City relocating last Golden Hall shelter residents ahead of end-of-year closure
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Golden Hall, one of San Diego’s largest congregate homeless shelters, has paused intakes of as it prepares to close at the end of the year, city officials said on Friday.
The halting of new admission to the 264-bed shelter operated by Father Joe’s Villages comes over a year after the city announced plans to shutter the downtown facility, which then housed upwards of 500 beds for single adults, families and teenagers.
Since then, city officials have moved hundreds of unhoused people residing in the shelter into more long-term housing and other locations in the city’s shelter network, including a former Travelodge motel in Barrio Logan that was converted into a family shelter.
The remaining residents of the Golden Hall shelter will be moved into new city-funded facilities by the end of the year anticipating its closure. Although a hard date for its closure and where exactly the current residents will be moved have not been announced.
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The vast majority of the San Diego’s existing shelter facilities often only have a handful of beds available every night — most referrals connected unsheltered people to emergency housing at one of the city’s facilities go uncompleted, as Voice of San Diego reported last year.
Meanwhile, key components of the city’s plan to expand its offerings this year, notably the addition of a safe camping site at H Barracks and a proposed 1,000-bed “mega-shelter” in Middletown, have hit snags or otherwise remain in early planning stages.
However, Golden Hall cannot remain open as a shelter for unhoused San Diegans, as it was intended to be a temporary site when the city council approved it in 2019.
On top of that, the permit issued by the city fire marshal does not allow the facility to remain open much longer, given its current use and the 60-year-old facility’s condition. According to city officials, heavy rains over the last few years have accelerated wear and tear of the building.
The city’s independent budget analyst said in a report last year that Golden Hall would need to undergo an estimated $9.3 million in improvements before it could operate as a permanent shelter.
City officials said on Friday that investing to upgrade the site would be unwise if the proposed Civic Center redevelopment moves forward.
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