Quality of Life

Project Director Dies Days Before New Homeless Families' Shelter Opens

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published January 3, 2013 at 12:50 PM PST

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

Russell Blackwood talks about plans for the new shelter for homeless families in Vista

The director of a new shelter for homeless women and children in North County died unexpectedly on New Year’s Day, two weeks before the project is due to open.

Russell Blackwood, project director for Operation Hope, managed North County’s winter shelter for homeless families in a rented warehouse for the last eight years. This year, finally, enough money was raised to move the winter shelter into a new, more permanent location. Blackwood was working to open the facility by Jan. 15.

Beth Hallock of Operation Hope said Blackwood was admitted to Palomar Medical Center suffering from flu-like symptoms on Monday night and he died early on New Year’s Day. His energy, enthusiasm and passion for working with homeless families was evident to all who met him. Hallock said her goal is to keep his mission going.

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“We’re going to miss him greatly,” she said. “We are going to carry on. He dedicated everything he had to Operation Hope, and we are going to honor that and move forward.“

The shelter will have 46 beds. Hallock said six families are ready to move in: they are currently using motel vouchers until the building is ready to occupy. Construction should be finished before Jan. 15, she said. The family shelter is a key part of North County's winter homeless shelter network.

Blackwood would have been 49 today.

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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.