A homeless man who, until a month ago, had been living for years in a large encampment near the San Diego River moves into a brand new apartment in Ocean Beach, reports NBC 7’s Dana Williams
A completely renovated apartment building called the Shores at North Beach, just steps from the sand at Ocean Beach, opened in mid-November, featuring 13 newly refurbished units for people experiencing homelessness.
The $6,830,005 project is being funded in part through the California's Homekey organization, a "statewide effort to sustain and rapidly expand housing for persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness."
Each unit has gotten a coat of paint and new electrical, and features an efficiency kitchen and new bathroom fixtures. They also each come with a couch, table, lamp, a few kitchen items, laundry items, bath towels and toiletries, as well as a bed with bedding and two nightstands. As for outside, the courtyard has landscaping and more new paint, and there is new concrete and striping out by the parking, along with a brand new security gate facing the street.
On Monday, the building welcomed new tenants, and their furry companions, with fresh coffee, warm food and a box of groceries at each front door. Among the group moving into the 13 units was Arthur Bowen, who preferred to be called Art, and his two pitbull-husky mixes, Milo and Charlie.
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“I love San Diego," Bowen said. "It’s beautiful, you know?”
Bowen told NBC 7 that he was born and raised in Washington state but, like many others, found himself unhoused after battling with grief.
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“I lost my partner and it was cold, and I was living in Olympia, Washington, at the time,” Bowen recalled. “She passed and I was out in the tent, and in the middle of October my tent frosted love,r and I said, ‘enough is enough.' ”
So, Bowen packed his bags and headed to sunny San Diego, where he has been for 10 years. The majority of that time was spent in the riverbed of the San Diego River, living on what has been referred to as "the island." He told NBC 7 he took pride in where he lived and considered it his home until the city of San Diego began to clear it out in early November.
“I cared a lot about the island, you know?" Bowen said. “I’m an island boy.”
Bowen and some of the others who were displaced from the riverbed were placed in temporary housing at a hotel with the help of People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) San Diego. Then came Bowen's move to the Shores at North Beach.
Kendall Burdett, an outreach specialist for PATH San Diego who has been working with Bowen, said it has been emotional to see him finally be placed in a new, safe home.
“It works” Burdett told NBC 7. “This person now has hope. People stop, they think they don’t have reason to hope anymore and that sounds corny, but it’s not.”
Burdett shared that other tenants have been placed in the building with the help of other organizations. All of them have been waiting on lists for some time and it is like “winning the lottery” to get into housing like this, but it will be an adjustment.
“I guess I’ll be calling this home sweet home," Bowen said. “I’m going to have to keep the window open [when I sleep] so you hear planes going over to make me feel like I got the freeway over my head protecting me.”
The tenants at the building will also receive access to supportive resources while they are there.
