Enver Karafili comes to the Neil Good Day Center every day. Homeless for six months, the 68-year-old uses the facility to wash off his feet, shave his head and receive mail.
It’s a place where he doesn’t need to worry about police telling him to move, which he says happens nightly.
Karafili is looking for work as a security guard. He says he’s able to apply for jobs because of the day center. He can put its address on applications, and he can leave his bike and belongings in its storage room when he goes to an interview.
“If you close this, the street is going to get worse,” he said, referring to the area near 17th and K streets that the day center has occupied in East Village since 1991. “If you close this place, where are we gonna go?”
In a budget proposal released last week, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria proposed cutting the city’s share of the day center’s operating cost, estimated to be roughly $950,000 for the fiscal year starting July 1. The proposal describes the cut as being “associated with closing the Neil Good Day Center.”
The proposal also recommends an additional $3.7 million in cuts to homeless services, but doesn’t specify where to make those cuts.
The mayor’s budget is only a proposal; the City Council will review it and can make changes before adopting a final plan.
In all, the city faces a roughly $146 million deficit to its $2.2 billion operating budget. City departments across the board are being forced to make difficult decisions.
Gloria said he tried to minimize cuts to homeless services. In a recent memo to City Council members, he warned that deep cuts could undermine recent progress, pointing to declines in homelessness as evidence that current investments in shelter, outreach and housing are working.
On Friday morning, Joseph Thomas checked in with Angie Rosales at the Neil Good Day Center about whether he had received any mail and if his new identification card had arrived. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“Getting homeless residents off the street and into care is one of San Diegans’ top concerns, and it’s one of Mayor Gloria’s top priorities,” spokesperson Dave Rolland said.
Rolland said the mayor’s focus is on prioritizing cost-effective programs, particularly those that provide shelter and help people transition into permanent housing.
“The fact is, the drafting of this budget involved extremely difficult decisions, such as funding services like those provided at this site or staffing a fire station,” he said.
The city is also facing uncertainty over state and federal funding for homelessness programs, putting additional pressure on local budget decisions.
Cutting the day center’s funding would have an outsized impact, said Jim Vargas, the president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages, which has run the day center for just over a decade.
“We recognize the city’s continued commitment to addressing San Diego’s homelessness crisis in this year’s proposed budget,” he said in a statement issued shortly after the mayor released his proposed budget. “However, the elimination of funding for the day center raises serious concerns, particularly given its minimal cost relative to its impact.”
Named after civil rights advocate Neil Good, the day center serves nearly 7,000 people each year, Vargas said. For many of them, it’s the first point of contact with services, including case management and substance use treatment.
More than 300 people show up to the center daily, said Paul DeLessio, director of coordinated services at Father Joe’s Villages. Last year, outreach workers provided more than 3,000 shelter referrals.
On Friday morning, Lauro Mendoza, 66, was among the roughly 300 people who stop and rest at the Neil Good Day Center in East Village. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Father Joe’s also provides medical care at the day center, ranging from wound treatment to medication refills to vaccinations.
“It’s not just a place where they stop by,” Vargas said. “It’s a place where they start on their road to recovery.”
The center is also a safe haven, DeLessio said. Many people visit to sit on a bench or lie on a grassy knoll to catch up on sleep during the day because they don’t feel safe sleeping on the streets at night.
“Everybody deserves to sit outside in safety,” DeLessio said. “Now all that’s going to go away.”
Vargas said the day center outreach workers also prevent vulnerable but still housed people from falling into homelessness. Over a recent 12-month period, 942 people were diverted from shelter beds through homelessness prevention and family reunification efforts.
“Either they needed help with rent, or they needed help with utility bills,” Vargas said. “Or we could help them reunify with family, either locally or outside of the city and the county. Nine hundred forty-two — that’s a big deal, because it’s very costly when an individual falls onto the streets.”
Vargas said he was not told about the proposed cut before the mayor’s budget was released and was confused by the reference to closing the Neil Good Day Center.
He said Father Joe’s Villages is willing to continue to operate the site, even without city funding. The nonprofit could potentially sustain about $500,000 in services on its own, but that would require scaling back operations significantly, he said.
“We think it important enough and critical enough that we’re willing to do that,” Vargas said.
Lauro Mendoza, who has been homeless for the past four years, takes advantage of having his mail delivered to the center. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The uncertainty over the day center’s future is not new. In 2011, it came within weeks of shutting down before the San Diego Housing Commission stepped in with a last-minute $500,000 commitment to keep it open. In 2023, it had to scale back on services and hours.
The center has also faced opposition from some community members and business groups who have argued that services should move elsewhere.
“Every single year that pressure has been there,” Vargas said.
He said closing the center would not reduce homelessness in the area but instead would push people back onto surrounding streets.
“What’s not appreciated is that if not for the work of the day center, those people would be on the street — because where else are they going to go?” he said.