North County Coalition Looks to Build Regional Shelter Program

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 25, 2007 at 11:47 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego's North County is setting a precedent for collaboration on its plans to provide winter shelters for the homeless this year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego's North County is setting a precedent for collaboration on its plans to provide winter shelters for the homeless this year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Finding shelters for the homeless during cold weather has become a hot political potato. Last year the city of Escondido balked at operating the region's main shelter for yet another season.

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But now nine north county cities and almost 30 non-profit agencies are on the verge of reaching agreement on a coordinated regional shelter program.

Mel Takahara of the Salvation Army says every city in the alliance sent staff to figure out an agreement on who will pay for what.

Takahara : The money was not really the focus, the focus was the belief that we knew we could find common ground.

Takahara says the goal is to build a more stable system of several winter shelters, each with support services across North County, and to avoid the last minute emergency that tends to happen every winter.

Cal State San Marcos will evaluate the experiment to see if it can be improved in future years.

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Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.