Number Of Shelter Beds Could Plunge As Golden Hall Closing Date Set

By Lisa Halverstadt, the Voice of San Diego

June 5, 2024

The city’s fire permit for its City Hall complex shelter where more than 250 homeless men sleep each night is set to expire in October.

On the eve of Memorial Day weekend, the city abruptly announced the Golden Hall shelter would need to close by the end of the year and the facility would stop welcoming newcomers.

Keeping the shelter open beyond Oct. 6 – and closer to the end of 2024 – will require another fire permit the city’s fire marshal isn’t eager to issue.

The city’s homelessness point person says her team is working to find a new site for the men’s shelter operated by Father Joe’s Villages as soon as possible. She expects to secure a new site and an updated contract with the nonprofit.

“We do have options available,” said Sarah Jarman, director of the city’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department.

Jarman declined to elaborate.

A pledge earlier this year by Mayor Todd Gloria to deliver at least 1,000 new shelter beds by early 2025 only increases the pressure to find options because it’s only going in the opposite direction right now.

By the end of this year, the city could be down more than 380 shelter beds due to previously projected closures at three other smaller shelters and Golden Hall. The fire permit for the city’s shelter at the Old Central Library, for example, is set to expire July 20. A housing project is also expected to force the city to relocate its 326-bed Barrio Logan tent shelter next year.

If city officials can’t find new shelter sites by then – and they emphasize they are trying — the number of city-funded shelter beds could drop from 1,830 to just over 1,120 beds.

Then there’s the demand.

Data from the city’s housing agency shows 81 percent of homeless San Diegans’ requests for shelter over the last two months went unanswered. Most who sought a bed via the Housing Commission’s intake system didn’t get one.

That helped fuel Gloria’s controversial push to ink a long-term lease to open what would become the city’s largest-ever homeless shelter at a vacant warehouse in Middletown.

Having a homeless shelter at the City Hall complex has long been considered a temporary move. In 2019, then-mayor Kevin Faulconer relied on a temporary permit to move Father Joe’s shelter for women and families to the second floor of Golden Hall, an event center next to the city administration building. Single men later moved to the building’s first floor.

Early last year, Gloria’s office announced that Golden Hall could no longer remain a shelter under a temporary permit. Hundreds of people would need to move out by the end of 2023. Families and transition-aged youth departed after the city opened other shelters, but 324 beds for unhoused men remained on the facility’s first floor until early April.

This spring, the city moved 272 beds for homeless men to Golden Hall’s second floor under another temporary permit from the city’s fire marshal. Eight beds have been offline since due to building maintenance issues.

Golden Hall’s challenges aren’t a secret at City Hall. Last September, a report from the city’s independent budget analyst’s office estimated the city would need to invest at least $9.3 million in upgrades to make it a permanent shelter and that it would likely take at least two-and-a-half years to make those improvements. Budget analysts and city leaders concluded a plan to revamp the city’s Civic Core made those investments untenable.

Now the expiration date of the facility’s latest temporary fire permit is looming.

Deputy Fire Chief Tony Tosca, the city’s fire marshal, said he walked the Golden Hall shelter the day before the city announced the planned closure. He reiterated recently that it was time to move on.

“It’s an aging facility,” Tosca said. “I don’t believe that everything is operating the way that it should or the way we would like it to operate for accessibility and functionality.”

For years, Tosca said, the city has balanced how the building conditions compare to the conditions homeless San Diegans would face outside instead as officials considered whether to continue operating a shelter.

Now, Tosca said, he may be willing to supply another short-term temporary permit to ensure homeless men now staying at the shelter have a safe landing place but he’s not eager to do so.

City spokesperson Matt Hoffman promised the city will move all existing clients to longer-term housing or other city-funded shelters.

Tosca also said the city wants to ensure no one is forced onto the street but that it’s time to move on from Golden Hall.

“The longer you’re there, the more issues you’re going to have with the facility,” Tosca said.

Jarman said the city has accepted this.

“We’ve always known that this facility was never going to be a long-term fix and I think that plays very much into the need for a long-term facility,” Jarman said.

In a statement, Deacon Jim Vargas, CEO at Father Joe’s, said he’d continue to work with the city and Housing Commission to find a long-term solution.

“It is critical that disruption to services for our neighbors in need is minimized as much as possible,” Vargas wrote.

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