County Chips In on Housing Plan

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to tentatively grant $150,000 toward the conversion of a financially strapped Encinitas motel into a low-cost housing project for the homeless.

The initial $20,000, the supervisors said, can be used with no strings attached to pay for the project’s start-up costs, expenses such as possible impact reports and the like.

The board also set a condition that the conversion get the backing of other governmental agencies--including the city of Encinitas--before the remaining $130,000 would be made available.

Although pleased with the decision, the Rev. Rafael Martinez, whose Encinitas-based North County Chaplaincy is spearheading the motel conversion, said the board’s conditions may be hard to meet.

In the past, Encinitas officials have expressed serious concerns about the scope and character of the plan to convert the 106-room Image Inn in Leucadia into low-cost units for low-income people, including North County migrant workers.

Two weeks ago, during a meeting at an Encinitas town hall to describe their plan, the project planners were shouted down by a heckling mob of local residents that one observer described as a “lynch mob.”

On Tuesday, Martinez said the issue has become more explosive with community residents than he ever expected.

The supervisors’ decision has set the stage for an August City Council meeting in which Martinez will make his appeal for $103,000--and the city’s blessing--for the motel project.

“The City Council will have to vote on the $103,000, which implies their consent for the project,” he said. “If not, it will pretty much imply the end of what we’ve been trying to do. It would kill it.

“Because with the environment as it is in the community, if the City Council also says no . . . it would just be impossible for us to pursue this without the city’s support. It would be too difficult.”

Encinitas Mayor Gail Hano said Tuesday that she is in the dark about any plans made by the group because it has not yet contacted her.

“I have no idea what’s going on. I haven’t heard anything other than the calls I get from residents or what I read in the newspapers,” she said. “The chaplaincy people say they’ve talked with two council members and are arranging things. Well, they haven’t talked to me.”

Hano said she is also miffed by the lack of communication before the public forum held two weeks ago, at which the migrant group described its project. “They didn’t bother to inform us about it,” Hano said of the meeting.

“They called us last thing Friday afternoon for a Sunday meeting. If that’s notification, then I’m in the wrong business. If I’m going to make a decision on using public funds in such a way, then I need time to make my decision.”

Lenore Averell, an administrative assistant for Supervisor John MacDonald, said the supervisor lauded the idea of creating affordable homes for the poor but wanted to have the group test the economic waters before throwing full support to the project.

“Supervisor MacDonald commends any organization trying to provide housing for this income level,” she said. “But the idea is for the chaplaincy to get an economic feel for the project before the county invests all of the $150,000.”

To fund the estimated $2.8-million project, the chaplaincy is seeking $400,000 from the Coastal Commission. Recently, the California Department of Housing and Community Development voted to contribute $325,000 to the project. The rest of the money will be borrowed.

The Image Inn was seized last fall by a Los Angeles bank, which later agreed to sell it to the chaplaincy. Officials from the advocacy group paid a $25,000 deposit on the property. Another $75,000 must be paid by August, officials said.

Although he still has high hopes for the project, Martinez said he was discouraged by the community reaction at the recent open forum.

“There were a large number of people present who were there to support the project, who wanted to hear and learn about it,” he said. “But they didn’t get that opportunity because of a small number of people who yelled and heckled and didn’t let us have a peaceful discussion.”

Hano said the residents who opposed the project were far from the minority at the meeting. “They say they have the support of a good number of people from Encinitas,” she said.

“Well, out of 300 people at the meeting, people tell me that all but five were against it. And two of the five who supported it weren’t even from Encinitas. That’s not exactly what I call support.”

Averell said the supervisors are aware of the tension the idea has generated in the North County coastal city.

“It’s true of so many projects like this,” she said. “It’s a difficult decision to make. Now we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”