CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – Two South Bay communities have reached an agreement to help resolve the homelessness crisis in the region.
62 beds at the tiny homes for the homeless in Chula Vista are able to temporarily house folks from Imperial Beach. Mayor Mitch McKay of Imperial Beach told ABC 10News there’s excess capacity at the Chula Vista resource.
“So, we reached out to them and said, hey, in kind of a collaborative sort of exercise,” McKay said. “Would you consider allowing us to - paying the cost, whatever your costs are, we would pay them, - but allow us to, when we have individuals in our community that are willing to go into a treatment-type facility and are ready for it.”
McKay told ABC 10News both city councils approved a deal this week to allow Imperial Beach’s homeless population to be able to use the tiny home bridge shelter.
It boils down to whether an Imperial Beach homeless individual is willing to go to the tiny homes for help; they’ve vetted and approved them, and if there’s space, they can go to the tiny homes for help.
The City of Chula Vista told ABC 10News its residents would still be prioritized.
“This agreement does not reserve beds. So, it's not that we're going to be holding beds specifically for Imperial Beach clients,” Stacey Kurz, Director of Housing & Homeless Services for the City of Chula Vista, said. “This is on an as-needed, as-available basis, and so they would be charged a nightly rate for every night that an individual from Imperial Beach stays in our shelter.”
However, there were some from Chula Vista who spoke out against the idea, including Councilmember Michael Inzunza.
“I have a lot of doubts on how this is going to happen. The City of Imperial Beach, if they send us, say, on day one two to 10 residents, unsheltered folks, once they're in our shelters, they can leave at any time,” Inzunza said.
Inzunza mentioned a concern if those added people leave the shelter, they might go to the Chula Vista riverbeds, behind buildings and in alleyways in the city.
That would add to the City’s unsheltered population, which the latest Point In Time Count numbers show was 355 people; about a 25 percent drop from 2025.
“I'm very worried: if we take on the responsibility of all the homeless residents from Imperial Beach, what's next? Is it going to be National City? Is it going to be South San Diego?” Inzunza said. “It shouldn't be the responsibility of Chula Vista to take on homeless residents from neighboring cities.”
McKay said his City doesn’t have that many homeless people to begin with -the Point in Time showed 25 people in 2026 - and anticipates maybe three to four people a year going into the tiny homes.
“If Chula Vista did have a small surge in unsheltered, they could, they could put up the stop sign and say, hey, we're full,” McKay said.
The City of Chula Vista told ABC 10News it anticipates the deal being signed sometime next week, and then it would become effective.
