Press Release | City of San Diego

City Heights Affordable Housing Gets Green Light
City and Partners Secure Nearly $19 million in Tax Credits for the Metro Villas

SAN DIEGO – The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee announced Monday that a City of San Diego redevelopment project will receive an allocation of $18.8 million in federal and state tax credits that will be used to fund new affordable housing units in City Heights. The Metro Villas, the housing component of the Metro Center project, was the only affordable housing development in San Diego to be awarded tax credits.

The efforts of the City of San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency made it possible for the developers (the City Heights Community Development Corporation, San Diego Interfaith Housing Corporation and San Diego Revitalization) to design and construct this unparalleled mixed-use community development project. With a total budget of $42 million, the Metro Center will incorporate office space for regional job training and placement, retail space, a community meeting room, computer center, daycare center and a housing element consisting of 120 units of affordable housing. The $25.5 million housing component will consist of nine three- and four-story apartment buildings, a laundry building and a resident activities building. A 489-space parking structure would be built to serve both the commercial and residential components of the project.

“We have a critical need for decent, affordable, dignified family homes for City Heights residents, and the Metro Center is a model redevelopment project that achieves this goal. It offers quality family housing, located next to a park and transit services, combined with public facilities such as day care, career training, community meeting space and other support services to help families improve their lives," said Councilmember Toni Atkins. "The Metro Center will further revitalization efforts in this Mid-City neighborhood."

The project will feature the Metro Career Center, a custom designed 81,500 square-foot office building, which would primarily house the San Diego Workforce Partnership along with approximately a dozen other public and private agencies that will provide a host of services to assist people from throughout the San Diego region. The Workforce Partnership, together with the San Diego Community College District, provides job training, employment assistance, job referrals, career counselors and workforce development professionals. San Diego Workforce Partnership will be moving from their current, inadequate facility in Kearny Mesa, to the spacious Metro Center located in the heart of a community in need of its services and right on several public transit lines.

Conveniently located next to the recently completed State Route 15 freeway at University Avenue, the Metro Center site is adjacent to three new parks including Teralta Park – built on the four-acre cut and cover deck, four new bridge decks covering State Route 15 freeway, City Heights transit plaza and the express bus service line. There will also be four new elementary schools built in the City Heights area in the next three to four years.

The Metro Villas was made possible through a unique collaborative effort of the City of San Diego, its Redevelopment Agency, City Heights Community Development Corporation, San Diego Interfaith Housing Foundation, San Diego’s Housing Commission, Centre City Development Corporation, and San Diego Revitalization Corporation, the development arm of Price Charities. Redevelopment efforts in City Heights have focused on affordable housing, new commercial and retail space, and improved community facilities and public transit – the Metro Career Center and Metro Villas projects build upon this, truly focusing on community needs.

Clearing of the Metro Center site has begun and construction will commence in early 2003, with an anticipated completion later in the year.

The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) administers two low-income tax credit programs with the purpose of encouraging private investment in rental housing units for low- and very-low-income families and individuals. The TCAC is a seven-member committee consisting of three voting members, including the State Treasurer, the State Director of Finance and the State Controller, as well as four advisors. The Committee meets two times per year; typically allocating tax credits to one or two affordable housing programs in San Diego. The Metro Villas was selected to receive the tax credits based on a number of criteria, including the total number of units set aside for low-income households with an income of less than 50 percent of the area median income.

The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agencyeliminates blight from designated areas, as well as achieves the goals of development, reconstruction and rehabilitation of residential, commercial, industrial, and retail districts. Redevelopment is one of the most effective ways to breathe new life into deteriorated areas plagued by social, physical, environmental or economic conditions that act as a barrier to new investment by private enterprise. The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency consists of three divisions: the City Redevelopment Division (which provides overall agency management and is housed in the City of San Diego Communityand Economic Development Department), the Centre City Development Corporation and the Southeastern Economic Development Corporation.

Community & Economic Development