Stark differences between progress of tiny home projects in San Diego County highlight the contrast in political leadership and approaches towards homeless solutions.
Across San Diego County, there have been attempts to build tiny home projects for the homeless, but few organizations have succeeded. The Chula Vista Village at Otay opened their doors in May 15, 2023, and have been able to help a few residents find jobs and stabilize almost a dozen residents to apply for permanent housing. Angelica Davis, Homeless Solutions Manager of Chula Vista, explains how the city of Chula Vista was able to take advantage of emergency funds during a crucial time of a global pandemic and numerous encampments in their community.
“It’s just with COVID, it brought so many challenges, but for our industry, it brought a lot of opportunities, because there was an influx of a lot of money,” Davis said. “We got approximately $5 million, which we typically wouldn’t have… And once we realized that we had this money, this opportunity, it was now or never.”
While Chula Vista was able to effectively use grant money from the County of San Diego to open the facility, another project in San Diego County has struggled to make progress.
The project was initially supposed to be 150 tiny homes built in Spring Valley, until the San Diego County Board of Supervisors rescinded their approval of the initiative. In June 2024, the Board of Supervisors went back on their decision due to community backlash.
“This is a working class community. So that means people here, if they’re homeowners, are holding on with everything they’ve got, to their properties, making it pay check to paycheck. You’re choosing a place in the middle of people who are already struggling to hold onto their property values as it is, and that’s a very concerning thing for people who are paying a lot of money.” Brett Burner, community member near Lemon Grove and Spring Valley housing sites, explains one side of the community frustrations.
The backpedal cost the county $10 million dollars in state funding that was granted to the County of San Diego to support a new homeless housing development. Even so, when SDSU students asked San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe where they they would get the money from, she replied “a mix of different types of funding” refusing to give more details.
“When the [Spring Valley] Jamacha site was rescinded, I put forward just looking at the Troy site again.. I really wanted to move forward,” Montgomery Steppe said about her push for the Lemon Grove site that can hold 70 “sleeping cabins”.
Despite the confidence in funding, the Troy construction has not started. The property is at the intersection of Sweetwater Rd. and Troy St. in Lemon Grove and still has trees, bushes, and cars parked on the lot. Montgomery Steppe says her staff members expect to present the design concept of the Troy projects to community members in November 2024.
“We’ve been working with county staff to come up with a design, we’ve been taking a lot of community input, even from folks that may have some constructive criticism that we need to take into account.” Montgomery Steppe explains the county’s progress on the Troy development.
The community’s opinions on the tiny home shelters have been the decision makers on this project that was once 150 tiny homes and now 70 tiny homes.
“I can obviously see we have a drug issue and a meantal health issue, there has to be a compassionate solution to this problem, but there also has to be a workable plan for the community.” says Burner.
The difference between the proposed Troy site in Lemon Grove and the successful Chula Vista site is that community members were given plenty of advanced notice to provide input ahead construction, as well as opportunities to tour the shelter once it was built. The tiny homes village had the added benefit of returning the city’s beloved Harborview Park to a semblance of normalcy.
The Chula Vista project had to change plans towards individual sleeping cabins due to COVID, but Davis says it’s been working well and they have plans for Phase 2 which will include solar panels and an additional bathroom.
Credits:
Isabella Canale. Photos by Petrina Tran and Isabella Canale.