While the city scouts for places to open a temporary winter homeless shelter, Peninsula residents are adding their voices to a rising chorus of opposition to a giant white tent that could potentially be built in the Midway area.
Residents recently cited several reasons for their opposition, including its proximity to a preschool.
District 2 Councilmember Kevin Faulconer has also said the proposed site near the corner of Midway Drive and Enterprise Street isn’t the appropriate location because it’s too close to a Navy employee parking lot and the Veteran’s Village of San Diego, which already assists homeless persons.
Dewey Child Development Center on Rosecrans Place and Montessori School on West Spruce Street also lie within about a mile-and-a-half radius of the proposed homeless shelter, said Matt Awbrey, the councilman’s representative.
Faulconer will host a community rally to opposing the placement of a shelter in the Midway area on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 11 a.m. at the proposed site.
“The Midway community has done its fair share,” Faulconer said, “The shelter belongs in the urban core of the city.”
Navy officials are also voicing opposition to the Midway site.
A letter from Naval Base Point Loma to Mayor Jerry Sanders, dated Sept. 18, states the sheltering of about 560 homeless persons would pose a security risk to Navy facilities and personnel.
Peninsula residents echoed the sentiments of several other communities being considered for construction of the temporary winter homeless shelter, which housed and fed about 1,100 separate individuals last year, according to data collected by the Alpha Project, the agency that operates the shelter.
Alpha Project President Bob McElroy seemed convinced that the placement of the giant tent on the Peninsula isn’t likely.
“Yeah, it’s not going to happen,” McElroy said.
Over the last nine years the shelter has been built on 16th Street and Newton Avenue, bordered by a cul-de-sac in Barrio Logan, said McElroy. Recent opposition from the residents in that area pushed city officials to look at other locations instead.
The list was narrowed down to three possible locations: Barrio Logan, Balboa Park and the Midway area, McElroy said.
He said the shelter would most likely end up at its traditional site.
The issue arose when the city scrambled to find a source of funding for the shelter when the Housing and Urban Development grant regulations changed, leaving the shelter unfunded, Awbrey said.
To compensate, the city located three sources of funding. Part of the money comes from a Community Development Block Grant for about $200,000. The United Way also helped with a grant for about $130,000. And a third source comes from a Centre City Development Corporation land deal for about $340,000.
Alpha Project also makes a yearly contribution to the project. The site costs about $675,000 to fund, Awbrey said.
Faulconer said that although he does not support building the shelter in the Midway area, he is supportive of finding a permanent shelter location. He said he is working with CCDC toward such a goal.
The Alpha Project for the Homeless is a nonprofit organization that provides several social services to more than 4,000 homeless men and women daily, according to their website. The organization also provides support services for people with special needs and does homeless outreach and prevention. For more information, visit www.alphaproject.org. For more information on Saturday’s opposition rally, call Faulconer’s office at (619) 236-6622.