Windsor Pointe reaches boiling point
CARLSBAD — A once quiet neighborhood has become weary of a controversial supportive housing project as complaints and concerns have piled up.
Neighbors near Windsor Pointe are stressing and begging city and county officials to address long-standing problems to the point where many are calling for the city to cut ties with the development. Windsor Pointe is part of The No Place Like Home program and was approved by the City Council in 2020, opened in 2022 and has been a burden on the Barrio neighborhood ever since, residents said.
The project is owned by the Affirmed Housing Group, although residents have dug through hundreds of documents and are questioning the legitimacy of the project. Residents expressed continued frustration with crimes, safety and a lack of transparency leading to uncertainty and fear about what is happening inside the walls.
The City Council will address the issue during Tuesday’s meeting and many residents will be in attendance. The two sites are at 965 Oak Ave. and 3606 Harding St.
“People are distancing themselves from it and falling back on there’s nothing we be done,” resident Denis Jensen said. “We’re exposing all these problems with the lease and legislative process. The money being lit on fire is insane.”
In addition, former City Councilman Mark Packard spoke at a recent City Council meeting calling for Windsor Pointe to be declared a public nuisance and to be shut down. Packard was the only council member to vote against the project in 2020 when he was on the council.
“There’s a lot of illegal activities happening there and also a lot of dangerous activities happening there,” Packard said at the Jan. 30 meeting. “I’m here to ask the council because the council has the authority, to declare a public nuisance. The council has the authority and can order an abatement. There are other avenues of vacating it and repurposing it for what it was originally planned.”
The project was first approved in 2017 as a housing project for homeless veterans with the City Council approving $4.25 million from the Housing Trust Fund to help cover construction costs, according to previous reports. The project was estimated to cost $21.4 million and Affirmed Housing sought other funding sources.
However, in August 2019 a funding gap remained, and the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency gave $10.14 million in funding for the No Place Like Home program, according to the city staff report. NPLH required 24 of the 50 units to be reserved for individuals with severe mental illness.
On Jan. 28, 2020, the City Council approved an additional request of $4 million to a total financing package of $8.2 million in a combination of land purchase/leaseback and residual receipts loan, per the staff report.
The non-NPLH units would be prioritized for lower-income military veterans and homeless veterans, the staff report reads. The project was constructed for $28 million with $13 million coming from a tax credit equity.
ncG1vNJzZmimk6W2sbHLoqWeZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe9aipZ2rn6d6sbvIp6ueZaKarqS0xKxkm6eZobavs4yppqKmpA%3D%3D