The City of Grover Beach could be adding some affordable housing units in the near future with the help of organizations including Peoples Self-Help Housing and the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO).
Grove Beach City council members and developers met to discuss the plans at Monday's city council meeting to see what needs to be done, and if it's a doable development.
The city-owned lot located on 164 South 13th Street and a privately owned building on West Grand Avenue could become an affordable housing development.
Peoples Self-Help housing and HASLO proposed to create a total of 53 units that will include up to three bedrooms.
"So this will be the first time the city council has heard about what we are proposing exactly. We did go to them initially through a public process that they initiated," said Ken Trigueiro, Peoples' Self-Help Housing CEO.
According to Triguiero, Tuesday's meeting was an opportunity for the council to provide feedback on the project. He added the need for affordable housing in Grover is there.
"Average median income is around $75,000 and yet rents that are at the market [are] really burdensome to that population," Triguiero added.
He says those making 60-percent or below the average median household income would be able to apply.
This would be the first time both housing organizations developed something in Grover Beach.
"We don't have large parcels of land in Grover Beach. We are a small built-out city and there really aren't other properties around the city that would provide this number of affordable housing units in one development," said Matthew Bronson, Grover Beach City Manager.
Bronson says this would also help the city's efforts to create more housing in the community.
"It's really important to provide more housing for those who live and work in our community. If you talk to our local businesses, one of the biggest problems they have is providing housing for employees who live here," he said.
Nothing will be decided or voted on, yet the city along with the organizations involved are having discussions. If approved in the near future, Peoples Self Help Housing CEO says, best case scenario, construction would begin in 2023 and finalized in 2024.
If the project gets the green light, they would name it "Cleaver and Clark Commons" after the Cleaver family, who previously owned part of one lot.
A development like this is set to cost an estimate of about $20 million.
