HISD's Housing Resources Listings in San Diego County
For more information and referrals to shelters, housing and other resources call 211 or 858.300.1211. Visit http://www.211sandiego.org or email resourcecenter@211sandiego.org.
Alpha Project
Supportive Housing Project | 434 13th Street, San Diego, CA 92101 | Phone: 619.696.6500
Crisis House
1034 N. Magnolia Avenue, El Cajón, CA 92020 | Phone: 619.444.1194 | http://wwwcrisishouse.org | Transitional housing for homeless families and domestic violence victims (East County residents) | motel vouchers for emergencies | housing for the disabled and for substance abuse recovery | domestic violence shelters - DVLINKS | Phone: 1.888.385.4657 (listings throughout San Diego County)
Interfaith Shelter Network
Phone: 619.702.5399 | Only by referrals from 211 or social services agencies.
PATH San Diego
Interim Housing is a 30-90 day program with the goal of moving individuals who are homeless, chronically homeless and deemed vulnerable or at risk on the streets into permanent housing. | Outreach: 619.786.2809
Rachel's Women's Center | Catholic Charities
759 8th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101 | Phone: 619.696.0873. Emergency shelter for single women. Stay varies from 6 months to a year.
San Diego Rescue Mission
120 Elm Street | Phone: 619.687.3720 | http://www.sdrescue.org | Christian-based residential programs for single men and women with children. Emergency overnight shelter for women with children under twelve years old. | Phone: 619.819.1844 (7:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M.)
San Diego Youth Services
A shelter for homeless or runaway teenagers ages 12-17 | Phone: 619.325.3527 | For ages 16-24 Take Wing Transitional Living Program | Phone: 619.221.8600 ext. 254
Urban Angels Inc.
1404 5th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101 | https://ilasd.org/listings/urban-street-angels-churchward/ | Offers an emergency overnight shelter for 20-25 homeless youth ages 18-25 years old. The shelter currently operates weekly on Tuesday nights at Mission Gathering Church in North Park and also operates on two or more Fridays a month at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Dinner and breakfast are served as well as access to showers, basic medical attention, and community referrals. Phone: 619.780.1308
The San Diego LGBT Community Center
Sunburst Youth Housing Project | http://www.thecentersd.org/programs/youth-services/youth-housing-project.html | The Center’s Youth Housing Project provides safe and supportive housing for San Diego’s homeless youth, including LBGT and HIV-positive youth. The 23-unit facility is located in downtown San Diego at 1640 Broadway, close to City College, public transportation, community health facilities and other essential resources. The facility is wheelchair accessible and contains two units that have been retrofitted to accommodate persons in wheelchairs. A major goal of YHP is to ensure that youth have easy access to needed services that will support them in maintaining stable housing | Questions about eligibility and services may be directed to Victor Esquivel at vesquivel@thecentersd.org or 619.692.2077 x207.
South Bay Community Services
430 F Street | Chula Vista, CA 92101 | Phone: 619.420.3620 | 24-hour hotline: 800.640.2933 | http://southbaycommunityservices.org | Transitional, Affordable housing and support services for youth and victims of domestic violence.
Father Joe's Villages
1501 Imperial Avenue San Diego 92101 | Phone: 619.233.8500 | Emergency shelters; long-term transitional housing for single men, single women, and families
YMCA Turning Point Transitional Living Program
4145 Swift Avenue, San Diego 92104 | Phone: 619.640.9744 | Ages 16-21 | Single men and women, pregnant youth, young parents with their children
YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter
24-hour hotline: 619.234.3164 | Single women, women with children for 30 days
I’m Orlando Barahona and this is the first account of my experiences as a homeless man in San Diego. One aim in writing this editorial is to raise a sharp awareness of a homelessness crisis I have experienced that cannot be ignored any longer: men, women and entire families are on the streets or in sub-par dwellings; the other is to dispel the myth that anyone who enters adverse situations cannot recover.
Once upon a time in a shelter far, far away… I haven’t been chronically homeless since the beginning of my life journey. As far back as 1998, I had a career as a graphic and web designer that felt like a holiday in Valhalla, using my artistic and technical skills for clients with a lovely budget. That career’s success was enjoyed thoroughly in mind and spirit. Unfortunately, two of my largest accounts ceased to exist, taking with them seventy percent of my income.
I finished a terrible relationship in Iowa back in 2014 and I called my middle sister, who lived in Vista at the time and she invited me to California to rebuild my life. Sadly, personal and psychological problems sprouted in our relationship and that threw me into destitution when I was asked to leave her home.
Cut to 2014 and envision a frightful scene at a main street in San Diego one afternoon during the beginning of the winter season, where I considered a brutal end to my suffering via oncoming death by motorcar traffic.
How humane is San Diego in the generosity of those people who save lives every day? During a crisis, the mental health care system works for intelligent shipwrecked souls, with a sophisticated range of recovery programs suggested or transferred into through a qualified social worker.
After a lengthy period of recovery in a dual diagnosis program (substance abuse and mental challenges such as Major Depressive Disorder), active volunteering and job-searching, I achieved a better state of mind and a stable living situation, which has brought me to you today.
To this day I’ve been in three recovery programs, all with a time limit. However, the next step remains out of reach. Where are the jobs to start a new life and rejoin society? Are addictions and crimes brought on by the desperate need for safety all there is left of society?
Is this still the country where the airplane and myriad inventions were successfully invented? As early as January 2016 brave citizens formed the Homeless to Housed Coalition (I am a Public Relations Volunteer) and have proposed a solution in building a village of tiny shelters, which has not reached fruition.
The platoon of so many government officials, supervisors and advocates make me wonder if I am in an industry of managed poverty. After all, there is always the minuscule suspicion in my mind that forming a new nonprofit might be influenced by a desire to collect a salary from others’ misfortune via grants and donations.
Recent despicable actions by local government officials tell a story of corruption, of commercial interests clamoring for a tourist’s escapist vision of what San Diego should look like. Is it humane to kick any homeless person when they are down by spending money on blatantly aggressive modifications to an infrastructure meant to make lives more efficient? The infamous rock “garden” under a bridge on Imperial Avenue in Downtown San Diego is an example of how aggressive the local government can be in its effort to make the city more tourist-friendly. The same money should be spent on building a colony of shelters, a designated place as a real alternative to the sad panorama that is Downtown San Diego.
It only takes one catastrophic event in anyone’s life to become homeless. Not all homeless people are criminals, addicts or mentally ill. Professionals and students, ex-homeowners and the elderly, orphans and veterans deserve to be treated as you would any brother or sister.
At the moment, I’m looking for a job; I’m volunteering at select nonprofits and thankfully, writing and submitting opinion editorials to bring awareness to a humanitarian crisis that engulfs people from every walk of life. Any abandoned lot will do to build a safe place, even for me. It’s my intention to write about some of the issues and events concerning San Diego’s homeless population in the coming months. I hope I can add some valuable insight to the conversation. The next article will be dedicated to exploring plausible solutions to the old problem of homelessness in San Diego. Stay tuned!
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Photo: “Alone” by Derek Mindler/Flickr Creative Commons
Published originally at San Diego UrbDezine
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