Caltrans Land Sale Advances 60-Unit Tiny Home Village Near Lemon Grove

The California Transportation Commission approved the deal for San Diego County to buy just over one acre of Caltrans land for a little less than a million dollars, clearing the final bureaucratic hurdle for a 60-unit tiny-home transitional village that has divided the unincorporated community near Lemon Grove for nearly two years.

The parcel sits at the corner of Sweetwater Road and Troy Street, a vacant lot that was previously held by Caltrans. With the California Transportation Commission's approval of the sale now secured, construction is set to begin for 60 tiny homes that will serve as transitional housing for people who are unhoused.

The road to this approval was rerouted by a federal policy shift. Originally, the plan was to lease the land from Caltrans for a dollar a month, and the previous federal administration had no objection to signing off on that lease between the county and the state. When the administration changed, their priorities changed too, and the directive became: you can still use the land, but you're going to have to purchase it instead. Thanks to that Trump administration ruling, the county now had to purchase land appraised at $955,000.

San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe noted it had been "1.5 years, close to 2 years" of work to reach this point. For Mayor Alysson Snow, the project addresses a gap that earlier homelessness efforts couldn't fill. "The tiny homes, even when we did the encampment resolution funds, we only had 102 spots, so there were still some people who were left out in the cold, and out on the streets," Snow said. She has also pushed back on fears that new residents would be unwelcome. "We want everybody in our community to know that we love them and everybody belongs," she said.

Snow has acknowledged that even some of the most vocal opponents are "mostly against it because of the location, and not necessarily the idea of a shelter." That distinction hasn't softened all concerns. Larry Tidmore, who lives next to the proposed site, voiced the skepticism shared by many in the neighborhood. "I don't know what kind of people they're going to be housing there. What they say is probably not what they're going to do. There probably putting a lot of people with drug problems and substance abuse problems," Tidmore said.

Lemon Grove City Council members and community members have previously voiced concerns at county supervisors meetings, and the project's controversy ran deep enough that a recall effort was launched to remove Mayor Snow, with her support of the Troy Street sleeping cabins project cited as the biggest issue for recall supporters. That recall ultimately failed.

If the county can come to terms on the final details, officials hope to break ground on the project this summer. Montgomery Steppe has described the CTC vote as the last step before folks are able to get permanent housing, a framing that underscores just how much the community and county have staked on 60 small structures on a just-over-one-acre lot.