San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Neil Good Day Center - By Kelly Davis
At a March 10 meeting, the City Council's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee will be asked to approve funding recommendations for federal Community Development Block Grant money for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2012.
The Neil Good Day Center—the city's homeless-services center that, since 1991, has provided people with a place to shower, pick up their mail, access a computer, get medical and case management services or simply get off the street for a few hours—wasn't recommended for funding by a single council member.
I'm waiting to hear back from a couple council offices and the San Diego Housing Commission, which oversees homeless-services programs for the city, to find out why funding wasn't recommended. Last year, when the city first looked at the funding matrix for a proposed one-stop homeless-services center, closing Neil Good and redirecting that money was suggested as a way to close a funding gap. But Connections Housing, the team that's developing the one-stop center, says the only money they'll need from the city is what's currently used to run the annual winter shelter, according to a budget overview presented to the City Council last week.
I talked to Bob
McElroy, CEO of the Alpha Project, which runs Neil Good under a
contract with the city. He said he hoped councilmembers would
reconsider, or that the city would find some other source to cover the
$500,000 annual operating cost.
"Obviously they have to have the Neil Good Day Center," he said. "If the Day Center weren't there, where would 500 people go? That place is packed every single day."
This was to be the first year that a citizens advisory board made funding recommendations, but because the board's not quite ready to go, City Councilmembers were asked to select which of the 113 applicants should get grant funding based on an estimated total budget of $15.5 million. Under federal guidelines, eligible projects must contribute to the betterment of low- and moderate-income communities, prevent or eliminate blight and meet urgent health and safety needs.
