Catholic Shelter Faces Eviction, Seeks New Site

The St. Vincent de Paul Shelter, one of the largest shelters for the homeless in San Diego County, is about to become homeless itself.

The shelter, located since 1983 in the downtown former Travolator Motel at 7th Avenue and Ash Street, provides as much as two weeks of free housing for 200 needy people, including families and single men and women.

But the former motel, which was owned by El Cortez Associates, was sold two months ago to San Diego-based H & H Properties, said Jack Howard, vice president of the company. The sale price was not disclosed.

The company plans to upgrade the structure and operate it again as a motel, Howard said.

The shelter has until April 1 to move. But unless new quarters are found within three weeks, the shelter will have to be temporarily closed until a new home can be readied, said Father Joe Carroll, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Center, which operates the shelter. The center is run under the auspices of the San Diego Catholic diocese.

A temporary closing would also shut a school now run at the Travolator for children of shelter occupants.

Sister Christine Giordano, shelter program coordinator, said there are usually 60 to 80 children at the shelter, as many as half of them of school age.

Because there are so many children, the San Diego Unified School District operates a kindergarten-through-ninth-grade school, Carroll said.

“It’s a one-room schoolhouse,” he said.

The shelter, a nonprofit agency supported mainly by private donations, has the capacity to house 200 people overnight, though lately even more people have been squeezed in, Giordano said.

It is the third largest shelter in the county, behind the Salvation Army shelter with a capacity of 245 and the San Diego Rescue Mission with 250 beds. Unlike the St. Vincent de Paul and Salvation Army shelters, the Rescue Mission provides lodging only for men.

Any replacement quarters for the shelter will be temporary, as a new home is being constructed at 16th Street and Imperial Avenue and is expected to be open in June, 1987. It will house 350 people and have a larger school, according to Mary Case, director of programs for the shelter.

“We were hoping we could stay at the motel until the new building was ready,” Case said.

“We’re looking at four or five places” downtown, Carroll said, “but we’re still in the talking stages.”

Residents are referred to the shelter by any of 67 social service agencies, including the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Jewish Family Services, Helpline, Battered Women Hotline, Catholic Community Services, Lutheran Social Services and the Chicano Federation, Giordano said.

“We handle the food and shelter in a clean, safe, professional environment,” Giordano said.

The shelter is staffed by 15 paid and 45 to 50 volunteer workers. There also is a small medical clinic staffed by volunteer doctors.