Supportive Housing Model, integrating affordable housing and supportive services, opens in Cortez Hill
By Ashley Mackin | Downtown News
On March 21, the Cedar Gateway Multifamily Apartments, an affordable housing community for families and individuals, celebrated its grand opening. Cedar Gateway has 42 units of affordable housing in addition to 23 units designated for accommodating supportive services for seniors and adults with mental health disabilities.
The apartment complex is located at 1612 Sixth Ave., bounded by Cedar street and Fifth and Sixth avenues.
Gary Squier, president of Squier Properties LLC, the project’s developer, said the model implemented at Cedar Gateway is called a Supportive Housing Model and integrates people who have struggled with homelessness and mental heath conditions with those who have not.
Squier said the Supportive Housing Model has “proven to be effective wherever it’s been tried, by layering on community services [and] social services. Its effective in giving people genuine alternatives to homelessness and it’s a long-term solution,” Squier said. “We’re proud to be one of the early examples.”
City Council President Pro Tem Kevin Faulconer attended the opening and said he was excited to be there, having attended the site’s groundbreaking ceremony last year. “Cedar Gateway is going to be a model I am confident we will be able to replicate, not only across downtown San Diego but other areas of the city. It’s about providing help, it’s about providing hope and it’s about providing a great opportunity to our families and those who are in the most need,” Faulconer said.
Frank Riley, field office director for San Diego Housing and Urban Development (HUD), said HUD became a partner in the project after contributing $14 million of the $32 million needed for the project though a tax credit assistance program. The remaining needed funding came from federal and state funds, among others.
“This development… represents the heart of what we are all trying to do: put affordable housing that is unique, that brings many, many different kinds of families into classy, nice housing located in really important parts of our city,” Riley said.
Approximately 97 percent of the units were rented as of the opening. Alfredo Aguirre, director of Mental Health Services, a component of the Health and Human Services Agency of San Diego, said having the affordable and supportive service units integrated fights the stigma associated with mental disabilities.
“Having a home is where recovery starts,” Aguirre said. “Along with the necessary services and support provided by case managers, individuals with these conditions can avoid being homeless and to move on with their lives and achieve health and wellness.”
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified complex was built through a collaborative effort of the Centre City Development Corporation working on behalf of the City, the ROEM Corporation and Squier Properties. Initial planning for the project began in 2005.
Michael Untalan and his wife, along with their infant daughter, are tenants at Cedar Gateway and said living there was “a dream come true.”
Untalan said his family was renting a room in a four-bedroom house at this time last year. “I knew that we needed, as a family, a place to cultivate our love for each other and to really have a place to stand on our own two feet,” Untalan said.
“For those of you who work in this field and for those of you who do these projects day in and day out, I want to say on behalf of the Untalan family, thank you,” he said. “Thank you for not giving up on this project, thank you for putting in the dedication and the time that it took… and bringing this project to completion.”
