Shelter Operations Have Helped the Vulnerable – and the Convention Center Itself The Convention Center’s decision to host shelter operations has proven to be a smart business move during a pandemic that left many event centers vacant. Now, with new guidance from the state, Convention Center managers are preparing to transition back into an events center. When the pandemic halted travel last year, the Convention Center’s financial outlook looked bleak. The decision to transform the center long considered a leading economic engine of the region’s tourism economy into a shelter – first for homeless San Diegans and now for young migrants – won praise as a humanitarian effort. But it also helped the Convention Center avoid the most dire financial outcomes, and saved some jobs.