Developers: Father Joe's Villages and Chelsea Investment Corp.
Architect: Joseph Wong Design Associates
Major Funders: California Tax Credit Allocation Committee; California Department of Housing and Community Development; California Housing Finance Agency; California Pollution Control Financing Authority; U.S. Bank; First 5 Commission; Province of St. Augustine of California; city of San Diego; San Diego Redevelopment Agency; County of San Diego Mental Health Services; San Diego Housing Commission; Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco; Mission Federal Credit Union
15th & Commercial incorporates permanent affordable housing, transitional housing, and a development center for homeless children all on one site. Developed by Father Joe's Villages and Chelsea Investment Corp., the new 12-story building is located in downtown San Diego.
There are 64 affordable and supportive-housing units on floors eight through 11. Forty-nine of the studios are reserved for individuals earning no more than 30 or 35 percent of the area median income and who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with a special need such as a mental illness or HIV/AIDS.
The development also features 75 transitional-housing units off ering 150 beds for homeless single men on floors four through seven. These beds replace a program that was previously on the site.
The bottom three floors feature a child development center that will serve up to 340 homeless and needy children each year. Many of the children will come from the neighboring Joan Kroc Center, a 313-bed transitional-housing shelter.
“The solution to homelessness is not one size fits all,” says Sister Patricia Cruise, president and CEO of Father Joe's Villages.
15th & Commercial is the first building in the region to incorporate all of its uses in one location. The total development cost is $58.7 million. Developers assembled more than a dozen funding sources, including the Tax Credit Exchange Program.