Drive down the streets of San Diego County these days, and you’ll most likely see something you wouldn’t have seen just a few years ago. People living on the sidewalks… pushing shopping carts filled with all their belongings… living in tents set up along the street.
This isn’t just Downtown. This is across San Diego County: Oceanside. National City. East County.
Homelessness is increasing… and San Diego residents are feeling the accompanying despair about how little progress the County is making in addressing it. Many residents wonder if homelessness is too complex and widespread to address in a meaningful way.
Those feelings are exactly why the San Diego Rescue Mission recently launched its Every Heart Campaign – a bold, new approach to changing the state of homelessness across the County. This two-fold approach focuses on the immediate – getting people off the streets – and the long term – providing rehabilitation to end their homelessness permanently.
As an immediate response, the Rescue Mission is currently raising the support to expand its network of Navigation Centers to care for more people in crisis in San Diego County.
The Navigation Center model is a proven method that offers people experiencing homelessness 30 days of shelter, meals and access to community resources while they regain their health and work to get back on their feet. Currently, the Rescue Mission has one Navigation Center that offers 60 beds for women and children.
One of the most pressing problems in addressing homelessness in San Diego County is the lack of shelter beds available for people ready to leave the streets. With nowhere to stay, many simply accept living on the streets as the only option. As part of this campaign, San Diego Rescue Mission hopes to expand with 3 new Navigation Centers in Oceanside, National City and – in the near future – East County. That would mean 260 additional beds and more than 3,700 men, women and families served each year.
As a long-term response, the Rescue Mission’s use of a person-centered, trauma-informed approach to rehabilitation is the key difference in fighting homelessness. Mission Academy is a year-long, residential recovery program that addresses the roots of people’s homelessness through therapy and wellness, education, housing assistance and stable employment.
The proven track record of Mission Academy is leading more men, women and families to the program – and right now, the program space is in desperate need of refurbishment. As part of this campaign, the Rescue Mission plans to renovate and refurnish 79 sleeping rooms and 10 community spaces to create a first-class program environment for healing.
At the heart of this campaign are San Diegans like Frank, who spent years living on the streets of Little Italy as an escape from the abuse and fear he experienced as a child. He finally turned to the Rescue Mission and found not only a safe place to sleep, but meals, counseling and help getting a new ID and finding permanent housing – services that helped him return to the community as a healthy, contributing citizen.
That, in short, is San Diego Rescue Mission’s vision: changing the state of homelessness across the County through expanded Navigation Centers and their Mission Academy program… and along the way, building a coalition of concerned community members who will join together to make San Diego a beautiful, healthy and safe home for everyone.
