1 year ago
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SAN DIEGO - A pilot program funded by the City of San Diego is helping homeless seniors in San Diego County. A property downtown is now housing dozens of people who were forced onto the street. Some of them were already retired and now are looking for help.
One of those seniors is Annette Thomas. She choked back tears Tuesday clutching her new roommate, her dog Midnight, extra tight.
“I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I am homeless. I didn't think I'd ever be homeless. I used to help the homeless, me and my husband," Thomas said.
After the death of her husband who served as a pilot in the Airforce, she's lived off a fixed income and bounced from street to shelter for the past eight years.
“When I lost him, I lost everything….I couldn’t afford nothing," Thomas shared as tears welled in her eyes.
Thomas is just one of 41 residents brought to the property by a city case manager who now reside in not your typical city funded shelter lined with rows of bed next to bed. It's rather a safer and private environment with a fridge, bathroom and cable television just along Pacific Highway near Little Italy known as the Seniors Landing Bridge Shelter.
“It’s great… to sleep on a sidewalk to sleep in a nice warm bed with air conditioning and heat," Thomas said.
The shelter acts as a bridge from temporary to more permanent housing; something funded by the city and ran by a local organization called Read Entire Article
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