Temporary shelter for migrants opens in San Diego
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, along with other elected officials, arranged a temporary facility for the accommodation of unaccompanied migrants on Saturday. (March 27)
AP
The claim: A homeless facility in San Diego is closed to migrants seeking refuge
A viral image of an alleged homeless shelter in San Diego is shared on social media along with the claim that it was recently closed to attracting migrants.
“Homeless shelter in San Deigo (sic) is being closed and opened to U.S. citizens to put iLLEGALS in,” reads a screenshot of another Facebook post on March 29.
The accompaniment of the text is a supposed image of the homeless shelter. “Scandalous”, the user captioned the message, which has more than 1,000 shares.
In a similar version of the claim, a user shared a text message that read: “San Diego kicked out only 1,400 homeless people to shelter illegals … Any more questions ??” Another user claimed in a 1,500-share post that the alleged eviction of homeless people took place at the San Diego Convention Center.
USA TODAY targeted Facebook users for comment.
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Conference Center temporarily served as homeless shelter due to COVID-19
While it is true that the San Diego Convention Center is closing its homeless facility, individuals are being transferred to various facilities and the operation was a temporary program to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
According to the city of San Diego, Operation Shelter to Home was launched on April 1 to provide more social distance and prevent the spread of the virus at San Diego’s shelters. Centralizing staff in one place ensures that staff ‘even with a limited number’ can be efficient. ‘
Those who took refuge at the conference center are now being relocated because efforts to stop the spread of the virus within the vulnerable population are coming to an end, NBC San Diego reported on March 23. The program would end in December 2020. however, the San Diego City Council voted to extend it until March.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has announced that the 500 homeless who have been in the shelter for about a year will move to two shelters run by the Alpha project, and another shelter in Golden Hall, run by Father Joe’s Villages are operated, relocated, according to the article.
In a summary of the transition, the city of San Diego wrote: ‘no one hiding at the conference center will be forced to return to homelessness in the street’ and ‘staff will work with guests to determine the best option to keep them served at one of the other shelters. ‘
The photo that appears in the claim shows a homeless homeless man in San Diego, but it was captured in February 2018, not recently, by photographer Dania Maxwell for NBC News. A similar version of the photo also appears in a 2018 KPBS article entitled ‘Moving San Diego Homeless From Tents To Permanent Housing Slow But Steady’.
USA TODAY previously reported that homeless populations are susceptible to the virus due to existing health conditions and pressure shelters.
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HHS request center used to house minor minors at the border
With the end of the homeless shelter program at the convention center, the building is now being operated by the federal government, which works with San Diego County and city officials to house children seeking asylum until July, NBC San Diego reported. .
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was looking for short-term housing for children arriving at the border without parents, and Mayor Gloria and San Diego County Board of Supervisors chairman Nathan Fletcher, according to the Los Angeles Times agreed.
The site will be in use for about three months. Each child is expected to have an average stay of 30 to 35 days, and the children will receive food, medical care, sleeping accommodation and showers. Children are not allowed to leave the center until they are reunited with their family or guardians.
Carol Fiertz, spokeswoman for health and human services, told NBC San Diego that the conference center has unaccompanied migrant children as of April 4, 1,177 and that the capacity of the shelter is 1,450, which is expected to be reached by that date.
The San Diego Convention Center tweeted on March 25 that it “has detailed plans to ensure our building is ready before the congresses begin.”
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Our rating: false
The allegation that a homeless shelter in San Diego was closed to attract asylum seekers is FALSE, based on our research. The homeless shelter program at the San Diego Convention Center was a temporary program to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The operation came to an end in March and all homeless people are being relocated. With the termination of the operation, the federal government has requested that the center be used as a temporary shelter for migrants seeking asylum until July. The image used in the reports was taken in 2018 and is not recent.
Our sources for fact checking:
- NBC News, February 4, 2018, “The fight against homelessness and hepatitis A, San Diego uses tent structures to help”
- KPBS, March 1, 2018, “San Diego homeless moving from tents to permanent housing slowly but steadily”
- NBC San Diego, March 23, “Homeless Individuals Needed to Move from San Diego Convention Center to Other Shelters”
- SanDiego.gov, Operation Home Shelter
- Los Angeles Times, March 22, “San Diego Convention Center for the Protection of Asylum-Seeking Children”
- NBC San Diego, April 4, “Migrant Shelter Nearing Capacity at San Diego Convention Center”
- San Diego Convention Center, March 25, tweet
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