County Funds up to 70 Sleeping Cabins for Homeless

The new proposed site for the sleeping cabins is located at the intersection of Troy Street and Sweetwater Road (2800 Sweetwater Road, Lemon Grove, CA 91945). It is marked on the map below with a red site marker.

The cabins have been moved around a few times. Seems like no one wants them located in their neck of the woods.

When they arrived in Spring Valley, the residents fought hard to keep them out and they were successful.

The proposed property is owned by CalTrans.

We have quite a bit of CalTrans property in Bonita, on the north side of San Miguel Road and east of the campgrounds.

The fact that CalTrans property can be used for other purposes should be a wake-up call to the Bonita community.

Recently, Supervisors Steppe, Lawson-Remer and Anderson voted against the wishes of Bonita residents, two planning groups and Planning Design Guidelines. These three Supervisors voted to plop a storage facility—larger than a Costco—in a quiet rural-residential area. "Community's Argument Against Secure Self Storage Facility Fell On Deaf Ears" tells the story.

For more about the sleeping cabin project, read "Troy Street Sleeping Cabin FAQs" written by District 4 Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe. She discusses how the project was initiated, why the vote happened so quickly and other items of interest.

Recently there has been much talk of the San Diego County deficit. This deficit comes from the Supervisors voting SDCounty a Super Sanctuary county. This vote was led by Nora Vargas, one of the last things she did in office.

Feds, in response, cut all their funds to our County. Supervisor Jim Desmond called for a second vote to remove the status. He and Supervisor Anderson voted against the status while Supervisor Steppe supported it and Supervisor Lawson-Remer abstained . . . causing it to remain in place.

At our last Board of Supervisors meeting, two of my colleagues (Terra Lawson-Remer & Monica Montgomery-Steppe) pushed a reckless proposal to raid the County’s emergency reserves—unlocking nearly $380 million to fund more bloated government spending. This, despite the County projecting a $138 million deficit coming into the next fiscal year, projected to balloon to $321 million in just five years. —Supervisor Jim Desmond | May 13 | Protecting Your Wallet From More Government Waste

As mentioned above, Supervisors Steppe and Lawson-Remer wanted to open up the emergency funds for use. This was after their attempt to get the tax payers to pay more taxes to cover the deficit and their other try at raising the tax on buying a new home. So far, all three proposals have not passed.

The County is broke but they have found money for this project that no one is enamored with. It's going to cost $14.1 million in the first year.

"The County will fully fund the $11.1M one-time design and construction cost for up to 70 sleeping cabins and supportive service space. The County will also fully fund the cost of $3M in annual operations while continuing to advocate for state funding." —Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe

The County mission statement reads ""The noblest motive is the public good". Ponder on that one for a little while.

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