North and East County could get 150 new shelter beds as other services shrink

The San Diego Rescue Mission now has money to create up to 150 new shelter beds in North and East counties as the number of homeless people asking for aid continues to exceed what resources are available.

The Lucky Duck Foundation pledged to give the nonprofit $10,000 for every “incremental and permanent shelter bed” launched between now and the end of next June. The gift maxes out at $1.5 million.

Vista will likely be affected first since council members have already approved opening a new shelter in the city. “We welcome this unique partnership to help end homelessness in Vista with open arms,” Mayor John Franklin said in a statement.

The pledge, which was announced mid-July, comes amid a mix of good, bad and confusing news when it comes to homelessness.

One annual tally found that San Diego County’s homeless population dropped this year for the first time since before the pandemic. A separate method for quantifying the crisis further reported that, in June, more homeless residents got housing (1,240) than the number of people (1,037) who lost a place to stay for the first time. Most months have gone in the opposite direction.

Yet deficits at the city, county and state, in addition to rapid changes in federal policy, have upended what funding service providers can rely on. One hundred and fifty beds at the Rosecrans homeless shelter in the city of San Diego closed July 25 after local leaders couldn’t agree on who should pay for what. Other facilities then stopped taking in new people to accommodate the displaced, worsening a longstanding bottleneck. In May, fewer than 6% of all requests for shelter succeeded in the city of San Diego, according to the housing commission.

Furthermore, the federal government continues to shrink, cut or add vague requirements to a range of programs, putting more pressure on philanthropy to fill funding gaps. Although it’s unlikely that private donors could fully replace the tens of millions of federal dollars the region relies on, some groups are looking to increase their giving.

The need can be especially pronounced outside the city of San Diego, where shelter beds are often scarce, and the Rescue Mission is talking with elected leaders about opening another facility in East County.

“While additional housing is needed, the timeline and economics simply do not match the urgency of the crisis,” Lucky Duck CEO Drew Moser said in a statement. “We believe the Rescue Mission is best-in-class at creating and managing shelters for San Diego’s most vulnerable neighbors.”

The head of the San Diego Rescue Mission, Donnie Dee, added that they would continue to invest in trauma, addiction and mental health services.

Lucky Duck previously helped open the Rescue Mission’s last two facilities: the South County Lighthouse in National City and the North County Lighthouse, which was originally named the Oceanside Navigation Center. Since 2023, the Oceanside facility has taken in more than 550 people, and more than 300 made it into “longer-term care or housing,” officials said in a news release. The South County Lighthouse, which opened last year, has sheltered 200-plus people.

The Rescue Mission also plans to expand the “Cash for Trash” program that pays $2 for every bag of debris collected from encampments. More than 200 tons of trash have already been taken out of downtown San Diego, officials said.