SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – After months of planning, the City of San Diego welcomed the first residents Friday into a large, temporary tent designed to transition them into permanent housing.
The tent, located on Newton St. in Barrio Logan, is the first of three such structures to be built as part of a $6.5 million plan to shelter homeless people.
The one in Barrio Logan has beds for about 300 people.
The plan was announced back in September amid a deadly hepatitis-A outbreak and mounting political pressure to solve the homeless crisis.
The tents will provide beds for around 700 people at a time. Each location will include showers, substance abuse counseling, health care and 24-hour security according to the mayor’s office.
The city says they hope to maintain an average of 95% occupancy each month. Their goal is to get 65 percent of people who leave the facility into “more permanent housing.”
They will be open indefinitely as the city works on a plan to build more affordable units.
