Check out this report from 10News:
The San Diego City Council has approved an agreement to build an affordable-housing project featuring support services in the Ocean Beach neighborhood, and construction is expected to begin next month. The agreement approved Tuesday, March 19, calls for the city and the San Diego Housing Commission to collaborate on developing the $6.8 million Abbott Street Affordable Housing Project and have it open next year, officials said.
Both entities will spend $1.46 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money, along with $3.9 million from the state of California’s Homekey program, which focuses on building affordable housing with supportive services for people experiencing homelessness.
The Abbott Street project will involve the city acquiring and turning a vacant multifamily property into 13 affordable rental housing units for people now living on the street or are at risk of homelessness, the city said. Construction is expected to begin in late April.
In May 2023, the Rag posted this:
At their May 12 meeting, the San Diego Housing Commission unanimously agreed to apply for state funds to help purchase a vacant apartment building at 2147 Abbott Street in Ocean Beach … to provide permanent housing for homeless people.
The Commissioners voted to apply for up to $5 million to help purchase the apartment building which would create 13 units. The vote was an agreement to submit a joint application for $5 million in Project Homekey money with the nonprofit Wakeland Housing and Development Corp.
Vacant since January 2022, the property — if bought — would provide 13 units for people who had experienced chronic homelessness and whose income is up to 30 percent of the area median income, which is $27,350 a year for a one-person household.
And now today it’s all happening.
According to city officials, Homekey “provides an opportunity to bring much-needed housing online faster and cheaper than traditional new- construction affordable housing, and is responsible for the addition of more than 600 affordable homes in San Diego for people experiencing homelessness.”
Christina Bibler, the city’s Economic Development Department director, said she was proud of the city’s ability “to swiftly deploy this federal funding to meet housing needs of San Diegans.”
“The city’s investment in the Abbott Street project continues to highlight the importance of leverage and collaboration of local partners to enable production of permanent housing for vulnerable populations and those at risk or experiencing homelessness,” Bibler said. 10News
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy it’s finally happening!
This is all well and good, however the price tag per person/per unit seems
impractical and exhorbitant.
I wonder where is the city’s effort to create real affordable housing for those of us who are not wealthy – who are being forced out of OB by astronomical rents….perhaps the city’s effort to “fix” the short-term rental policy that has caused many long term renters to lose whatever place they had here will actually happen.
I wonder when our city government will actually grapple with these issues realistically instead of passing the buck.
Actual affordable housing for working people really is not $2,000 per month for a studio or one bedroom apartment…often with two people squeezed into it.
13 or more “former” homeless who will hang out at Dog Beach and the Veteran’s Plaza all day and then take their newfound friends back to the government subsidized apartment to party all night long.
What can go wrong?
That would never happen… :)
That’s BS.
That place will become a locus of criminality and drug dealing in no time all funded by the taxpayers of SD County
Carl, residences near the coast in California have in recent history been limited to mostly affluent white people. This is an opportunity to offer coastal access to our low-income neighbors. Some may abuse the opportunity, while others will be good stewards of it. When crime and drug dealing take place here, it will be necessary for SDPD to enforce the law here, just like in other parts of OB. Occupants of affordable housing mirror the spectrum of society – from those partaking in criminal activity, to hard working families trying to give their kids a better life.
Yup when I bought my place, the seller was very specific on what level of melanin he would consider.
Oh wait that didn’t actually happen. It never happens. The only discrimination is by wealth. And wealth/greed is quite colorblind. Great that these 13 people will have a roof over their head, nevermind that this money could’ve provided for 25 people somewhere else.
Kh,
By that do you mean away from you? Shouldn’t this project be celebrated?
Coastal property in recent history almost all exclusively been sold to Real Estate Investment Trusts, corporations and LLC’s. Ocean Beach and Point Loma are not comprised of card carrying KKK members routinely burning crosses on peoples lawns around town, and never have been. As a matter of fact there has been a solid history acceptance, tolerance and inclusion more so in this beach community much more so than others.
To act as if today’s residents somehow absconded with all the coastal property to keep minorites out is ridiculous. Mark if you grew up here you would know that OB has always been a melting pot, in fact in the 60’s it was lovingly referred to as “the People’s Republic.”
Mark, you are confusing the two contrary narratives that you are trying to push simultaneously, and have produced some of the most patently false commentary I think I have ever read.
None of the people I know who own here are “affluent white people”.
The majority of them do happen to be white, but they are all working-to-middle class people who need two incomes and gig jobs to afford the 3 percent mortgages that they were lucky to get. The rest are teachers, etc., who had the good fortune to either inherit their modest homes or bought them back in the 1980s when they were affordable.
As for hard working families trying to give their kids a better life, most of them have had to, or are leaving, Ocean Beach and Pt. Loma because the rents are too high.
There are high costs to own property,such as property taxes,electricity and water plus the high prices the upkeep of these properties. Do you see the City lowering those costs anytime soon?
Hawaii Takes A Stand Against Short-Term Rentals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9eu9lemIU
___
PHASING OUT STVRs. What a novel idea, eh?
sealintheSelkirks