Land Lease Is OKd for Homeless Center

A $732,000 day center for homeless men cleared its last hurdle Monday when the San Diego City Council approved a lease of 25,000 square feet from the California Department of Transportation and authorized Episcopal Community Services to run the home.

The council also agreed to name the center, at 17th Street between K and L streets, for political activist and homeless advocate Neil Good, who died last year.

It will provide showers, haircuts, mail and message pickup, storage lockers, laundry, public telephones, referrals to homeless shelters and counseling from early morning until early evening. About 100 people will be accommodated within the 4,300-square-foot building, and another 100 will be able to lounge on its fenced-in lawn.

Opening of the center, now scheduled for around Thanksgiving, had been delayed by lease negotiations with Caltrans. Under the terms of the lease, the city will pay the state agency $1 per month for the land and a $500 “lease administration fee.”

Financed with money from the city, the county, the San Diego Unified Port District, the Centre City Development Corp. and private contributions, the complex is envisioned as a way of getting homeless people--primarily men--off downtown streets during the day.