County supervisors decided Tuesday to move forward with a sleeping cabin project in Lemon Grove even if the state won’t help pay for it.
Last month, board Chair Nora Vargas persuaded other supervisors to rescind a previously-planned tiny home project in Spring Valley that faced community pushback and had been backed with a $10 million pledge from the state. At the time, Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe persuaded her board colleagues to ask county officials to explore whether they could pursue a smaller Lemon Grove site instead and try to hold onto the state grant.
The state gave the county an answer hours before Tuesday’s vote. It essentially said no. On Monday, the state’s Department of General Services sent the county a termination notice saying the county has blown through deadlines tied to the state grant and appeared unlikely to meet the state’s deadlines to expend the $10 million grant and finish the project by Dec. 31, 2025. The county had hoped to open the Spring Valley site in November 2025.
Politico broke the news on the letter early Tuesday, reporting that San Jose is now set to get state cash initially set aside for San Diego County. A Governor’s Office spokesperson panned the county in a statement sent to Voice of San Diego.
“San Diego County could not move with the urgency the housing and homelessness crisis demands,” spokesperson Izzy Gardon wrote in an email. “The governor is committed to accountability, and we will not allow local delays and opposition to impede the state’s unprecedented efforts to get people off the streets and into housing.”
During Tuesday’s board meeting, supervisors were forced to confront the reality of the lost grant. They ultimately voted 4-0 with Vargas absent to move forward with the Lemon Grove project with an estimated 70 sleeping cabins, which is expected to require $11.1 million in one-time construction and design costs, plus $3 million for annual operations. (The Spring Valley project included 150 planned cabins.)
Montgomery Steppe and fellow Supervisor Joel Anderson both said they want the county to continue engaging with the state.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Montgomery Steppe told Voice her office has been in communication with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office since before supervisors decided to cancel the Spring Valley plan — in hopes of maintaining the grant and a positive working relationship.
“I have a responsibility to make sure that I am leaving all solutions on the table with regard to our homeless population,” Montgomery Steppe said. “I just didn’t want to see that $10 million and the sleeping cabins leaving our county without another solution.”
She hopes Tuesday’s vote will show the county’s resolve to deliver a solution and said she’s hopeful for more partnership with the state on homelessness solutions, even if it decides against supporting the Lemon Grove project. Montgomery Steppe said she also plans to urge county staff to deliver the Lemon Grove project more rapidly than the 24-month timeline laid out during Tuesday’s meeting.
“This is an urgent issue and people have to see the impact,” Montgomery Steppe said.
Don’t know if I am missing something but it seems to me that $11.1 million for 70 sleeping cabins should be able to buy $11,100,000/70 = $158,571 a single wide mobile home and set it up.
From Web “…According to a 2022 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, a single-wide mobile home on the west coast costs $91,900, while a double-wide unit costs $156,100.Oct 19, 2022…”
Also the $3,000,000/70 cost per year = $42,857 (operating cost per cabin) seems high. I guess if two people shared a single wide mobile home it might make more sense in that the cost per person would be $20,800 and they would have a better chance to reenter society than in a “sleeping cabin”.
70 cabins. 11.1 million to build and 3 million operating costs. That’s over $201,000 PER CABIN. FOR TINY HOMES. Are you people nuts? Apparently.