SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – New construction is set to start in Downtown San Diego for more than 100 affordable housing units at 16 Street and Island Avenue.
“A one-bedroom apartment right now averages about $2500 here in the City of San Diego. It's very, very expensive, right?” Deacon Jim Vargas of Father Joe’s Village said.
The project located in East Village, which is called 16th & Island, is one of Father Joe’s Villages new affordable housing projects.
“And what this construction means, and it's what these 124 homes will mean that we'll be able to help not only people who are on the streets now,” Vargas said. “But even more importantly, if you think about it, people who are at risk of falling onto the streets.”
Vargas and others broke ground on Thursday for the complex. It’ll support those who are making 30 to 60% of the area median income.
“So, helping to keep people from falling onto the streets very much is part of our mission because we know that once people fall onto the streets, it's a lot more traumatic for them and a lot more costly for the community as well,” Vargas said.
The $47-million-dollar project will also be one of the first affordable housing project in San Diego to use something called mass timber.
“Mass timber really relies on an engineered wood product to replace the traditional structural system that would normally be concrete and steel,” Jodi Rothery, CEO of Arete Development, said.
Rothery is the head of the development company for the project.
She told ABC 10News this type of material allows them to get more units in the space compared to traditional materials like concrete and steel.
“The cost is coming down as well. So that, in addition to the fact that we're also reducing the overall time to build, so we can take a project that's normally 20, 22 months and bring that down to 15, 16 months,” Rothery said.
Construction will begin at the start of next month, with hopes of finishing by March 2028.
