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Mar 27, 2025

San Diego Is on the Hook for Monthly $77,000 Payments of Shuttered Senior Shelter | Voice of San Diego

Sign up for The Morning Report with all your must-read news for the day. More than two years ago, Mayor Todd Gloria and other local leaders stood outside a downtown motel and cheered the opening of

Sign up for The Morning Report with all your must-read news for the day.

More than two years ago, Mayor Todd Gloria and other local leaders stood outside a downtown motel and cheered the opening of the city’s first-ever dedicated shelter for homeless seniors.

Two years later, that shelter is closed.

The city and provider Serving Seniors quietly ramped down the shelter recently after the city decided needed building repairs made the program too costly to sustain. Now the 34-room motel is vacant, and the city will spend about $77,000 a month on rent until its lease ends on June 30.

Both the city and Serving Seniors CEO Paul Downey, who has long rallied for senior-focused homeless services as the number of unsheltered seniors has spiked, say they are disappointed to end what both described as a successful partnership.

The Seniors Landing program, which unlike other city-funded shelters focused on temporarily housing only homeless residents who had a housing voucher or subsidy when they moved in, served as a bridge to permanent housing for most who stayed there the past two years.

Serving Seniors reports that at least 82 percent of the 217 homeless seniors who exited the Little Italy hotel moved into permanent homes and 14 of the 16 who had been in the program when it ramped down moved into housing or temporarily into other shelters. Downey said two seniors recently opted to return to the street despite the offer of other options.

Those largely successful outcomes – which outperform other shelters in the region – came despite a series of building issues. Among them: circuits that blew if more than one senior tried to use a microwave at the same time and leaking pipes under the building’s foundation that took multiple units offline for weeks at a time on multiple instances.

On Jan. 31, after another leak forced Serving Seniors to close off multiple motel rooms, leaders of the nonprofit and the city’s homelessness department met. Downey expected they’d be discussing Serving Seniors’ proposed remediation plans. Instead, Downey said, city officials said they were shutting down the program and wouldn’t renew the motel lease when it ended in June. In late February, the city formally notified Serving Seniors that it would end its city shelter contract in 30 days.

In a statement, city spokesperson Matt Hoffman said the city and Serving Seniors mutually decided to end the program early out of concern for “the wellbeing of program participants and additional costs.”

“The city and our providers understand the disruptive impact continual repairs and mitigation efforts can have on individuals as they work to end their homelessness,” Hoffman wrote.

Asked if the city should have more deeply vetted the motel to avoid this outcome, Hoffman said the city followed “standard protocols” to evaluate the property before opening the shelter in 2022 and noted the city only pursued a year-to-year lease for the property.

“While this process helps assess conditions and identify necessary improvements, as with any property, unforeseen issues can still arise despite thorough review,” Hoffman wrote. “Over time, Serving Seniors and the city incurred unforeseen maintenance issues and continuous costs for repairs.”

Hotel Investment Group CEO Darshan Patel, whose company portfolio includes the Little Italy motel and who signed the 2022 city lease, did not immediately return messages from Voice of San Diego this week.

Now that Serving Seniors is moving out, Hoffman said the city will reassign security workers to keep the vacant property safe without additional costs.

The city says it has reallocated funds it expected to spend on the Seniors Landing lease and its contract with Serving Seniors to support a new Catholic Charities shelter for women and children downtown, including single women over 55.

The Housing Commission has also said it expects to dedicate at least 30 beds in the apartments at its new shelter at Veterans Village of San Diego for seniors.

Downey said Serving Seniors didn’t fight the city’s decision to close its shelter but said he wishes there were more dedicated options for homeless seniors, including at Seniors Landing. He noted that the Serving Seniors shelter accommodated older San Diegans who often needed mobility assistance and other supportive services that aren’t provided at other shelters. Those needs can make the most vulnerable homeless seniors ill suited – and even ineligible – to move into other shelters. Seniors Landing was the region’s only shelter solely focused on seniors.

“It’s hard to quibble with the decision [to close Seniors Landing] from the standpoint of the ongoing maintenance cost but it was a successful program, and in my view, needs to be continued somewhere,” Downey said.

Julie Porter, 67, who spent years on the street and living in an RV before moving into housing in 2017, agrees.

Porter, now a vocal advocate for homeless seniors, said non-congregate shelters focused solely on people over 55 provide the environment, services and support that seniors need.

“I believe it’s absolutely necessary,” Porter said. “We deserve it.”

Downey said Serving Seniors is already on the hunt for motel properties where it could apply the bridge housing model that helped transition homeless seniors directly from the street.

Hoffman said the city also “continues to explore all opportunities” to open new shelters and “looks forward to potential opportunities” to work with Serving Seniors again in the future.

For now, Downey can’t help but reflect on the now-vacant motel rooms and what could have been.

“We have a model that works,” Downey said. “The people I’m concerned about are the seniors that ideally would be sleeping there tonight that are not.”

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Lisa is a senior investigative reporter who digs into some of San Diego's biggest challenges including homelessness, city real estate debacles, the region's... More by Lisa Halverstadt