The Center has begun the initial stages of purchasing a three-story, 23-unit property at 1640 Broadway for a transitional housing facility designed to stabilize 18 to 24-year-old lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and HIV-positive youth (LGBTQ+), and help them successfully transition from homelessness. The 23 units are each 350-square-foot studios meant for single occupants. The LGBTQ+ Youth Housing Project is a collaborative of The Center, Walden Family Services, YMCA Youth and Family Services, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of San Diego and the Chadwick Center at Children’s Hospital.

At a membership meeting on Jan. 27, Delores Jacobs, chief executive officer of The Center, announced the property and other details about the project. She stressed the property currently has tenants and The Center will follow a legal process to help those tenants relocate. As soon as final financing is approved and received, Jacobs expects youth to be able to move into the facility as early as late September or early October.

Jacobs said members of the community will be invited to view inside the property when the current tenants have vacated the premises and the renovations are complete. She warned against trying to view the property from the inside until that point.

The financing for purchasing the building is a three-step process, Jacobs explained. An initial loan secures the property. Then an interim loan eliminates the initial loan and helps renovate the property. The Center is currently moving toward closure on the final set loans, which originate from different sources and will need final approval.

“The idea is to go from the beginning to the end as quickly as you can… ending up with as much of the available housing money as is possible so that a 501c3, like we are, does not end up with all its money into the investment of the building,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs mentioned they were very fortunate this year to receive a renewable grant that will last five years and pay the rent and the operational costs for the youth that stay in the building.

“We believe most of the capital cost is fully covered so we can turn our attention and our fundraising to providing what we think is so important for these youth – and that’s the services that will take them from the streets to productive education, employment, etc.,” said Jacobs.

The Association for Community Housing Solutions (TACHS), a nonprofit social service agency specializing in housing and support services for the homeless, will manage the property and provide an onsite resident manager. The Center will provide supportive services through the Hillcrest Youth Center and also bring in staff from The Center to assist.

The building will not need much renovation aside from making it handicapped-accessible with a ramp and lift, as well as smaller renovations to some of the units’ countertops. The property’s current owner renovated the building four years ago and had plans to turn the apartments into condominiums, but decided to pursue other projects, Jacobs explained.

Jacobs credited the leadership of Reverend Tony Freeman of the MCC; Dr. Heather Berberet, director of mental health at Walden Family Services; Councilmember Toni Atkins and former Center board member Jennifer LeSar for championing this project through to its current state. She also credited LeSar’s background in community development and affordable housing.

“When she [LeSar] walked through this property she just cried. She couldn’t believe we could find something quite this perfect at a lower price than we anticipated,” said Jacobs.

LeSar was excited about the property’s condition as well as its prime location. “We [The Center] have been incredibly fortunate to find an appropriately sized building [with 23 apartments] for our youth housing project that is also in great physical shape, and strategically located next to both Garfield High School and City College, both educational institutions that are a good match for our intended service population,” she said.

Everyone involved wanted to understand how prevalent homelessness was within the GLBT youth population in San Diego. “For three years we have been attempting to understand the problem of LGBT homeless youth and began to find solutions to that problem,” said Jacobs. “One of the things we did was form a collaboration with some other agencies that deal with youth homelessness.”

The Hillcrest Youth Center sees about 100-150 GLBT homeless youth among the 600 youth who visit the center each month. The collaborative estimates that of all homeless youth in San Diego County, 30 percent are believed to be GLBT. Originally the collaborative anticipated finding about 100 youth to interview for the study, but they identified 400 LGBTQ+ homeless youth in the four months of the study.

Jacobs explained there are emergency shelters in San Diego County for LGBTQ+ youth to utilize, but these shelters are limited in their ability to house youth since stay is limited from two weeks to 30 days. Other transitional housing programs have an 18-24 month timeframe for completion of the program.

The affordable supportive housing program The Center will operate will not have a hard timeline for when the youth will have to complete the program. Jacobs explained the research has been clear that setting hard timelines will yield a very high drop-out rate.

“You provide all the wrap-around services in order to move the youth toward more productive lives. For some youth that will mean nine months and for other youth that may mean 30 months.”

The Center is currently taking referrals for youth tenants from multiple professional youth programs around San Diego County.