Rescue Mission is out, Interfaith might be in at North County shelter – San Diego Union-Tribune

A North County homeless shelter is about to get a leadership shake-up.

The Oceanside Navigation Center, the municipality’s first year-round shelter, opened in 2023 after council members overruled the recommendations of city staff and narrowly voted for the facility to be run by the San Diego Rescue Mission. But with that agreement up for renewal, Oceanside staffers are again pushing for Interfaith Community Services, another prominent homelessness nonprofit, to take over the shelter.

In response, the Rescue Mission said it wants out of the existing deal early and will stop operating the center later this year.

The Oceanside City Council is scheduled to publicly discuss who should manage the shelter Wednesday.

Debate déjà vu

The back-and-forth re-ignites a debate that began several years ago.

In 2021, both the Rescue Mission and Interfaith applied to run the facility at 3131 Oceanside Blvd. Each pitched a shelter that would be low-barrier, meaning residents could get a bed even if they were struggling with addiction.

There were differences in approach. For example, the Rescue Mission wanted to renovate and use existing buildings, while Interfaith hoped to start from scratch, which might have caused more expenses for the city.

City staffers were won over by Interfaith. But when the decision came before the City Council, leaders voted 3-2 in favor of the Rescue Mission. The nonprofit has been in charge ever since and its contract was renewed last November.

Those agreements, however, last only one year. In March, Oceanside released what is known as a request for proposals, essentially an open call to see who’s interested in managing the shelter, according to city records.

The Rescue Mission raised its hand. So did Father Joe’s Villages, the Brother Benno Foundation, Equitable Social Solutions and Hope the Mission, records show. Yet in May, staffers decided the best plan came from a sixth option: Interfaith Community Services.

Leilani Hines, Oceanside’s housing and neighborhood services director, said during a phone interview Monday that Interfaith was best positioned to serve the city’s ever-evolving homeless population, which includes many older adults. She added that a change in leadership wasn’t unusual when a contract was nearing its expiration date.

“It feels like the right time,” Hines said. She did not flag any instances where the Rescue Mission had violated its agreement and said the nonprofit and city worked well together.

Yet a lack of endorsement from city staff didn’t sit well with the Rescue Mission. Last month, the nonprofit formally notified Oceanside “of its intent to terminate the current agreement,” public records show. The Rescue Mission’s tenure is now set to end Oct. 14, a few weeks ahead of when the contract would have otherwise wound down.

“We know we’re headed out, might as well pull the Band-Aid off sooner than later,” said Donnie Dee, the Rescue Mission’s president and CEO. “We just finally realized that we can’t work with these guys.”

Dee added that he’s hurt by the city’s decision and felt like some officials had always wished the original contract went the other way. A key area of disagreement was over who the shelter should serve, Dee said. He wanted some spots to be made available to people outside Oceanside, which can be a hard sell to elected leaders trying to clear local sidewalks.

While Oceanside paid millions of dollars to renovate the building, Dee said the Rescue Mission used private donors to cover the shelter’s $1.4 million annual operating costs.

More money, more beds

A deal with Interfaith could cost up to $2,055,762 a year, city staffers wrote in a report. The money would come from Oceanside’s Measure X sales tax. The agreement is to begin Oct. 1 — meaning there should be some overlap with the Rescue Mission — and initially last 21 months. There would be options for extensions.

“We’re excited about the opportunity,” said Greg Anglea, Interfaith’s CEO. The nonprofit already oversees outreach workers in the city and wants to increase the number of available beds in the shelter from 50 to 75. Interfaith plans to use its own resources to offer behavioral health services on site and will focus on single adults in Oceanside, Anglea added.

He did not anticipate any shelter residents being displaced during a transition.

One open question: The Rescue Mission had rebranded the facility as the North County Lighthouse, and city and nonprofit officials said it was too early to know if the navigation center’s new name will stick.

The leadership change comes as the Rescue Mission is otherwise broadening its footprint in San Diego County.

Last year the nonprofit opened the South County Lighthouse, National City’s first shelter, and leaders are talking with elected officials about launching another facility in East County. The Rescue Mission’s annual homelessness symposiums feature leaders from around the region, and in July the Lucky Duck Foundation pledged to donate $10,000 for every shelter bed the Rescue Mission creates over the next year. That paves the way for up to 150 new spots in multiple cities, including Vista, where council members have already signed off on a new shelter.

As it happens, Lucky Duck’s $1.5 million gift was announced the same day — July 14 — the Rescue Mission told Oceanside it was ending their agreement.