Harmony Homes takes another step closer to becoming reality
A housing project aimed at keeping atrisk homeless individuals off the streets took another step closer fruition this week.
At its regular meeting, the Lodi City Council unanimously approved the purchase of property owned by Leigh and Jackleen Holmes at 301 E. Lodi Ave. for $350,000.
The property is the designated site for the Harmony Homes project, which will consist of four “tiny homes” that will provide residences for a maximum of three people in each unit.
According to Wednesday’s council agenda, $200,000 of the negotiated sales price will come from the $1.25 million Homeless Emergency Aid Program grant awarded to the city in 2018. The remaining $150,000 will be allocated from the city’s Capital Outlay Fund, staff said.
Lodi City Manager Steve Schwabauer said the homes will be managed by the Housing Authority of San Joaquin, and be available to graduates of handful of local programs.
“The (HEAP) grant application was set up to call for first availability of those units to graduates of Lodi House, graduates of the Women’s Shelter programs, to
graduates of the Salvation Army programs,” he said. “This is not a project intended to take somebody who on day one is on the street, and unable to care for themselves and put them in a home the next day.”
Schwabauer said the grant is also set up that if there aren’t enough graduates from these local program to fill the homes, the units would be available to others who might need them.
“However, given the number of people we graduate from these various programs that we have in our community, we’d be surprised to see the housing not taken,” he said, noting Lodi House graduates about three classes of three families a year which fill the housing.
Residents selected for the project will be required to pay rent and keep the units in livable conditions. The housing authority will be responsible for maintenance and landscaping issues that may arise, staff said.
Schwabauer’s comments were in response to questions of clarification from councilman Shak Khan, who said many in the Heritage District wanted more information about who would be living in the homes and who would be responsible for its upkeep.
Councilman Doug Kuehne told Khan that there had been much misinformation about the project given to residents over the last couple of years.
He said when the plan to provide some kind of housing project to the homeless began some years ago, it was discovered the city had a lack of transitional housing, as well as a lack of coordination between social service agencies and their clients.
In addition, Kuehne said informational brochures about the program had been distributed across the city, and the city’s community development department canvassed the surrounding neighborhood to discuss the project specifics.
“Our county superior court deemed Lodi as an example for our county, and as a result we’ve picked up the mantle, and out county has exhibited such stealth that (the program) has become a model for other counties, as well as the state of California,” he said. “So we have made huge strides. This is one small step in that incremental progress to help the homeless population here in Lodi.”
The council voted unanimously to purchase the property, which once housed a service station and has been vacant for about 25 years.
“I’ve been really impressed with the how proactive everybody has been, especially folks ion the (Lodi) improvement committee and the Committee on Homelessness,” Councilman Mikey Hothi said. “I’m happy to see the renderings and it looks like a good project.”