(image credit: Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 04: The sculpture on the portico of Flower Street facade at the Richard J. Riordan Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library in Los Angeles on Sunday, December 4, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
San Diego, California – The San Diego City Council has approved a contract with Community HousingWorks, a nonprofit, to transform the vacant Serra Mesa Library into a 60-unit affordable apartment complex.
The project, named Serra Mesa Apartments, will provide housing for households earning between 30% and 60% of the city’s average income, with a focus on those at high risk of homelessness. Approximately half of the units will be reserved for veterans.
The complex will consist primarily of one-bedroom apartments, with four two-bedroom units, including one for an on-site manager. Amenities will include 22 parking spaces, laundry facilities, a case management and resident services area, bike parking, a community room, a computer lab, and a second-story courtyard.
Community HousingWorks will operate the complex under a 65-year ground lease, allowing the city to retain ownership of the 0.34-acre lot. The council also approved a $4 million loan through the city’s “Bridge to Home” program to support the $42.4 million project.
“Serra Mesa Apartments is precisely the type of project my policies are designed to incentivize — affordable housing on underused public land, in high-resource neighborhoods with easy access to quality jobs, transit, schools, and essential services,” said Mayor Todd Gloria.
The former library, which closed in 2006, has been vacant for nearly two decades. The city began seeking proposals for its conversion into permanent supportive housing in 2020. A previous proposal to use the site as a youth homeless shelter was abandoned in favor of the apartment complex.
Construction is expected to take approximately 26 months, beginning within the next 18 months, pending the completion of additional financing by Community HousingWorks.
