Two homeless shelters are opening in San Diego Friday due to the inclement weather, San Diego Housing Commission Spokeswoman Maria Velasquez says.
This comes a week after the shelters didn't open during the storms on Christmas weekend. The City is blaming the shelters not opening on a miscommunication between City workers and the Housing Commission.
The City kept the shelters closed last weekend despite announcing they would be open.
The first shelter will open at Father Joe’s Village at 4 p.m. Friday and will accommodate 250 people.
San Diego Housing Commission plans to open 2 shelters tonight, following @clairetrageser & @susanmurphysd reporting: https://t.co/COEFMoblU7
— WendyFry (@WendyFry_) December 30, 2016
The second shelter will open at 5 p.m. at PATH San Diego on 6th Avenue for single adults. PATH can accept 30 people.
"We've put measures in place to make sure the miscommunication doesn't happen again," city spokeswoman Katie Keach tells NBC 7.
Shelter nights are provided during severe weather conditions when the temperature is 50 degrees or below or when there's a 40 percent or more chance of rain, according to the Housing Commission. During last weekend's storm it rained and hailed heavily.
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The Inclement Weather Shelter Program in downtown is a partnership between the San Diego Housing Commission, City of San Diego, Father Joe's Villages, PATH San Diego/Connections Housing Downtown and 2-1-1 San Diego.
One homeless man doesn’t believe what the Housing Commission is saying.
“I don’t think this city cares much about the homeless,” Steve Durham, who lives under the B Street Bridge, tells NBC 7. “I think that’s just an excuse.”
The Housing Commission receives hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars each year to shelter the homeless.
San Diego has the fourth largest homeless population in the nation.
