2000 Best Practice Awards

2000-647 San Diego Regional Partners in Homeownership

The San Diego Regional Partners in Homeownership was created on July 26, 1996 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to work in conjunction with the National Partners in Homeownership. Members of this group include representatives from public, private and non-profit organizations. The Partners’ purpose is to promote the value of homeownership in the San Diego region. The main objectives include cutting the costs of homeownership, opening markets and expanding opportunities for homeownership.

In 1999, the San Diego Regional Partners in Homeownership conducted special outreach efforts to renters and homebuyers in the San Diego region. As part of collaborative efforts between its members to make resources available to homebuyers, the Partnership drafted "Homebuying Made Easy," a brochure to encourage homeownership and attendance at homeownership education classes. This brochure was translated into Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese, to correspond to the types of classes offered to the public.

2000-87 Vistans R.O.C. (Revitalizing Our Community)

The intent of Vistans R.O.C. was to create a sense of community and to revitalize an entire street in the Townsite neighborhood within the City of Vista, California. Over 850 volunteers converged on the street, East Los Angeles, for one day to clean up and paint 22 homes. Volunteers came from all over the neighboring communities, including local business owners, local charitable organizations, local public and private schools, and community groups. New landscaping and picket fences were installed for the homes of the participants. Absentee landlords contributed a fee so their homes would be included.

Vistans R.O.C. will be an annual event with other blocks in the revitalization strategy area being chosen. As a follow up, SER Inc. and Washington Mutual Bank are continuing to rehabilitate homes further down the street and are conducting a contest for the best exterior enhancement on two adjacent streets.

2000-165 San Diego HUD Office Annual Report 2000

This spiraled 26-page report describes HUD programs and accomplishments in San Diego and Imperial Counties for Fiscal Year 1999. HUD’s funded programs, HUD Community Builders and Field Office Staff members are listed. Through colorful photographs, it showcases success stories, features developments/projects, and highlights special efforts in the San Diego region to attain HUD’s six strategic goals. It features the many faces and activities of our community partners. This is an informative document, helping to restore public trust by highlighting accomplishments, describing results, and informing the general community about how HUD staff and HUD programs assist needy persons and aid communities. Click here to view more photos.

2000-166 Oxford Terrace Apartments "Community of Helping Hands"

The Oxford Terrace Apartments in Chula Vista, California, is not only a beautiful apartment complex but is truly an "Apartment Community of Helping Hands." This 132-unit HUD-assisted family complex uses resident volunteers community partners, and concerned management staff to run a service enriched apartment community. Services to the residents include a monthly food distribution program, staff a computer learning center that includes Internet connection, help with a mobile medical screening and testing program, "English as a Second Language" program, CPR and First Aid Classes, resident shuttle service, and active partnership with local law enforcement in a Crime Free Multi-Housing program.

2000-1644 North County Housing Summit for "Regional Solutions"

The Housing and Neighborhood Services Department of the City of Oceanside called together elected officials, civic leaders and housing specialists from across North San Diego County to discuss the growing problem of housing for low- and moderate-income families. Over 100 participants gathered to share their experiences, to identify resources, to develop strategic plans to address the problem and to form a coalition of stake holders to obtain political and community support.

2000-2649 Maya Apartments

Maya Apartments, a 132-unit apartment complex is located in the northern area of the City of San Diego in the community of Mira Mesa. It was acquired and rehabilitated by the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) using HOME funds and tax-exempt bonds, and is operated by SDHC as a mixed-income residential community. The Maya Apartments consist of 40 units with rents affordable to very-low-income households (50 percent MAI) and the remaining units are rented at market-rate. HOME units are "floating" (fully dispersed throughout the complex; the property manager maintains discretion over which units are affordable).

2000-167 Community Opportunities Program Section 8 Symposiums On October 15, 1999 and January 14, 2000, the Fair Housing

Council of San Diego, Inc., conducted symposiums (as part of a free series ) under the auspices of its Community Opportunities Program (CO), a housing counseling and mobility program. The Section 8 Symposiums sought to encourage owners and apartment managers to participate in the Section 8 housing rental assistance program. Conference planners invited property Managers and Owners of Rental Property and provided a presentation on how the Section 8 housing program currently being implemented by five local housing authorities in the San Diego region offered more benefits than ever for property owners.

The Symposiums created the opportunity to change a sometimes negative image which regional owners may have about housing subsidy programs. Especially in San Diego where some HUD housing units are "at risk" of being lost, it is extremely important to keep the lines of communication open with property owners. These owners are crucial to recruit as housing providers for low and moderate income and workforce families. Without an adequate supply of housing and the cooperation of the owners, housing goals of HUD programs will go unmet. Education programs for owners are much appreciated.

2000-648 Parker-Kier Building

The beautifully renovated Parker-Kier Building is heralded as the first development of its kind in San Diego. Winner of a coveted national award from the Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, the 34-unit rental housing facility provides affordable housing to a critically undeserved population of homeless persons living with mental illness while preserving a piece of San Diego’s architectural heritage.

2000-994 Critical Hours Program of Greater Golden Hill CDC

The Critical Hours Program operated by Greater Golden Hill Community Development Corporation (GGHCDC) provides computer and internet access for middle school aged youth along with tutoring, sports field trips and health, tobacco and substance abuse classes. Started in 1998, the Program is in a facility in the northern part of the Golden Hill community of San Diego County. GGHCDC has provided after school art and dance programs, four days a week at the local elementary school since 1992. Over 200 youth participate on a weekly basis.

2000-1071 8th Annual Nonprofit Federation Conference

The Nonprofit Federation for Housing and Community Development (NPF) holds a conference in the fall of each year. The 8th Annual Nonprofit Conference held on October 28, 1999 was extremely successful with over 275 registered participants and 50 speakers. This annual conference is one of the few opportunities to bring together from the entire San Diego region groups, agencies and individuals who produce and manage affordable rental housing, who work with the homeless, who work to increase homeownership and who provide economic development. The NPF staff recruits volunteers from diverse groups to produce sessions and workshops as well as awarding scholarships to tenant groups to ensure to a broad diversity of representation.

2000-1153 San Martin de Porres Apartments

The project sponsors, Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee MAAC) Project and the Diocese of San Diego, utilized low income housing tax credits funds to assist in the development of the San Martin de Porres Apartments (San Martin Apartments). San Martin Apartments is a 116-unit multifamily housing complex located in the unincorporated area of San Diego County, Spring Valley. The development seeks to fulfill MAAC’s theme of "more than housing". This model provides shelter first, but works to build a supportive community that includes quality property management, tenant governance councils, culturally-sensitive social services, work skill enhancement programs, community leadership and organization, and intervention strategies for children and youth.

2000-1302 University Canyon Learning Opportunity Center

Funded primarily through the Multifamily Housing Drug Elimination Grant, with additional program services provided through outside partnerships, the UNIVERSITY CANYON LEARNING OPPORTUNITY CENTER provides a rich variety of educational and training opportunities for residents while also emphasizing positive, growth-enhancing activities for youth as alternatives to their becoming entangled with gang and drug activity. University Canyon is a 120-unit family complex operated by the San Diego Housing Commission and is located in Linda Vista, a diverse community located near the center of the City of San Diego.

2000-1636 Community Resource Center Programs of the City of Oceanside

As the City of Oceanside teamed with neighborhood organizations for improvement and public safety programs, it was quickly obvious that the target low-income neighborhoods needed facilities for meetings and activities as well as a venue for programs offered by social service and health agencies. The Police Department needed neighborhood sites for community policing programs. Leaders in two neighborhoods identified sites to serve as resource centers and renovated the buildings with volunteer help. The City developed two other sites as resource centers. Each resource center serves the neighborhood with programs to improve the health and well-being of individuals and families. The centers are a concrete example of what committed residents, concerned officials and skilled professionals can accomplish when they work together over a long time to improve neighborhoods.

2000-1305 The Home Ownership Coalition of San Diego County

Community Interface Services, a private non-profit agency that supports adults with developmental disabilities, has for several years led the efforts of The Home Ownership Coalition of San Diego County. The Coalition is a group of local service providers who came together to increase home ownership opportunities for persons with developmental disabilities.

As part of Community Interface Service’s education and outreach efforts, a home ownership video, entitled, "Chasing the Dream: A Home for David," was produced. This video follows an actual home buyer through the process as he struggles for, and eventually achieves his dream of home ownership. The video has been aired many times on the local cable access channel and widely distributed as a means of informing and educating the general public as well as potential homebuyers.

2000-1528 Take Wing Transitional Housing Facility

TAKE WING is a transitional housing program for homeless youth, the majority of which are young mothers below the age of 21. Take Wing is the only such program of its kind in San Diego County. The program offers 33 apartments in a safe five building complex. Residents pay minimal rent, and must participate in the ongoing Independent Living Skills curriculum, be attending school, and/or be involved in job training or be employed. The average length of stay is 12-18 months. The residents are 70% ethnic minorities.The facility is a safe haven located in the quiet Point Loma community of San Diego. The staff of the Take Wing facility are professional, caring, and go through extra lengths to provide the best quality service for its residents and participants.

2000-1498 Grand Avenue Safe Housing

Grand Avenue Apartments is a three-building, twelve-unit apartment complex purchased by the Housing Authority of the County of San Diego (HACSD) to provide housing for recovering parents undergoing substance abuse treatment. The Juvenile Court Dependency System refers families to HHSA for drug and alcohol treatment and reunification with their children. If they agree to undergo treatment and remain drug and alcohol free parents can then move into an available unit. While living in this complex parents receive substance abuse treatment, anger management, child care referrals, job preparation and counseling so that they can retain custody of their children. The hope is they can then find employment and achieve independence. There are 3,000 new child abuse cases per year in the court system in San Diego County courts. 80% or more of those cases involve alcoholism or drug addition by parents. Grand Avenue Apartments greatly expanded the local courts’ ability to assist recovering parents and to assist in the parents’ unification with their children.

2000-669 San Diego Countywide Credit Needs Assessment

The San Diego Reinvestment Task Force, a partnership of local government, lenders and community based nonprofit organizations, developed a research study and methodology which objectively assess "access to credit" in the San Diego region. This study examined the data and factors which reduced access to credit and compared them with other communities. San Diego Reinvestment Task Force’s concern for "access to credit" grew out of the closure of most large locally based lending institutions and the dramatic series of mergers which consumed most small local banks.

2000-10 City of El Cajon Integrated Housing Element and Consolidated Plan

The Housing Element and Consolidated Plan (HE/CP) for the City of El Cajon is an integrated planning document that satisfies both the California Housing Element requirements and the HUD Consolidated Plan requirements for entitlement grant programs. This Best Practice nomination represents an innovative approach to combining and aligning required City programs for housing and community development. Pursuant to California Housing Element law, El Cajon is required to prepare a Housing Element (HE) for the period of July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2004. The HE provides an analysis of the community’s housing needs based on demographic trends and housing market conditions, an evaluation of constraints to housing development, and an inventory of residential land and financial resources. The focus of the HE is a comprehensive housing plan with goals, policies, and implementation programs to address identified needs and mitigate constraints with available resources.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011