Raising the Roof for the City’s Homeless : Kroc’s $3-Million Donation Pushes Shelter Closer to Goal

Multimillionaire businesswoman and philanthropist Joan B. Kroc came to the aid of San Diego’s homeless Friday, donating $3 million to help build a center that will provide shelter, food, medical help, counseling and schooling.

Officials of St. Vincent de Paul Center, which will operate the $8.6-million center when it opens next year, said Kroc’s donation was unsolicited and was made in response to publicity about the center’s construction debt.

“I believe it is becoming more difficult to promote private funding for charitable endeavors,” said Kroc, widow of the founder of the McDonald’s restaurant empire, in a prepared statement. “When I see the problems community cultural organizations are experiencing in obtaining support, it seems to me that it might be even more difficult to raise money for the homeless. It’s a cause I care deeply about.”

The Rev. Joe Carroll, who runs the center, said Kroc, 58, has made previous donations to the center, but the gifts were kept anonymous at her request.

This time, however, Kroc agreed to make the $3-million gift public in the hope that others will contribute to the shelter’s building drive, which still must raise $1.5 million.

“This takes the pressure off. We can breathe a little easier now,” said an elated Carroll, standing in front of the center which is under construction and about half finished. The center is on 15th Street, between Imperial and Commercial streets, in the downtown warehouse district.

“What we have to do now is raise $1.5 million by next June, which is a more reasonable goal, and if we can’t, it’s still leaves us with a reasonable debt to carry over,” Carroll explained. “But I think this gives us a good shot of opening without a debt.”

Kroc called St. Vincent de Paul officials about a week ago, he said, and offered the donation.

Under the terms of the gift, $2 million will be applied toward construction of the shelter and the other $1 million will be used to expand thrift stores run by St. Vincent de Paul, which will provide income to operate the homeless center.

When the shelter is opened, it will house 350 people, have a medical clinic, public showers, a dining room capable of serving 2,000 meals a day, a counseling program and a school for children of the homeless.

For Kroc, who owns the San Diego Padres and whose net worth has been estimated by Forbes magazine as exceeding $525 million, her donation to the homeless is the latest in a series of philanthropic endeavors. Deeply involved in the crusade against nuclear weapons, Kroc has poured close to $3 million into the nuclear weapons debate, buying newspaper ads nationwide, commissioning book printings and funding disarmament groups.

In the last three years, she has also given $6 million to the University of Notre Dame’s International Institute for Peace Studies; $3.3 million to the San Diego Zoo for reconstruction of an exhibit housing birds, reptiles and mammals native to Asian rain forests; $1 million for Ethiopian famine relief, and $1 million for St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

In addition, she established a $1.5-million fund for victims, survivors and others affected by the July 18, 1984, massacre of 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro.