Local businessman and philanthropist Ernest Rady on Monday announced a $50 million donation to the Salvation Army, the third-largest gift ever given to the 153-year-old charity, to help homeless men, women and families.

“Homelessness is the No. 1 problem in San Diego,” Rady said, standing next to his wife, Evelyn, when announcing the donation at the Salvation Army’s Door of Hope in Serra Mesa. “And what a great privilege and honor it is for Evelyn and I to be part of the solution.”

The $50 million gift is the lead donation in an $80 million fundraising campaign to build two new facilities at existing Salvation Army sites.

Four 1960s-era buildings with 40 beds at the Serra Mesa site are scheduled to be razed in the summer of 2019 to make way for the 140-bed, four-story Rady Residence at Door of Hope expected to open in 2020.


The new building will include 32 apartments to house two-parent families for the first time at the site, plus single mothers and children, single women and women in recovery who live and participate in Door of Hope programs.

The second project will be The Salvation Army Rady Center, which will be built in downtown San Diego once the final $30 million of the capital campaign is raised.

The faith-based group relies on private donations rather than tax dollars for most of its programs. Its Adult Rehabilitation Center, which includes housing and recovering programs, is funded through sales at Salvation Army thrift stores.

The new center will house an as-yet undetermined number of homeless men and will be at the Salvation Army’s Centre City facility downtown, one of seven community centers the charity operates.


The new Rady Center will expand on the Salvation Army’s existing efforts downtown, which includes programs that housed 150 homeless men last year.

Maj. George Baker, Salvation Army divisional commander, said the projects will serve as a new standard for effective programs and housing for homeless across the country.

“We are humbled and grateful for this transformational gift,” he said, adding that the plan has been in the works for 18 months.

“To finally get to this day and to see what will take place shortly behind me is a true blessing,” he said, referring to the site where Rady Residence will be built. “Not just for us in the Salvation Army, but the entire community.”


Ron Roberts, a San Diego County supervisor and chair of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, said he participated in the annual count of homeless people in downtown San Diego on Friday and was struck by the sight of a family on the street.

“It just is so clear to me that we need more readily available solutions for those groups,” he said, describing a family of four wrapped in blankets to fight the early-morning cold.

Roberts said the new center will help the homeless in San Diego, but also acknowledged that the problem will be ongoing.

“I’m not foolish enough to think we’re going to end homelessness,” he said. “That’s an ongoing job. There will always be a job for the Salvation Army, but we are seeing changes.”


San Diego City Councilman Scott Sherman, whose district includes Serra Mesa, also spoke at the announcement.

“I think the fact that we are here today shows us that this is not just a downtown problem or a San Ysidro problem or a river problem,” he said. “It’s a city problem. Coming to grips with it is going to take a city-wide effort.”

While Rady’s donation was the third-largest for the Salvation Army, he has given larger gifts in San Diego.

His other donations included $120 million to Rady Children’s Hospital, and his $30 million donation to UC San Diego started the Rady School of Management in 2004 and gave another $100 million to it in 2015.


Rady said he recently signed the Bill and Melinda Gates Giving Pledge to donate most of his fortune.

“Evelyn and I want to leave a legacy of helping other people,” he said. “This is an appropriate way of handling the good fortune that we’ve had by living in this country and living in this community.”

The four buildings to be razed in Serra Mesa next year are part of the Salvation Army’s rapid-rehousing program, which provides homeless women and women with children with rental assistance for three to 12 months.

The Salvation Army’s Door of Hope also includes the 40-bed Haven Interim House and the 60-bed Transitional Living Center, which both will remain.


The Salvation Army’s off-site rapid-rehousing program provided temporary homes for 56 people in 23 households last year, and its countywide voucher program provided 356 nights of shelter in hotel and motel rooms for 25 people last year.

The charity also provided permanent housing for 508 seniors in 299 apartments in Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido, Oceanside and San Diego last year.

Its drug and alcohol recovery programs include the 130-bed Adult Rehabilitation Center, which has a transitional and bridge housing program that served 35 people last year.

The Salvation Army opened the Door of Hope for unwed mothers in Ocean Beach in 1931, and the program moved to Serra Mesa in 1964.


Consulting firm Allegis Development Services and architect M.W. Steele Group are working with the Salvation Army on developing Rady Residence.


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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com


Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

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