By County News Center
San Diego, CA–The Board of Supervisors Monday voted to designate three vacant County properties as excess property and to request proposals so that they can be developed into affordable housing.
Two properties are in the City of San Diego. One is the former Northeast Family Resource Center, located at 5001 73rd Street in the College Area. The 1.26-acre property has been vacated by the County Health and Human Services Agency and includes a 22,000-square-foot building that will be demolished in late 2022.
The second property is located at 6255 Mission Gorge Road in the Grantville area. The land includes a 23,385-square-foot building on 0.86 acres that will also be demolished in late 2022, as well as a separate 18,731-square-foot parking lot across Glacier Ave. to the northeast.
The third property is in Escondido, located at 600-620 E. Valley Parkway, and includes 1.88 acres of vacant land that used to be the home of the North Inland Family Resource Center.
By demolishing and clearing the existing structures at the sites in the City of San Diego, at a cost of about $1.29 million, the properties could then be turned over to selected developers in a clean condition and will help expedite the development process for a financially feasible development.
The development of these properties is part of the County’s ongoing efforts to increase the number of affordable housing units in the region. Additional County affordable housing efforts include the availability of No Place Like Home funding, Permanent Local Housing Allocation as well as recent efforts related to Project-Based Housing Vouchers and the Innovative Housing Trust Fund.
In 2017, the County established the Innovative Housing Trust Fund to provide gap financing for developments that create or preserve affordable housing. To date, the $50 million invested in the fund has leveraged $567 million in other public and private funds to create and preserve 1,397 permanent affordable housing units within 20 developments in 15 communities throughout San Diego County. In Aug. 2021, the Board of Supervisors increased funding by $20 million for a total of $70 million.
According to the most recent Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment, about 68,959 affordable housing units are needed regionally for very low and low-income people and households.
All units reserved for low-income individuals and households serve tenant populations earning below 80% area median income, currently $67,900 for a one-person household and $97,000 for a four-person household, with many of the homes reserved for those earning far less.
