{"id":255972,"date":"2021-09-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/190-units-of-affordable-housing-coming-to-el-cajon-blvd-2\/"},"modified":"2021-09-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T07:00:00","slug":"190-units-of-affordable-housing-coming-to-el-cajon-blvd-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/190-units-of-affordable-housing-coming-to-el-cajon-blvd-2\/","title":{"rendered":"190 unidades de vivienda asequible llegando a El Cajon Blvd."},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Kendra Sitton<\/p>\n

A $2 million investment into affordable housing means a 190-unit development at the City Heights Transit Center on the border of City Heights and Normal Heights is one step closer to breaking ground. Mission Driving Finance, the San Diego Foundation and Alliance Healthcare provided a collective $2 million initial pre-development investment into the project being put forward by Bridgedeck Partners LLC. Since it can be difficult for affordable housing projects to find investors, this initial investment should help the development find investors to complete the $80 million project.<\/p>\n

The funding allowed Bridgedeck Partners, made up of local affordable housing developers Naturally Affordable Housing and The Hampstead Companies, to acquire the final parcel on the edge of Normal Heights needed for the project. The first parcel was purchased a little over a year ago after winning a bid with the City of San Diego, according to David Iwashita of Bridgedeck Partners.<\/p>\n

\"190
The two adjacent parcels will make up this project (Photos courtesy Bridgedeck Partners)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The development will fill two empty lots beside the bridge above SR-15. The location has been the site of community advocacy for decades that already resulted in the deck and transit plaza. When CalTrans extended the 15 freeway 2.2 miles into City Heights, 4,000 people living in the freeway\u2019s path were displaced. The community fought for changes to the initial plan, which would reduce pollution and improve public transit options, according to UCSD urban studies professor Jim Bliesner. A major concern of citizen activists was that the freeway broke down community cohesion and split a neighborhood in two.<\/p>\n

Iwashita has dedicated his career to improving this area because of his family\u2019s own experience with displacement. His family was interned during World War II in Arizona. When the Japanese people returned to San Diego, many could only find places in the old redevelopment areas in Southeast San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it goes back to eminent domain and these old redevelopment areas, and why they’re so near and dear to my heart, is because of cycles of different pain that occurred in those areas,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\"190
From left to right: Art Madrid (Chair of CalTrans), Christine Kehoe (City Councilmember), Jackie O’Connor (President, El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association), Gary Webber (land use consultant and grant writer of the award). This $4 million award was to fund the build out of the actual bridge decks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

City Heights remains housing stressed to this day. The finished project will be reserved for people earning between 50 and 60% of the area median income. The units come in a variety of sizes from studios to three-bedroom apartments. Many affordable housing projects only include small units so multi-bedroom options will be particularly helpful for low- and very low-income families according to Sarah Lyman, Executive Director of Alliance Healthcare Foundation. Its location next to public transit foregoing the need for a car is also attractive to families.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing is one of the primary social determinants of health and it’s critical that we continue to grow as an active contributor to affordable housing solutions,\u201d Lyman said.<\/p>\n

\"190
Grand opening of the Bus Rapid Center Line in early 2018 located on the decks above the I-15 next to Bridgedeck project. (Photos courtesy Bridgedeck Partners)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project will receive funding from the city, county and housing commission. Bridgedeck Partners particularly credited current County Chair Nathan Fletcher and Councilmember Stephen Whitburn for their support. Past city councilmembers Georgette Gomez and Chris Ward helped with the development as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Diego needs to have affordable homes for everyone. This project is a perfect example of what we need\u2014housing that is accessible to transit and financially within reach for low-income and working San Diegans. I look forward to seeing more projects like this come to District 3 and throughout all of San Diego so that we can ensure housing opportunities for all,\u201d Whitburn said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"190
Architectural rendering made in 2020 of the project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A challenge in creating affordable housing is the many types of funding that need to be managed \u2013 from tax credits to affordable housing deals to grants and loans. Permits and government approval processes add another layer of difficult.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s like playing seven-dimensional Sudoku,\u201d said Laruen Grattan, co-founder and chief community officer of Mission Driven Finance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were delighted to be able to use finance as a tool for change and help structure this $2 million engagement combined across our firm, the San Diego foundation and Alliance Healthcare Foundation in order to get that crucial early capital that allows senior lenders, construction financing, permit financing time to come forth,\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause we want to see great projects like this \u2013 hundreds of units of affordable housing right on a transit corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"190
Grand opening of the Bus Rapid Center Line in early 2018 located on the decks above the I-15 next to Bridgedeck project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the path to creating affordable housing projects is still extremely complicated and difficult, recent state laws and changes in local that allow dense infill housing near public transit were essential for having this project move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know if the work is going to be easier in terms of getting projects approved but at least there’s a pathway now. And there’s projects that you can build by right now that you could never ever build two or three years ago,\u201d Iwashita said.<\/p>\n\n

With those approvals and permits as well as full funding, 190 more low- and very low-income individuals and families will be able to have affordable housing within the next few years.<\/p>\n

\u2014 P\u00f3ngase en contacto con Kendra Sitton en kendra@sdnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kendra Sitton A $2 million investment into affordable housing means a 190-unit development at the City Heights Transit Center on the border of City Heights and Normal Heights is one step closer to breaking ground. Mission Driving Finance, the San Diego Foundation and Alliance Healthcare provided a collective $2 million initial pre-development investment into […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":936,"featured_media":242512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"190 units of affordable housing coming to El Cajon Blvd.","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/936"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}