After more than two decades in downtown San Diego, the city-run organization that serves victims of family and domestic violence, sex trafficking, child or elder abuse and several other crimes is moving — and doubling in size.
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On Monday, the doors to the San Diego Family Justice Center — Your Safe Place will open at its new space in Kearny Mesa.
“We are really excited. It’s going to be a great spot,” City Attorney Heather Ferbert said earlier this month. The City Attorney’s Office oversees the Family Justice Center.
The San Diego Family Justice Center — the first of its kind in the nation — was established in 2002 as a one-stop place for victims of domestic violence, and has since largely expanded its services. The center connects clients with on-site partners who can provide needed assistance, including counseling and legal support.
“Unfortunately, since the pandemic, the need has not subsided,” Ferber said of the number of people seeking services. “If anything, it’s only grown.”
At the soon-to-close downtown site at Broadway and 11th Avenue, the Family Justice Center’s office space occupied about 22,000 square feet. The new site has about 44,000 square feet.
The new site occupies two floors, with the Family Justice Center on one and San Diego police who do associated work on the other. The separation was designed so that victims not ready to talk with law enforcement don’t have to interact with police. But, since they are located in the same building, it’s easier to connect the two if a victim wants to talk.
And although the new site is not along the trolley line like the old one, the City Attorney’s Office noted that many of the Family Justice Center’s clients drive, and the new site offers free parking and lots of it — not the case downtown.
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Ferbert noted that post-pandemic, the courts have largely moved to virtual hearings for restraining orders and such, and that erases the need to be near the downtown courthouse.
Even the intake area will expand with more room for filling out forms and double the number of rooms — from four to eight — used for victims to meet with a care coordinator. One of those rooms is designed specifically to accommodate people with sensory needs, such as an autistic child.
But with the bigger place comes higher rent and related costs. The old site ran about $764,000 a year. The new site comes with an annual cost of a little more than $1 million. Your Safe Place and the San Diego Police Department share the costs. Also moving into the site from Civic Center Plaza is the Gun Violence Reduction Unit, a collaborative group from both the police department and the City Attorney’s Office.
Gerry Braun is chair of the nonprofit Your Safe Place Foundation, which provides donations to support the Family Justice Center clientele. He said the Kearny Mesa site “is just a much better space.”
“I think this is an important expansion of the Family Justice Center’s ability to deal with a population that needs immediate assistance at a time of crisis,” Braun said. “And that is unfortunately a population that seems to be growing every year.”
The downtown doors close Friday. The address of the new site is 9275 Sky Park Court, which is off Ruffin Road north of Aero Drive. Its doors open Monday.
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