About 1,000 people who are homeless in San Diego are seniors over the age of 55. That’s according to the 2020 Point in Time Count from the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. But, now, that number has fallen a bit.
That's because of the Ivy Senior Apartments, a beautiful new building on Mt. Alifan Drive in Clairemont. It has been open for several weeks now, but Friday was the official opening.
The building has everything a person needs to live a dignified, healthy life. All the apartments are centered around a spacious courtyard.
Fifty-eight-year-old Gregorio Avalos lives on the third floor. He showed KPBS his place.
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“When I came, that furniture was here," Avalos said, pointing to a bureau and a nightstand.
Before arriving here several weeks ago, Avalos had been living in an Alpha Project facility; a big tent filled with bunk beds.
“The beds, they are very close, like 3 feet, and somebody want to (cough), you know, and I turn to the other side and another guy, they do the same," Avalos said.
But, now, the Tijuana native has a spacious studio apartment. He says it’s the nicest place he’s ever lived.
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Back downstairs at the opening ceremony, the importance of this day was underlined by the big name political leaders who came, including State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, of San Diego, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
“It isn’t just about helping people — it’s that people deserve housing, and services that go along with housing," Atkins said in her remarks.
A portion of those services are being provided by St. Paul’s PACE, a program that helps seniors to stay in their homes. Carol Hubbard, from PACE, drove home the importance of that through a series of questions about the challenges faced by seniors experiencing homelessness.
“How do they deal with pain in their knees, their necks, their hands? How do they do that when they’re sleeping on a hard surface?" Hubbard said.
Gregorio Avalos, along with everyone else living at the Ivy Senior Apartments, doesn’t have to worry about things like that anymore, not even close.
“Having the apartment is good, and I feel like I’m a rich guy," he said with a big smile.
