Tiny homes project honored

A collaborative project that created a gated community of transitional housing for Imperial Valley College students who would otherwise be homeless is one of seven winners of the Southern California Association of Governments’ (SCAG) 2022 Sustainability Awards.

The Lotus Living, Rise Above Resilient Community, located at 12th Street and Bradshaw Avenue, near Lowe’s, is a collection of 26 tiny homes intended as transitional housing that opened in spring 2021. SCAG, which represents governments in a six-county region, honored El Centro in the category of Housing Innovation.

The city secured the bulk of the funding for the project from California’s Homekey Program. The homes are 170 square feet and include a kitchen, bathroom, desk, closet, porch, washer and dryer.

“By using available land owned by the city, and strategically relocating a transit stop to the project site, a community of students has been created that provides not just housing but access to other resources to support them and their educational pursuits,” SCAG said in a release. “The neighborhood is within walking distance of grocery stores and other amenities.”

The award will be present at SCAG’s Regional Conference and General Assembly May 5 in Palm

Desert.

“We’re honored to receive this award as recognition for the vision and creative thinking that went into the Lotus Living project. We see this as a model for other innovative solutions to the housing crisis, not only here in the Imperial Valley but across the SCAG region,” said Cheryl Viegas-Walker, El Centro City Council member and a past president of SCAG.