A “unique” and “creative” solution to building more affordable housing in San Juan Capistrano and providing the community with an improved City Hall celebrated its completion this week.
The town’s new $10 million City Hall opened earlier this year, replacing facilities that decades ago were supposed to be a temporary situation with a 16,000-square-foot, two-story building with enough offices and spaces to meet staff’s needs, council chambers and meeting rooms and a front counter to serve the community.
The construction of the new City Hall allowed the city to dedicate part of the property on Paseo Adelanto to a 50-unit housing project, Salida del Sol, the grand opening of which was marked by community leaders and new residents on Thursday, Sept. 4.
“This is a unique project,” Mayor Troy Bourne said. “It was unique when it was thought of; its execution was unique.”
“This is a genius idea that came from our staff,” he added, “addressing housing needs and providing residents with a city hall they could be proud of.”
The city partnered with Jamboree Housing Corporation on the all-affordable complex, with a majority of units prioritized toward housing families and veterans with ties to San Juan Capistrano.
In the three-story building, there are 40 units of “supportive housing” for formerly homeless individuals and veterans who are earning less than 30% of the area median income and another nine units for families earning less than 50% of the area median.
On-site resources, such as mental health counseling and life skills education, will support residents to help them be successful, officials said. Telecare Home First Central, the OC Health Care Agency and Orange County’s Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing team will help with services.
The housing is using about 1.2 acres of the city’s property and is the first in Orange County to be built in conjunction with a city hall; there have been multiple recent projects where excess church or community center property has been used for housing.
Jamboree, which bought the property from the city, providing proceeds that helped with the administration building’s construction, used a mix of city and county affordable housing funds, as well as federal tax credits and $25 million in financing to build the units.
The city contributed $8 million toward the project, the county gave $2.4 million, and housing vouchers to offset rents are coming from the county and the OC Housing Authority. The Orange County Housing Finance Trust also helped with financing.
“For the first time in a very long time, I have a safe place to sleep, a door I can close, a foundation to stand on. And that stability has given me the space to breathe, to heal, to start over,” said Ryan Daughtry, who shared his journey to becoming a resident of Salida del Sol.
Daughtry, who grew up in New Orleans, said he joined the Navy at 24 after becoming a young father after high school. He was in the service for 13 years, serving three tours overseas, but was injured and developed an addiction during his recovery, he said. Divorce and then homelessness followed, he said, and in jail, he was paralysed after a surgery for a spine abscess.
A “silver lining” was the time he had to get sober, he said, and then finding a home at Salida del Sol.
“Affordable housing isn’t just four walls, construction, a roof. It’s my dignity,” he said. “It’s a second chance, and it is a place where I can pick myself back up. Not just for me, but for all the residents here.”
Bourne said he was proud of the San Juan Capistrano community for supporting the project, when often he sees new construction in California being challenged by existing neighbors.
“Low-income supportive housing is not supposed to be the thing that residents jump up and clap for,” he said. “I’ve been stunned by our community’s broad support for this project. I feel communities coming together and recognizing there is a problem here with housing, and it’s broader and it can’t be solved in someone else’s backyard.”
“The project is truly one-of-a-kind and gives us, the city,” he added, “the opportunity to stand up in the county as leaders and say look at what can be done to solve some of these issues in creative ways.”