Previous Central Library Anticipated to Quickly Grow to be a Shelter

This put up initially appeared within the Jan. 4 Morning Report. Enroll right here.

The town expects to welcome homeless San Diegans to sleep in its outdated Central Library later this month.

Mayor Todd Gloria’s workplace mentioned town is getting ready the long-vacant downtown library to accommodate 26 beds this winter and to get last approval from the hearth marshal to shelter unhoused residents there.

The town has additionally secured a contract with the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness San Diego to function the shelter, Gloria spokeswoman Rachel Laing wrote in an electronic mail.

For now, Laing mentioned, town hopes to open the shelter by mid-January.

Metropolis strikes to proceed with the non permanent shelter plan for a portion of the outdated library comply with a Superior Court docket decide’s December ruling clearing a century-old deed restriction that snarled previous redevelopment plans. (ICYMI, we broke this information and supplied extra historical past late final month.)

The previous downtown library has sat empty since 2013 when town opened a brand new Central Library close by. Gloria’s workplace has mentioned the Superior Court docket resolution now frees up town to contemplate the “finest use for the constructing and land within the long-term.”