SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The proposed 1,000-person permanent San Diego homeless “Mega Shelter” Hope at Vine has lost all hope.
“It became pretty clear last year that the Hope at Vine shelter proposal was not going to advance. The mayor has now made that official,” said Stephen Whitburn, a San Diego city councilmember.
Mayor Todd Gloria released this statement which reads in part, “While I continue to believe the proposed shelter at Kettner and Vine was the best and most cost-effective option for a permanent shelter program, I remain firm in my commitment to expand shelter.”
Now San Diego will be pivoting from the Hope at Vine to three other potential homeless campuses — two buildings the city already owns.
“One of them is the old central library site, I think that would be a very good site,” Whitburn said.
The other building sits next to fire station 1 downtown.
“The current city operations building, where the development services department is,” Whitburn said.
The last site has been proposed on 2nd Avenue and is privately owned. The city says the address won’t be revealed until Monday’s city council meeting, but Whitburn says he believes the Central library has real possibilities for a future solution.
“There’s a lot we can do on that site including building 40 stories if we want to. So let’s take a look at what the possibilities there are,” Whitburn said.
