SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Before Mayor Todd Gloria’s budget was released, Father Joe’s Villages warned the day center it runs day-to-day operations for could be on the chopping block.
Now, it’s been written into the proposal.
The Neil Good Day Center is a City of San Diego program for the homeless that Father Joe’s Villages operates.
“I'll be on Skid row down there just doing drugs, doing everything, probably possibly dead by now, but this place saved my life,” Dennis Whytus, who received assistance from the Center and has been recently housed, said. “Ever since I've been here at the day center, it's been amazing. I'm off the streets now, got an apartment of my own, moved in today.”
The Center’s a one-stop shop to help get people off the streets, even just for a few hours, that provides outreach, bathrooms, showers, and laundry. Some groups volunteer their time and services to help those at the Center.
“We come here every Tuesday morning. We're doing urgent care here. We're doing primary care. We have an incredible rapport with the community. We've been serving people here over a year, so we're doing medication refills for people here,” Mahdi Diab, Executive Director of SoCal Street Health, said. “This place is a lifeline to thousands of people in San Diego.”
That proverbial lifeline for many is possibly being cut.
The City said the proposed budget for homelessness services is to the tune of $97 million. While money from the general fund for the Homelessness Strategies & Solutions Department is going up by about $3.3 million, the budget includes cutting funding for the Center from the City, which is close to $950,000.
“It was a surprise to us. We knew that there was going to be reductions in the budget for homelessness. We didn't realize that the reductions for the day center would be down to 0, completely closing the program,” Josh Bohannan, Chief Strategy Officer for Father Joe’s Villages, said.
ABC 10News Mayor Todd Gloria’s office what went into the decision-making process.
His staff sent ABC 10News the following statement: “Getting homeless residents off the street and into care is one of San Diegans’ top concerns, and it’s one of Mayor Gloria’s top priorities. That’s why he has prioritized homelessness funding in his draft budget. We must find more efficient and cost-effective ways to address this crisis and prioritize funding for programs that provide shelter beds and maximize resources to programs that place people into permanent housing. And even funding for shelter is at risk. The fact is, the drafting of this budget involved extremely difficult decisions, such as funding services like those provided at this site or staffing a fire station.”
The budget for next year won’t be final until the City Council votes on it in June.
If the Center were to lose its funding from the city, some call it a mistake.
“To the city of San Diego, I think it'd be a very bad mistake if y'all cut the budgets to this place because this is the only place that saved me from the streets,” Whytus said.
