those who qualify.

“Homelessness is probably the single most important issue that faces us downtown because it affects just about everything—it affects our residents, our businesses, our tourism. We have to do something more than what we’ve been doing,” said Robin Munro, a member of Downtown Partnership’s executive committee and chair of the Registry Week Leadership Team.

The United Way, the San Diego Housing Commission and the Centre City Development Corporation are lending their support to Registry Week, which will begin with volunteer training on Sept. 19. On Sept. 20, 21 and 22, 150 volunteers will break into teams of four or five people led by a social worker who will cover a pre-mapped section of downtown to survey homeless people from 4 to 7 a.m. Those who agree to the survey will be provided $5 meal cards good at local restaurants.

On Sept. 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the compiled data will be shared in a report open to the public at the former Planet Hollywood building on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Broadway downtown.

“Our membership has been wanting to do something to alleviate [homelessness],” Munro said. “It has gotten worse in the last few years due to the economic downturn.”

Planning for Registry Week began months ago when former CCDC board member Jennifer LeSar—who worked with Common Ground in a similar way several years earlier in Los Angeles’ Skid Row—approached Downtown Partnership with the idea. Her company, LeSar Development Consultants, has a contract with CCDC to develop homeless policies. Non-staffing costs for Registry Week are $25,000 to $30,000.

“It’s more than just throwing money at a problem or just studying a problem. It really is something that people can get out there and participate in and have some ownership in,” Munro said. “And hopefully that will translate into a lot of follow-up and implementation of services and matching people with services and housing.”

Amy Gonyeau is chief operating officer for the Alpha Project, a nonprofit organization that has been assisting more than 2,000 homeless San Diegans daily with housing, substance abuse treatment and other support for 20 years. She said Alpha Project offered its expertise to Registry Week by mapping where homeless people tend to gather downtown.

“We usually do point-in-time surveys once a year so we’re really hoping this will be an even more accurate count that we can compare to see what the needs are,” Gonyeau said. “Hopefully it [results] in more funding.”

While additional funding is always welcome, said Brian Maienschein, a former city councilmember who is now the commissioner of the United Way’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, he believes Registry Week will succeed in saving money rather than securing more of it. United Way’s Project 25, which intends to identify the county’s 25 most costly users of taxpayer-funded services and provide housing and health services to them over a three-year period, could be aided by the findings at Registry Week.

“I think the savings are going to be pretty tremendous,” he said about Project 25. “We are supportive of what Registry Week is doing but we’re aware that it is doing it in a small very geographical area. But the overall goal (of all participating social service agencies) is to house as many people as possible no matter where they show up on a list and no matter how many lists they show up on.”

Common Ground will enter the collected information into a national database that the United Way, Downtown Partnership and CCDC will be able to access, but a local database will also be created and maintained by the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. The “housing first” approach touted by Common Ground is part of its national effort to find housing for 100,000 long-term homeless individuals and families by July 2013.

“[Housing first] is a nationally recognized model that says if you find somebody housing and deal with housing issues first, all other issues can then be dealt with, such as addiction, health, job training and mental illness,” Munro said. “Certainly there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this but it is the first time we’ve convened all the interested stakeholders at one table to look for a way to solve the problem.”

District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria, who chairs the City Council’s Land Use and Housing subcommittee that studies homelessness, said that collaborative synergy will hasten results.

“What’s exciting about Registry Week is that it’s coming at the same time as other initiatives such as the one-stop-shop World Trade Center and what San Diego Grantmakers is doing,” he said. “It brings a level of attention to this issue that has not been there in the recent past but that citizens say is their number four priority for the city. And hopefully it will bring some relief to people experiencing homelessness.”

Gloria said he will be monitoring Registry Week as a possible solution for addressing homelessness in Uptown neighborhoods.

“As downtown develops, the homeless are driven to Uptown and Balboa Park,” he said. “As we find models that work in downtown I want to do what I can to bring those models [to Uptown] because we are the natural inheritors of those problems.”

When asked if he thought the Hillcrest Business Association, like Downtown Partnership, would fund a Registry Week for Uptown, its executive director Benjamin Nicholls was quick to say no.

“It’s the role of business associations to help the businesses grow and that’s what we’re doing in Hillcrest,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the role of business associations to become social service providers.”

Unlike Hillcrest’s BID, which is funded by assessments to member businesses, Downtown Partnership has multiple funding sources, including assessments to property owners, giving it a broader mission and larger budget.

Gloria said he didn’t think financing a Registry Week for Uptown would be difficult.

“I think when the community demonstrates that they have passion and interest in a subject, typically support comes,” he said. “The best thing that we can do is show that we are focused and passionate on this.”

Volunteers and sponsorships are still needed for downtown’s Registry Week. For more information, go to sdcleanandsafe.org or call 234-8900.