San Diego County has contracted with the Affirmed Housing Group to build an affordable housing complex in Chollas View, on a Market Street lot that used to house the Health and Human Services Agency’s Southeast Family Resource Center, and now sits vacant.
“The same problems that we had in 1963 is the same conversations we're having now,” said Marry Young, who sits on the Chollas Valley Community Planning Group. “Poor schools, segregation, the concentration of poverty.”Chollas View as a “low resource” area. It has higher poverty rates and lower education and employment levels and home values.
Young said small decisions — like where to locate one affordable housing complex — chips away at the residents’ long term growth. Planning group members said they weren’t consulted by the county before the purpose and developer for the land were chosen, and asked why the development doesn’t follow their goals.
“A lot of people don’t know things are getting built around your community,” she said. “People don’t have the time to attend , are working, or they don’t have the right language.” They said affordable housing could be located somewhere with more resources — higher wealth and more employment opportunities — to give the seniors a shot at better outcomes without worsening already existing poverty.