The first of 11 residential developments on excess county land opened Thursday, as civic leaders celebrated the new Levant Senior Cottages community.
Wakeland Housing and Development built the Linda Vista affordable housing development as part of a partnership with San Diego County and San Diego Kind for vulnerable seniors. Levant has 126 homes, according to a statement from the developer.
The complex, at 4.5 acres, features a mix of single-story, cottage-style bungalows and apartment homes in two-story buildings with elevator service. The homes are surrounded by courtyard gardens and feature a communal kitchen and computer lab, along with a small dog park.
According to Wakeland, at least 20% of the units will be affordable to seniors 55 and older whose resources are 50% or less of the Area Median Income. The remaining units will be affordable to seniors with 60% or less of the AMI.
The units include 32 set aside for seniors identified as frail whose income is extremely low.
Rents range from $603 to $1,206 per month and will not exceed 30% of a resident’s income, according to Wakeland.
“We must be honest about the crisis our region is facing and decide when enough is enough,” said county Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe. She added, “we know that we must do more – we don’t have a choice – we must do more to alleviate the housing burdens for all the people in our region.”
The Levant project was built on land owned by the county and leased to the development for $1 per year for 70 years. The site formerly housed a county child welfare center and later became an empty lot.
The San Diego Housing Commission awarded 70 rental housing vouchers to Levant, which is fully leased, to assist residents. The vouchers are tied to the development. When a resident moves on, the voucher remains with the unit to help another senior.
“The blueprint to help us address this crisis is collaboratives like this one,” said commission Board Chair Eugene Mitchell. “The collaborative – as part of the blueprint for success that will allow us as a community, as a city, to truly address this crisis – must continue.”
The housing commission also authorized $22.9 million in tax-exempt Housing Authority Multifamily Housing Revenue Bonds and $19.7 million in taxable bonds toward financing for the development.
Levant also was funded with $19 million from the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Multifamily Housing Program.
Residents will begin moving into the development in several weeks.
“I’m not going to call it an apartment. I’m calling it a home. I can’t believe the quality of it,” said Earl, a cancer survivor who will receive rental assistance from the housing commission. “I have a place here I can be proud of – a place where I can put up my children’s pictures. I can decorate. There’s actually room to put a TV, which I haven’t had in some time.”
The Wakeland and county partnership has other projects in the works, part of a San Diego County initiative to repurpose excess land as affordable housing. Plans include two adjacent properties in Grantville that will create a combined 334 affordable homes for families and seniors, along with a complex for seniors in Ramona.
– City News Service
