SAN DIEGO — Last week, CBS 8 introduced you to a 62-year-old San Diego man who for the first time in his life, found himself homeless. He asked us not to use his real name, so we're calling him Scott.
Scott has been trying to navigate the City of San Diego's shelter system, but every day he's been turned away.
“Each morning, there was nothing,” Scott said. “No beds. No beds.”
Starting a week ago Tuesday, he lined up at the City of San Diego's Homelessness Response Center around 4:30 a.m. to get a bed in a shelter, but five days in a row he got turned away. And the scene down there made him fear for his safety.
“All the different people on the corner, they're all selling drugs and doing drugs and just violent,” he said. “It's really bizarre down there.”
Scott thought he was doing everything you're supposed to do and he still doesn't understand why he kept getting turned away - told there were no beds - especially when San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said during a news conference last month, ”There's always beds available.”
We reached out to the city today and they issued a statement saying, "The Mayor's statement speaks for itself: There are always shelter beds available, in addition to space at 20th and B."
Scott says he was never offered a spot at 20th and B and calls the system deplorable.
“Watching on television is one thing, but living it is a whole different thing,” he said. “Ya, my eyes have been completely opened to see what's going on and it's not good. It's not good at all.”
CBS 8 reached out to some of our contacts who advocate for people experiencing homelessness and on Tuesday, Scott got a spot.
“I slept well, indoors, safe and I feel good about it,” he said of his first night in his new place. But here's the thing, Scott did not get into a city-run shelter. He's at the San Diego Rescue Mission. They accepted him into a one year program.
“To me, it's a nice program. So there's a lot of devotionals and things like that, but that doesn't bother me," Scott said.
Scott hopes this program can help him turn his life around so he can once again enjoy the comfort of long-term housing. “Just going from the unknown, not knowing what's going to happen to me next to now knowing, it's a big burden off my shoulders.”
WATCH RELATED: The struggle to find shelter beds in San Diego