SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – You’ve seen the building on 14th Street and Imperial Avenue and the people around it walking to a Padres game or just being in the heart of East Village.
It’s the home of the Homelessness Response Center, or the HRC, for short. The building is a resource hub for the unhoused run by the San Diego Housing Commission, the City of San Diego and homeless outreach groups, which can help people get into housing.
“We live to help people out of their circumstances. A home is what breaks the cycle of homelessness,” Deacon Jim Vargas of Father Joe’s Villages said.
Vargas told ABC 10News that San Diego’s City Council made a big decision about the site.
“The Council approved our purchase - Father Joe’s Villages’ purchase - of the building,” Vargas said.
The City of San Diego said on Tuesday that the council voted to approve the agreement to sell the HRC’s building to Father Joe’s Villages, which will turn it into affordable housing.
“I think being able to pivot it to so many - I think it’s 164 housing units - is terrific,” Lisa Jones, President and CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission, said. “The need for looking to develop more affordable housing in the East Village and in that area has certainly been a key initiative of the city and continues to be of the commission, too.”
The city told ABC 10News that in Jan. 2023, then Council President and current Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, former Council President Pro-Tem Monica Montgomery Steppe, and Councilmember Raul Campillo issued a memorandum expressing a desire to see the property become affordable homes.
Father Joe’s was selected after a request for proposal process started in Feb. 2024.
ABC 10News previously covered the possibility of affordable housing or shelter beds at the building that’s home to the HRC in April 2023.
Vargas told ABC 10News it doesn’t plan to demolish the existing structure that houses the HRC, and the new affordable housing complex would be built on top of it.
“We’re going to build a 15-story structure. A beautiful structure and that will have the 164 homes in them,” Vargas said. “And so, we’ll have over 200 people either who we take off the streets or we keep from falling onto the streets.”
Vargas hopes people will call the affordable housing complex home by mid-2028.
As for the resource center, it could have a new spot in downtown soon.
"Looking forward to taking that to our board on June 20. And really making sure that these services can continue and meet people's needs,” Jones said.
