Military

Cold, Wet Weather Prompts Veterans' Shelter To Open Early

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 8, 2009 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Rain has prompted Veterans Village of San Diego to open the winter shelter for homeless veterans tomorrow morning, instead of on Friday as planned.

The wet weather forced volunteers at the Winter Shelter in San Diego’s East Village to scramble. They placed sandbags strategically around the big tent that houses the homeless, to prevent a river of water from running through it.

The rain has also prompted Veterans Village of San Diego to open the winter shelter for homeless veterans tomorrow morning, instead of on Friday as planned.

Sailors will put up bunk beds today in the structure tent on Sports Arena Blvd. They’re hustling to get the veterans' shelter ready early, to get the vets in out of the rain.

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Phil Landis, head of Veterans Village, says the city has kicked in its share of the costs, but VVSD has not been able to raise all the money needed to cover services at the shelter. They are about $50,000 short.

He says they’ve decided not to reduce the number of vets they’ll serve, and in fact, because of the rain. they’ll open early.

“Everyday when the weather’s like this, it makes a big difference.” Landis said. “We decided to open the shelter with the full complement of 150 beds and we’ll figure out how to pay for it later as we go along.”

Landis says 400 or 500 veterans cycle through the shelter. He says most are Vietnam vets but Veterans’ Village is seeing a growing number of vets who served in Iraq and Afghanistan seeking help.

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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.