One SLO County city is leading the way with its cabin villages. It just added another

Just a couple years ago, Freedom, a resident of San Luis Obispo County, was living between couches and on the streets of Grover Beach, unsure of whether she could keep going amid the depression and hopelessness of homelessness.

But a little over a year ago, she was able to get a spot in the 5Cities Homeless Coalition’s Cabins for Change project in Grover Beach, and just six months later, she can call a place in Shell Beach her own.

Now, a second cabin project will give the same opportunity to additional South County residents later this month — and Freedom said she hopes to be an example of what the program can accomplish for other unhoused residents.

“Going from feeling like nothing has made me see that I am a success story, and all I can do is just be making (my case managers) proud,” Freedom said at a grand opening event for the new project. “Folks are going to be able to see that hope does work.”

The 5Cities Homeless Coalition hosted its grand opening for the Balay Ko on Barca cabin housing project Thursday afternoon, adding 30 units of transitional housing for south San Luis Obispo County’s homeless residents.

“Whether you’re (a police officer), you’re a caseworker, whatever it is, it takes a village, no doubt about it, and we seem to have one here that is very compassionate and successful,” Grover Beach Mayor Karen Bright said at the opening.

How does Balay Ko on Barca stack up to other cabin projects?

The second of two Grover Beach 5CHC cabin projects built by San Francisco developer Dignity Moves, the project will look to more than double 5CHC’s interim bed capacity.

The Balay Ko on Barca project follows many of the goals and design strategies used in the Cabins for Change project, which was introduced in late 2022.

Like the first project, the newer cabins will provide locking doors to individual units that residents can call their own, with amenities such as laundry, daily meals, showers and restrooms.

Clients accepted into 5CHC’s first Cabins for Change project were unhoused for an average of 2.85 years and ranged in age between 21 and 72 years old, according to the 5CHC’s data on the project.

According to 5CHC data, the first program has graduated 46 people into some form of permanent housing. They spent an average of 106 days in the 90-day program before exiting at a success rate of around 70%.

By comparison, Balay Ko on Barca will be a larger version of the 20-unit Cabins for Change project, but offers longer stays between 90 and 180 days, according to the project’s website.

The projects are a first step at shortening 5CHC’s waitlist for transitional and permanent housing; as it stands, more than 200 participants are already on the new project’s waitlist, according to the project website.

Both Grover Beach cabin projects have the same developer, Dignity Moves, as the county’s 80-unit Welcome Home Village planned for a lot on the corner of Bishop Street and Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo.

Supervisor Jimmy Paulding said projects such as Cabins for Change and Balay Ko on Barca are a “testament” to the effectiveness of the model that Welcome Home Village will look to emulate in San Luis Obispo.

“We know that one of the first objectives is building housing projects like this so we can house and serve the homeless individuals in our community,” Paulding said. “We’re bringing quite a lot of new housing online, and that was our goal, but it would wouldn’t be possible without the support of everybody here who cares.”

Project fully funded by Balay Ko Foundation

Grover Beach city manager Matt Bronson said new cabin project nearly didn’t happen without the intervention of the Balay Ko Foundation, from which the project takes its name.

The Balay Ko Foundation supports Southern California nonprofits that work to solve housing, food insecurity and homelessness issues.

The land the project sits on was purchased by the city using American Rescue Plan Act money and leased to the 5CHC for just $1 per year, Bronson said, but after a failure to secure grant funding put the project’s future in jeopardy, the Balay Ko Foundation stepped in and covered 100% of all permitting, development and construction costs to the tune of $2.6 million — along with paying for the first year of site operations, Bronson said.

Bronson and other elected officials said the project represents a commitment to filling in crucial gaps in housing in the area.

“We’re a city of compassion and a city of action, and these two facilities of now 50 units in one small city of 13,000 shows how our city has leaned in to be a model for every other city and community in our county,” Bronson said.