Hotel in La Mesa considered for shelter.
LA MESA
Will a hotel in La Mesa be converted into housing for homeless people in East County?
That’s a question the City Council will tackle Monday after the Board of Supervisors this week told the city that it had approved a plan by an outside group to buy the Holiday Inn on Parkway Drive and turn it into 139 units of transitional housing for the homeless and people at risk of homelessness because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The La Mesa City Council has called an emergency meeting at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the county’s plans and how the change could affect the city and its businesses and residents.
The La Mesa Holiday Inn at 8000 Parkway Drive is next to a Kaiser Permanente site on one side and backs up to a strip mall on the other. Behind it are apartments and single-family residences. The plan calls for 70 units of permanent supportive housing and 69 units for those at risk of homelessness.
The supervisors voted 3-2 last Tuesday, with objections from Dianne Jacob and Kristin Gaspar, to approve the county’s application to the state for Project Homekey, a program for Californians living unsheltered who are at high risk for serious illness. The program provides up to $600 million in grant funding to allow public entities to buy and rehabilitate housing, including hotels, motels and vacant apartment buildings, and covert them to interim or permanent, long-term housing.
The Homekey grant opened priority application review on July 22 and closed it on Aug. 13. During that time, the county submitted an application and proposed partnering with developer Affirmed Housing Group Inc. to acquire the Holiday Inn in La Mesa. The county has already begun to work with the city of San Diego on the purchase of two hotels that will become housing for homeless individuals and families living at the San Diego Convention Center downtown because of COVID-19 concerns.
The county is seeking $19 million from the state and says it will contribute an additional $2.6 million toward the project. The state has not yet approved the county’s application
La Mesa City Manager Greg Humora, who called into the supervisors’ online meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue, said there had been no previous notification to the city of the county’s plans regarding the Holiday Inn purchase. Humora knew about the application on Aug. 12 from Affirmed Housing but had not received any more information after that. He said the city had not been consulted regarding the proposed site and quickly called for the Monday City Council meeting.
The La Mesa meeting is being held in advance of a special meeting that has been called by the supervisors at 3 p.m. Tuesday to revisit the matter.
City officials say they understand the need for transitional and permanent housing, but question the location.
City Councilwoman Kristine Alessio said she spoke with one of the developers of the project, who told her that the county had identified Lakeside and Spring Valley as the areas most in need of housing for homeless individuals. The Regional Task Force on the Homeless’s Point-in-time count for 2020 showed 24 homeless individuals in Lakeside and 97 in Spring Valley. There were 52 homeless individuals counted in La Mesa on the morning of the count in January. The city said that is down from a reported high of 68 in 2013.
“There are other, better locations for this,” Alessio said. “This is not the place for this. It seems rushed, with no community input and a general lack of transparency in the process. It seems very hasty, like grab the money, get it and worry about whatever collateral damage there is later. This is something that could have such a large effect on a small city like La Mesa.”
In its agenda report for Monday’s meeting from Humora and Assistant City Manager Carlo Tomaino, the city says that ongoing operation of a permanent supportive housing project of this scale “requires operator to actively screen tenants, provide consistent case management and work with the city to address potential quality of life and public safety issues.” The city said that ongoing coordination among all parties is crucial for longterm success.
The city says it counts on the Holiday Inn, its only “three-star hotel,” for transient occupancy tax revenue and that the hotel is an important job provider. It collects about $500,000 annually in fees, which go toward public safety needs, road repairs and more.
“Permanently removing this hotel from the City’s inventory has the potential to increase its structural deficit and exacerbate ongoing economic shortfalls created by the pandemic,” the report said.