Rescue Mission Launches Drive to Build 2 Shelters

The San Diego Rescue Mission kicked off a $5.75-million fund-raising campaign Monday to build two homeless shelters, primarily to serve the growing number of women and children living on the city’s streets.

A center for women and children will be built near the existing rescue mission at 1150 J St., and a transitional facility for men, women and families will be opened in a separate neighborhood, said David Shepersky, president of the mission’s board of directors.

The mission has been soliciting donations informally for the project since March 15 and had raised a little more than $1 million as of Monday afternoon, said Al Busse, the campaign’s director.

The fund drive, which is scheduled to run through Dec. 31, includes $3 million for a Family Center for Women and Children, $2 million for a Transitional Living Center and $750,000 for the facilities’ operating costs.

Groundbreaking for the family center is tentatively set for August, with construction expected to take a year. No construction dates have been set for the transitional center.

Shepersky said an estimated 30% of San Diego’s 7,000 homeless people are women and children, many of them victims of divorce, poverty and physical abuse. Citywide, about 200 beds are available to homeless women and children.

“They have nowhere to go, so they live on the streets,” Shepersky said. “Something has to be done.”

The 30,000-square-foot family center will have 60 to 70 beds in semi-private rooms, indoor and outdoor recreation facilities, classrooms, a chapel, an infant-care area and other services.

The shelter will provide many of the services now offered at the 250-bed rescue mission, including medical care, transportation, clothing, spiritual guidance, parenting classes and referral aid to social agencies.

The women and children will also be able to participate in the mission’s current rehabilitation program, which provides education, job training and other services to 140 men.

The transitional center, at 25,000 square feet, will serve 50 to 60 homeless people who have been through the rehabilitation program and are ready to be “mainstreamed back into society,” Busse said.

Mission officials declined to say where the center might be built, but said they expect no significant neighborhood opposition to opening a homeless center in a residential area.

“Remember, these will be men, women and children who will be ready to be mainstreamed, not the homeless men who come in only for a meal and a bed,” Busse said. “We’ll work with any neighbors who have concerns.”

The locations of the two shelter sites will be announced after negotiations with property owners are completed in a few days, Busse said.

The public has responded generously to initial solicitations for the projects, mission officials said, and they foresee no problems in reaching the $5.75 million goal by year’s end, or in raising donations for future operating expenses, Busse said.

“The homeless men have always been there, but the women and children are more visible, and I think the public sees them and wants to help,” he said.

Major contributions to the campaign to date include $250,000 from the Weingart Foundation and $200,000 from the David Claude Ryan Foundation.

This is the first major capital campaign for the rescue mission, which, since opening in 1955, has relied on donations for operating costs, Shepersky said.

The mission serves about 900 meals daily and provides shelter to about 8,000 men a month.