Lost in much of the initial coverage of County Board Chair Nora Vargas’s announcement she would rescind a county plan to use state dollars to put 150 sleeping cabins on a plot in Spring Valley was the awkward fact that her fellow board members must vote to kill it.
It’s unclear how a board majority will react to Vargas’s pitch on Tuesday when they meet to discuss it. What is clear is that the state will not keep $10 million set aside for San Diego County’s tiny-home project while county officials try to identify a new site — if they try to find one.
Background: Vargas caught even county insiders off guard recently when she called for the county to rescind the plan. The decision followed opposition from Spring Valley residents who think the site is too close to schools and parks. Vargas’s about-face came a few months after the board’s unanimous March vote to accept the $10 million from the state. Vargas and her colleagues also directed millions in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the project.
Tuesday, Vargas will ask fellow supervisors to nix the plan and direct county bureaucrats to negotiate with the state to still access the $10 million grant fund for a yet-to-be determined “alternate site. ” Vargas also wants county officials to look at “alternative homeless solutions in Spring Valley.”
“I strongly believe that we can identify more thoughtful solutions by working with affected communities,” Vargas wrote in a statement last week.
But we have two questions: Are other supervisors on board and are they eyeing other potential sites? Is there any chance the county could hold onto the grant funds already set aside for the region if they identified a site?
Spokespeople for Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe and Jim Desmond declined to comment last week.
Only Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer said she’ll vote against Vargas’s proposal.
“Right now unhoused people live in encampments near the planned tiny cabin site, their quality of life would be improved with easy access to services and tiny cabins,” Lawson-Remer wrote in a statement. “We should not give the state back $10 million given the severity of the homelessness crisis.”
Lawson-Remer also suggested the county revisit county-owned locations it previously eyed for tiny homes.
Matthew G. Phy, a spokesperson for Supervisor Joel Anderson, said he wouldn’t comment on how he’ll vote this week but separately noted past county property searches for homeless-serving projects. Phy said Anderson is “committed to continuously working with his constituents to identify appropriate sites for emergency shelters” in the areas he represents given the significant unsheltered population in East County. (The Spring Valley site is now in Vargas’s district.)
But if supervisors vote Tuesday to direct staff to look more closely at other sites, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom told Voice it’s unlikely they’ll hold onto the $10 million.
“This proposed Board action restarts the county’s efforts on this project — putting them well past deadlines they agreed to in their signed agreement with the state,” Newsom spokesperson Daniel Lopez wrote in an email. “This proposed action leaves it entirely uncertain as to when, or if, they could find an alternative site. The state is not interested in open-ended delays and uncertain delivery on this important project to help address the housing and homelessness crisis.”
Wow. The Board will do anything to avoid dealing with homelessness in San Diego County, won’t it? Even when they “decide” to “pursue” an idea, they just kill it later on because some NIMBY group doesn’t like it.
What the NIMBY groups don’t realize — or don’t care to realize — is that their constant, knee-jerk temper tantrums are a big part of what has made homelessness in SD County as much of a crisis as it is. Combined with our governments’ total inability do things like make decisions, have meaningful policies, and actually govern, I can’t imagine a solution to the homelessness problem in SD County any time soon.
as a member of the community, i was the auutistic adult liveing in my bent yaris haveing meltdowns 2 years ago. the community needs this. stop playimg games. alot of the homless are from spri g valley. do it for jack stop playing around.
10 million for 150 sleeping cabins. $67 thousand a cabin? Have politicians become desperate they can’t think straight?
Chris- it is not that cost per pod. It is the cost to run the program, provide services to those pod communities and so on. There were prior articles covering this: https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2024/02/02/san-diego-countys-homeless-sleeping-cabins-need-service-providers-and-land-to-operate?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2b4hNXxLdTC4Bf6y_n2Ox9zG97gjHoLqCa8DyJ1TNASd-y-4JlXWvWngM_aem_MCAIZpDkcv4KtPCJTupKBw