The City of Carlsbad has secured a $2 million grant from the County of San Diego to expand Carlsbad’s only homeless shelter to be able to serve women and those with children for the first time in the shelter’s 30-year history.
The La Posada de Guadalupe emergency shelter is operated by the nonprofit Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego through a long-running partnership with the City of Carlsbad.
The partnership began 30 years ago with the help of Carlsbad residents and community groups that wanted to provide a place where migrant farmworkers could find safe shelter. The city helped identify a location for the shelter and contributed money to help develop and operate it.
The City Council approved a separate grant in May 2022 to allow the shelter to hire two more staff with clinical expertise. This will allow the shelter to expand some of its services even before the new space is complete.
La Posada provides medical screenings, drug and alcohol counseling, language instruction, money management classes and other tools to help shelter residents find jobs and permanent housing.
The original shelter opened in 1992 in a cluster of temporary structures near the city’s police and fire headquarters, east of El Camino Real, north of Faraday Avenue. The city provided an initial $200,000 to help Catholic Charities purchase the land and has continued to support it in various ways. One of the ways has been by obtaining state, federal and county grants, including supporting Catholic Charities’ applications for a federally funded community grant program administered by the city.
The shelter last grew in 2013, when the city used $2 million in agricultural mitigation fees – money developers pay when they build projects on what was previously agricultural land – to help fund a $2.4 million shelter expansion. La Posada now has 50 beds for emergency shelter for homeless men and provides another 50 beds of transitional shelter prioritized for farmworkers.
The new $2 million county grant will help expand the shelter by renovating and adding a second floor that will accommodate 30-50 beds to serve women and families. Construction is expected to start in 2023.
Expanding the shelter is part of a comprehensive plan to reduce homelessness that was approved by the City Council in May 2021 and includes a mix of new programs and tools to help get people off the street.
“La Posada would not be here without the City of Carlsbad and its invaluable support and continued partnership,” said Catholic Charities Chief Executive Officer Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor. “This shelter will make an immediate difference to individuals and families experiencing homelessness not just by offering a place to sleep but offering the resources needed to build stability and improve their quality of life.”
A total of $5.3 million dollars in grant funding was awarded by the county to four cities, with the City of Carlsbad being the top recipient and receiving the full $2 million requested in its application. In all the county has granted $10 million this year as part of a regional effort to reduce homelessness.
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