AREA FIGHTS HOMELESSNESS
Efforts in South County include Chula Vista building first-of-its-kind shelter with 65 prefab units opening soon
South County has lagged behind others parts of the region in offering shelter to those experiencing homelessness, but city leaders say collective efforts are under way to change that.
Come May 15, a long-awaited and first-of-its-kind homeless shelter in San Diego County will open in Chula Vista. Imperial Beach could have access to the site via a mutual agreement, and National City gets a mobile shower as an organization works toward opening a shelter there next year.
Chula Vista Village at Otay
In Chula Vista, what was once a vacant lot on 27th Street adjacent to the Otay Valley Regional Park is now a community of 65 white prefab shelter units that will serve as bridge housing for homeless people.
It’s called the Chula Vista Village
at Otay.
“This transitional shelter will be safe for people to get back on their feet and provide dignity to our unsheltered,
so they feel welcomed and have an opportunity to stay off the streets,” Mayor John McCann said Tuesday as he toured the site.
Unlike typical walk-in shelters, the village will only accommodate single individuals referred by the city’s Homeless Outreach Team, the team’s coordinator Hugo Cardenas said. The outreach team consists of police officers, Psychiatric Emergency Response Team clinicians, county social workers and nonprofits that serve homeless people.
“We all work together, talk together and then figure out who the clients are,” Cardenas said. “Once we do that, then we’ll make a reservation with the city and say, ‘Hey, this client is coming.’ ”
The team will prioritize people experiencing homelessness in Chula Vista. The goal is to help them secure a job and rental assistance for long-term housing within three months.
“It’s a 90-day program,” Cardenas said. “After every 30 days, we’re
assessing them to make sure they’re still working hard and make sure this is still the right place for them because they face other issues like mental health and sometimes health.”
City Net, which the city hired last year to run its yearround shelter, will have case managers link village residents to resources for health care, mental health, and drug and alcohol treatment.
People on the streets of Chula Vista have received these and other resources, but when it came to finding emergency beds, there have been few options. Unless individuals travel outside of South County, they are limited to trying to secure motel vouchers from the Chula Vista outreach team. Local nonprofit SBCS offers several dozen emergency beds in the south region. Those are available to families from anywhere in the county who are victims of domestic violence or individuals between the ages of 18 and 24.
The village will start by offering 65 beds, though the city could double that number, as each of the 64square-foot units comes with two beds, said Angelica Davis, the city’s homeless solutions manager.
While often referred to as tiny homes, these units do not have plumbing, kitchens or in-unit bathrooms like traditional tiny homes. But the Chula Vista shelters do provide basic amenities for a comfortable stay.
Each comes with insulated walls, heat and air conditioning, an emergency exit, shelving, a table and chair, bedding, power outlets, windows with curtains and a locking door. The site also offers security at all hours; two trailers for showers, restrooms and laundry; and two 400-square-foot units for meals and case management. Residents can bring their pets, bicycles and other belongings, which the city will store on site.
Privacy is one of the reasons Chula Vista decided to build the site and forgo using a shelter tent it had received for free in 2020. Residents and community organizations criticized the city’s decision to return the structure, which had a capacity of 250 beds, to the nonprofit Lucky Duck. Officials repeatedly said that a tent lacked privacy, but advocates argued that using it, even temporarily, was better than having no shelter.
Chula Vista wanted to open the village last year, but the pandemic presented manufacturing and supply chain issues with the site’s electrical panel and other equipment, Davis said. The city also had to wait for land use approval from the California Conservancy for the parcel, and it took time to carefully design safety measures for the site. Each unit, for example, has fire sprinklers.
It’s a project officials say they are really proud of, despite the delays. It’s one “with a vision of humanity, compassion and dignity for all unhoused folks,” CouncilmemVista
ber Andrea Cardenas, whose district includes the shelter, said in a statement.
Chula Vista invested about $5 million in local, state and federal dollars for the project. The total cost for the units, by builder Pallet Shelter, was $700,000, said Davis.
A partnership with a neighboring city
Imperial Beach has food pantries and weekly shower services for homeless people, but no shelter.
The small coastal city and Chula Vista are considering a partnership in which Imperial Beach would pay to have access to the village. Imperial Beach has more than 20 people living without shelter, while Chula
has about 200, according to the 2022 homeless count released by the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness.
Imperial Beach is considering using about $430,000 in leftover federal stimulus money to enter into a formal agreement with Chula Vista, said Mayor Paloma Aguirre.
Access to the village would be ideal because “we’re built out and we’re very small,” said Aguirre, adding that the city is working on other efforts aimed at preventing homelessness.
Most recently, the Imperial Beach City Council approved extending an emergency ordinance banning evictions at mobile home and recreational vehicle parks — some of the few
remaining sources of affordable housing. Late last year, the City Council also greenlighted an affordable housing project aimed at helping seniors who are struggling to make ends meet.
Another shelter under way
Meanwhile, in National City, a 162-bed shelter run by the San Diego Rescue Mission is expected to open in the spring of 2024.
Rescue Mission CEO Donnie Dee on Wednesday held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a mobile shower that will be used for outreach at the shelter at South Bay Community Church on Euclid Avenue.
When up and running, the mobile shower will travel to Chula Vista, Imperial
Beach and National City as part of a regional approach to addressing homelessness, Dee said.
The shelter will be in the former school at the church, and the demolition stage has been completed, he said. Separate areas will be reserved for men, women and families. The building is already plumbed for showers and has a kitchen for on-site meal preparation.
Dee refers to the shelter as a navigation center because it will include services for housing and issues related to being homeless. Clients will not be permitted to leave the site except for work, school or medical appointments, and Dee said the average stay is expected to be 30 days.
National City has about 150 people without shelter, according to the 2022 homeless count.
Mayor Ron Morrison said the city is in the process of hiring a homeless coordinator after the City Council last fiscal year set aside money to create the position.
He said South County mayors are also set to meet with county Supervisor Nora Vargas, whose District 1 includes South County, to ramp up efforts to address homelessness.
“In the last four years, we haven’t seen this dialogue,” Morrison said. “We’re all close enough and I think we can come together to combine our resources rather than duplicate them because otherwise we just create separate silos.”