North County Report: Oceanside's First Homeless Shelter Is (Almost) Ready

By Tigist Layne, the Voice of San Diego

July 28, 2023

Oceanside’s first-ever year-round homeless shelter is finally open – well, almost.

The Oceanside Navigation Center is a 50-bed homeless shelter operated by the San Diego Rescue Misson in the former Ocean Shores High School building.

The center won’t begin sheltering homeless people for another week or so, Paul Armstrong, vice president of programs with the Rescue Mission, told me.

“Fingers crossed for early to middle of next week, but it is legitimately a day-by-day thing,” Armstrong said. “We are working a checklist of contractor items so that we can get our occupancy permits so that we can move people over.”

What’s the hold up? Delays for the highly anticipated shelter are not new. It was originally set to open last summer, but construction delays, labor shortages and project changes were the primary reasons for its slow progression, Armstrong said.

The former high school building underwent major renovations and upgrades, according to a city press release, including new windows, a new heating and air system, new roof, fire sprinkler system, sewer lines, showers, kitchen, furniture, computers, landscaping and accessibility improvements.

The total construction costs for the shelter came out to around $7.5 million, which were mostly covered by federal, state and regional grants.

What this means for North County: Oceanside has the second-highest unsheltered homeless population in North County, according to this year’s point-in-time count, and it’s just now getting its first shelter.

It will also be a welcome addition to North County, which had a total of 861 unsheltered individuals when the count was conducted back in January.

For roughly six years, there have only been three homeless shelters in North County – two of them are low-barrier, which means they don’t require things like sobriety or background checks to enter. The other is a higher-barrier shelter for women and families.

In total, they provide 144 beds.

Oceanside’s shelter is a low-barrier shelter. The city’s housing department social workers or the police department’s homeless outreach team will handle all referrals.

The shelter’s first clients will come from the city’s motel voucher program.

A couple of months ago, I reported on a proposed housing project in Del Mar called Seaside Ridge. City officials are against it, but the developer is trying to use state housing laws to override the city’s wishes.

Some background: The development would be located on an ocean bluff site near Del Mar’s Dog Beach. It proposes 42 low-income units, 43 moderate-income units and 174 market-rate units.

Del Mar isn’t on board with it. City officials argue they would have to rezone the site, or parcel of land, to even consider moving forward with the project. And they say they already have enough sites identified in their Housing Element to meet their state-mandated housing goals.

A Housing Element is a state-required plan outlining how a city can accommodate enough new housing to meet its population’s needs.

But the developers argue that the city has no choice in the matter because at the time they submitted their application to the city, Del Mar’s Housing Element hadn’t been approved by the state. In fact, it had been rejected by the state three times.

The developers plan to continue processing the project under State housing law.

“The city seems to be looking for reasons to oppose this worthy project when it should be encouraging real affordable housing development in their city,” said Darren Pudgil, a spokesperson for the project. “Unfortunately, staff’s letters convey a policy of denial, which will continue to inhibit opportunities for families to find affordable housing in Del Mar.”

The developers are leaning on a few state housing laws to make their case.

The latest: In May, state officials finally approved Del Mar’s Housing Element, which means the city is now in compliance with state law.

Back in April, Del Mar officials told Seaside Ridge developers to resubmit their application because it was “incomplete” and “not supported by law.”

On June 1, the developers resubmitted their application, but on June 30, their application was again deemed “incomplete,” and the developers were told to resubmit it for a third time.

In Del Mar’s letter to the developers, city officials again pushed back against the state housing laws the developers are attempting to employ.

“In sum, state law provides that the Builders Remedy only applies when an application is deemed complete,” the letter says. “As the city does not agree with these legal theories, the Seaside application remains incomplete.”

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