A plan to build 40 apartment homes in El Cerrito for individuals dealing with chronic homelessness recently moved a step closer to fruition.

The plan is for phase 1 to be 40 units of permanent supportive housing and phase 2 140 units of affordable housing.

The PATH Villas El Cerrito as proposed will take shape at 5476 El Cajon Blvd. Excavation on the location is already happening, with underground parking taking shape.

According to PATH Ventures director of media Tyler Renner, the property under construction is on the site previously occupied by various businesses over time. Renner added the construction of Family Health Centers of San Diego’s (FHCSD’s) proposed development is an upgrade to the El Cajon corridor.

Recently, the City of San Diego, the San Diego Housing Commission and the County of San Diego applied to obtain state funding under Project Homekey that will go towards financing the proposed development. While the funding request is expected to be approved, planners will reportedly look to secure other funding to finish the project if needed.

The County Board of Supervisors voted April 26 to allocate some $11 million to the development. The state application will reportedly result in at minimum $11.825 million of Project Homekey dollars. That is towards half the money necessary for an approximately $24-million development.

The positive vote makes way for the County Health and Human Services Agency to move forward with a public-private arrangement involving PATH Ventures, the City of San Diego and the San Diego Housing Commission. The funds applied for are made available via California’s Homekey Program.

That funding would go towards capital and in part to future services and operating expenses. The City of San Diego will chip in more than $2 million that comes from its portion of funding from California’s permanent local housing allocation program. That came about through a permanent source of funding geared towards affordable housing. Finally, close to $3 million necessary to complete costs needed would come via loan funding.

According to Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, the City of San Diego will also put forth 40 project-based housing vouchers via the San Diego Housing Commission. This is to assist in paying rent for residents previously homeless.

If the state signs off on the funding application, San Diego County and those partnering with it will construct 41 housing units. They will be situated above a new multicultural family counseling center.

With initial work underway, there is a completion goal of summer 2023 for this first stage of the project. That would be followed by a second phase of building to entail 140 more affordable apartment homes. This entails 127 studios, a dozen one-bedroom apartment homes and a manager’s unit. The phase two construction would look to finish in late 2024.

In a statement, Gloria noted, “Once again, the City and County of San Diego are collaborating to meaningfully address homelessness, this time by placing unsheltered San Diegans into permanent homes with supportive services attached. This is precisely what was envisioned by Governor Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature when they created Project Homekey, and I’m grateful for all the ways the state is supporting local efforts to get unhoused residents into homes of their own.”

City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents District 9 where the complex will be, said in a statement, “Housing and supportive services are essential to addressing our homelessness crisis. I’m proud that the city and the county are partnering to provide sorely needed homes for people living on the streets, especially those in my district.”

According to Renner, El Cerrito Housing Development will be a refuge for individuals and families struggling to access affordable, safe and supportive housing across San Diego.

“This project combines housing, co-developed with Family Health Centers of San Diego (FHCSD) and PATH, so low-income individuals may have access to quality, affordable housing complete with supportive services such as job search support, counseling, social services, case management and many other resources,” Renner commented.

Renner noted the housing community will feature several shared amenities such as a business center to help with job searches and a dog park. Amenities are meant to enhance health and mental wellbeing of residents. Supportive services will help those individuals with life challenges. A mental health professional as well as FHCSD enrollment specialists will be integrated into the housing development.

“Residents will be identified through the Coordinated Entry System, through which the Regional Task Force on Homelessness as the regional Continuum of Care, identifies the most appropriate housing options for people experiencing homelessness based on who is most in need,” Renner added.

Not all residents happy with project

As with any such project, some are happy with the plans and others are not.

When asked what went into alerting the community of the proposed plans, Renner noted, “Numerous community meetings were held prior to commencing construction. This development project received support from the SD Planning Department, City Council and neighborhood community groups and their leaders, as well as, individual residents in the El Cerrito community. FHCSD enjoys favorable relationships with homeowners in El Cerrito. The San Diego City Council President’s Office received a wide variety of feedback from El Cerrito residents, ranging from many voicing full support to a few opposed. The chair of the planning group for this area provided a strong letter of support for this project, reflecting the endorsement of the majority members of this neighborhood advisory group.”

Among the residents expressing concerns is El Cerrito Community Council (ECCC) president Laura Riebau.

“None of Family Health Centers (FHC), City of San Diego or San Diego County officials have been upfront about the use of the housing being built on El Cajon Boulevard in the El Cerrito community,” Riebau commented. “The opposite is true – the handling of this project by FHC, City, County, our representatives and others involved in regards to communication with El Cerrito has been cowardly, deceitful and underhanded.”

Riebau claimed El Cerrito was not told of the institutional use of a homeless housing and treatment center by FHC, Mayor Gloria, District 9 City Council-member Elo-Rivera, County Supervisors Joel Anderson or Nathan Fletcher, or any of their representatives, or any of the other players, such as PATH.

“The report included for the Board of Supervisors April 26, 2022 hearing and vote had statements about all of the stakeholders being involved, but El Cerrito and its residents were not included, when we are definitely stakeholders. There was no public outreach by officials or their representatives listed above on this building being for homeless housing and treatment in the El Cerrito community and no one in the community was asked for input,” Riebau stated.

According to Riebau, the first El Cerrito residents heard about the homeless housing use was through other San Diego residents who saw the County’s posted notice on April 21 for its Tuesday, April 26 meeting.

“Then the project was placed on the County’s consent agenda, which is supposed to be for routine County business, when this matter is far from routine and included a waiver of the required 15-day notice for grant funding,” Riebau went on to say. “There is no way this matter should have been on the County’s consent agenda. During public comment on the County’s consent agenda items a PATH representative stated that this project had community support, which is untrue. The community is blindsided due to being completely left out of all discussions on the matter and knew nothing about the homeless housing and treatment use.”

Riebau believes that since she and others feel there has been no community outreach to date, the public officials who worked on this project should make their presence known.

“They should make it a priority to be present at upcoming El Cerrito meetings and College Area Planning Board meetings so they can hear from the neighborhood residents, churches and schools on this matter and find out what the community sentiment is and report it factually,” Riebau contended. She went on to say that El Cerrito was aware of the huge building, but not the homeless housing use. She claimed FHC representatives denied concerns that the structure would be for homeless housing.

Riebau added that in November of 2020, FHC told El Cerrito they were going to construct a 10-story building, eight stories above ground, on its parking lot site, which would consist of about 250 parking spaces, more of their medical offices, some commercial opportunities, housing for their doctors and affordable housing for a variety of low-income levels.

On Jan. 21, 2021, ECCC held a meeting to talk about and vote on the building plans and the impact on the neighborhood. “The vote resulted in 57 of 72 attendees voting against the over-large project and its impacts,” Riebau noted.

“El Cerrito was told the 142 units, some one-and-two-bedroom units and about 100 studio units are a very desirable product citing the affordable housing would include a variety of low- income levels, including workforce housing income levels, for a variety of low-income renters, including SDSU students and graduates and other young professionals,” Riebau remarked.

Riebau noted that was the last time El Cerrito heard any details on the building plans from FHC, Elo-Rivera or any other agency reps until the April 21, 2022 County agenda notification.

As Riebau sees it, “Housing and treating the homeless should not be paramount to neighborhood safety and quiet enjoyment of property by its residents. Homeless housing with drug and alcohol addiction and mental health treatment center does not belong in the El Cerrito residential neighborhood or any other residential neighborhood. The FHC building site is directly across the street from a K-8 school, one and one-half blocks from a church which has an elementary school, and two and one-half blocks from a middle school.”

According to Riebau the planned use of the location will destroy community character and the neighborhood.

“There is no transition between existing land uses and this rehabilitation institutional use,” Riebau commented. “The over-large building operating as a treatment center will have significant traffic and parking impacts on the surrounding streets, much more significant than a true residential use would have. The building use FHC described in its 2020 and 2021 meetings with El Cerrito and the College Area Planning Board could fit in with residents’ visions. Homeless housing and treatment does not fit.”

At the end of the day, Riebau believes, “The City has done nothing to address our concerns because they have not told us of the use so they can hear our concerns – they simply orchestrated this use surreptitiously.”

Alex and Lorna Zukas have been El Cerrito residents for some 20 years and both serve on the ECCC Board. They are but two people with some concerns of the building plans.

“The current project being built is gigantic and will stick out like a sore thumb,” Alex Zukas said. “It will be among the largest buildings built on El Cajon Boulevard from Park Boulevard to the I-8. There is no consideration for blending the building into the neighborhood’s landscape.”

Zukas said he and others in the community feel the building will lead to more traffic on surrounding roads among other issues.

“The increased traffic from both residential density and expanded clinic space will create traffic flow problems on one of the busiest state routes in eastern San Diego,” Alex Zukas stated. “The community asked the city for a traffic study to measure the potential impact, and deal with cars turning off of and onto the boulevard, but the request was ignored.”

As Zukas sees it, the FHC building would be better placed on University Avenue, but due to recent changes in city policies, the FHC building was approved “by right” by city staff without input from community residents or the local planning committee. According to Zukas, resident’s concerns over the building have been ignored.

“The ‘by right’ process is extremely undemocratic for the community,” Zukas remarked. “It destroys local homeowners’ rights to live in the type of neighborhood they purchased homes in. It also forces local renters to accept the new living arrangement – next to homeless housing and a massive eight-story building – or seek new accommodation in an unfavorable rental market. We are not a community that rejects helping and doing our share to support those in need. This feels different. It is a massive medical facility and a homeless and drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. It will be right next to people’s homes and in very close proximity to elementary and middle schools and churches. We’ve been given no say in it and no real information about the project.”

Asked what concerns her most about the project and its impact on the neighborhood, Lorna Zukas noted, “This is a difficult question because there are so many unknowns, and we cannot get answers to questions. Because we cannot get any information, we are skeptical at best. We do not believe that FHCSD or San Diego city government has El Cerrito residents’ best interests in mind or at heart.

“What they’ve not done is seriously sought out development of affordable or low-income housing in exchange for the right to build higher-end housing,” Zukas continued. The city chooses to support developers, who build for their own profit, and it accepts low numbers of units for government supportive housing. If the city were serious about having adequate affordable housing units, it might ensure that workers were paid a living wage that afforded them opportunities or it could institute rent control or outlaw all short-term rentals (STRs).”

For Alex Zukas, a big concern is that adding homeless housing in the neighborhood will mean another layer of social stress on the community. A community that is already fighting to maintain its middle-and-working-class roots.

“The city will not pave our streets, fix our streetlights, or replace old sewer and water lines,” Zukas commented. “The El Cerrito community does not have one park in it, not one, and there are no plans to add one. We have very real economic concerns about this project leading to a decline in environmental quality. Who will choose to live near an eight-story institutional facility made from shipping containers that houses chronically long-term homeless individuals? The fact that the apartments are used, rehabilitated, shipping containers is an indication of the low, cost-cutting quality of the project.”

At the end of the day, Zukas wants officials to meet with the community and tell them what it means, realistically to have 40 new permanent supportive apartments in El Cerrito for San Diegans experiencing chronic homelessness.

“Everyone deserves opportunities to pull their lives together, but the people who live in this community and those who have invested decades of their lives building community and home here deserve to fully understand how this project will change their community,” Zukas added.

For both Alex and Lorna Zukas, the change coming to their community does leave them and others with concerns.

“We have some concerns about the impact of 142 units of affordable housing in the neighborhood,” Lorna Zukas pointed out. “The studio apartments will not house families with children who can attend our local schools. Will El Cerrito’s young professionals who need affordable housing get first opportunity to rent these units? What services will the city provide to the community that must absorb nearly 200 adults who will be dependent on the government or donor funding for their housing in one way or another? We want to hear how this project is not condemning El Cerrito to rising poverty rates and ill-planned overcrowding. Asked another way, is this a population who can help us build the neighborhood by supporting local businesses, or become entrepreneurs, and engage in community development work? We ask the question again: who is going to live in these units?”

The Zukas’ and others want answers to their questions sooner than later.

– Reach editor Dave Thomas at [email protected].