Affordable Housing Grant Programs are designed to provide houses at affordable rates to families who may need them. This program is having success in Los Angeles County and the Bay Rea where they are on track to receive more than $400 million this year. However, this is not the case for San Diego. The city won’t be getting any funding from a program that was founded to support low-income housing and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

What is the reason that San Diego won’t be receiving any money from these grants? A local nonprofit Circulate San Diego issued a report that stated that San Diego has poor performance in competing for these housing grants and recommends better coordination take place between the affordable housing developers and the local governments. This coordination needs to be reflected in the applications in order for San Diego to effectively compete for the grant money.

An outside factor that could be playing against the city of San Diego is heavy rail stations. San Diego has few heavy rail stations and that is where the Strategic Growth Council prioritizes locations for affordable housing.

Carlsbad-based Chelsea Investment Corp attempted to obtain $20 million to support housing and an additional $10 million to improve public transportation infrastructure around the site of a former Sheriff’s Department crime Lab in Clairmont. This site will provide 404 units of low-income housing. The director of the program is disappointed that their application fell short considering both affordable housing and homelessness crises are getting worse in the city.

While the 404 units are still going to be built, the director states that the money from the affordable housing grant could have significantly reduced the time it will take to build these houses. When the time is reduced on these housing projects, people are able to move into their new homes sooner and the homelessness problem in the city is reduced quicker. This provides hope for those who are working diligently to reduce both problems of affordable housing and homelessness in the city of San Diego. Luckily, suggestions were made to help future applications for the San Diego area. This will help applicants provide stronger applications and hopefully receive money to speed up the build in the San Diego area in the future.