Peninsula planners discuss proposed homeless shelter at H Barracks

Concerns were vetted, and the mayor’s office fielded questions, about the City’s proposed conversion of the H Barracks site near Liberty Station for homelessness services at a Peninsula Community Planning Board committee meeting on Nov. 9.

Kohta Zaiser, deputy director of community engagement for the mayor’s office, presented on the project and held a Q&A with the planning group’s Ad Hoc Committee.

The five-member committee later deliberated voting 3-2 to draft a letter, to be considered at Peninsula Community Planning Board’s Nov. 16 meeting at Point Loma/ Hervey Branch Library, recommending the City seek an alternative location other than H Barracks because the community consensus is that that site is unsuitable for homelessness services for numerous reasons.

H Barracks is City-owned industrial land off North Harbor Drive between Kincaid Road and McCain Road, south of the San Diego International Airport and east of two hotels. The site has served as a police and fire department training facility and was identified as a potential candidate to accommodate a homeless shelter and services. The training facilities are to be relocated and the site will host a Pure Water recycling facility in five years.
Ad Hoc Committee member Brad Herrin felt the decision to take a position on H Barracks was premature noting, “We haven’t reviewed the City’s (homelessness) strategy, a 40-page document.”

Committee chair Mandy Havlik said the full planning board’s ultimate decision on the H Barracks proposal will be posted on the planning group’s website after the Nov. 16 public meeting.

The City contracts with various service providers to offer shelter options to people experiencing homelessness. At shelters, people are connected to support services and ultimately put on a path toward permanent housing.

In public testimony on Nov. 9, Point Loma resident Derek Falconer spoke representing more than 4,300 people who signed an online petition he started three weeks ago asking the City to reconsider its selection of the proposed site at H Barracks. He argued the site is inappropriate for homelessness services being too close to the airport, Liberty Station, nearby public parks, as well as local schools, and military housing.

“This is the wrong location for this facility,” said Falconer. “It’s wrong because it’s wrong for our schools and community. It’s within a half-mile of nine schools, over 3,000 children, pre-school through 12th grade with open campuses. They will be exposed to the worst parts of homelessness, and that’s brutally unfair to children coming to a nice neighborhood. And I don’t know that the City has precautions, or ways to regulate, who is in and around the shelter facility.”

“The City is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to addressing homelessness from every possible angle, and projects like H Barracks are critical to our efforts to get people off our streets and into safe shelter and housing,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria recently in his weekly newsletter.

Citing the City’s recently adopted Comprehensive Shelter Strategy outlining short-, medium- and long-term homelessness solutions, Zaiser pointed out H Barracks falls within the medium-term strategy “mainly because of its long-term plans as a Pure Water facility. It’s currently being abated (for lead and asbestos) and (will be) demoed and Pure Water work is about five years out. Abatement started earlier in the summer and will conclude sometime in December. Demolition will begin shortly after that and will likely take six months. The earliest (homeless) people could be there would be November or December 2024.”

Added Zaiser: “What we do know is the level of activation, the bells and whistles that come with any active City shelter, will be at H Barracks, which will not accept walk-ups and be referrals-only. H Barracks will also probably have more security than any of our other shelters because of all the sensitive areas nearby.”

Zaiser noted Point Loma has not yet seen enforcement from the City’s Unsafe Camping Ordinance, which prohibits people from sleeping within two blocks of a school, shelter, trolley station, waterway, or park “where a substantial public health and safety risk is determined, or where a homeless shelter exists nearby.” The mayor’s aide added Liberty Station is slated to have enforcement of the Unsafe Camping Ordinance later in phase 3 of the ordinance’s implementation.

In deliberations, the Ad Hoc Committee members spoke out.

“I have been on the board of Alpha Project for 20 years now and frequent homeless shelters quite a bit and I feel sad that all of us are characterizing them as individuals who are going to come in and destroy our neighborhood when they are in a place to get help,” said new board member Jacqueline Greulich. “Right now there isn’t help, that’s why they’re out and about. Some people need a safe place – and services.”

“Not all the homeless are angels and need help and want it,” said board member Margaret Virissimo. “There is that population that is heavily into crime. You see it in Midway. Midway is out of control. Why are we doing these people dumps? Why not do our original idea to keep the homeless community where they feel safe, where they want to live and build that permanent shelter for them?”

City staff is currently gathering community and stakeholder input that will be used to develop plans for the H Barracks site, which is proposed to have all City facilities serving people experiencing homelessness including 24-hour onsite security, privacy fencing, connections to transit and transportation, and connections to services that will help people end their homelessness, like mental health resources, substance abuse counseling, case management, housing navigation and medical care assistance.

HOMELESSNESS STRATEGY

Earlier this year, the City released its Comprehensive Shelter Strategy, a plan outlining short-, medium- and long-term solutions to get homeless San Diegans off the streets and into permanent housing. The Shelter Strategy identifies several possible options for underused City-owned land and other public facilities that could be put to use to help address the homelessness crisis.

Existing City-Funded Homelessness Shelters