It has a stately name, but Muncey Manor in Chula Vista is a rather nondescript seven-unit apartment complex just around the corner from busy Palomar Street.
Still, for the young adults who’ve recently moved in, the Manor may indeed be a gateway to grander prospects.
The 11 tenants are 18-to-24-year-olds transitioning out of foster care. Studies show young adults who have grown up in foster care encounter high rates of homelessness, joblessness and even incarceration when they try to make it on their own.
But projects like Muncey Manor can help emancipated foster youth be successful.
“This is a place that is finally a permanent home for them,” said Kathy Lembo, CEO of South Bay Community Services, which acquired and renovated the apartment building with federal funding granted partly by the County of San Diego.
The South Bay nonprofit charges tenants low rents based on what they can afford and supports them with “everything they can imagine,” said Lembo, including counseling, employment and education assistance and financial literacy classes.
In 2010, the County Board of Supervisors authorized a $380,000 55-year, low interest loan of federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds to South Bay Community Services to partially fund the $850,000 Muncey Manor project. The primary funding source came in the form of a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) low interest loan through the City of Chula Vista.
The County’s Housing and Community Development department administers the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s HOME program for many of the region’s cities and the unincorporated areas. The program typically provides $3 to $4 million each year to increase the region’s supply of affordable housing.
The HOME program funds first-time homebuyer assistance, tenant-based rental assistance, homeowner rehabilitation, and loans for developers to build or improve affordable multifamily housing.
When the County gets the money from the federal government each year, as the lead agency in a group called the San Diego County HOME Consortium, it allocates funding to Carlsbad, Encinitas, La Mesa, San Marcos, Santee, and Vista based on a federal formula.
The County uses the remainder for County projects and to support affordable housing developments in the unincorporated areas.
The County can also use its funds to assist projects outside the HOME Consortium areas if the outside agency also provides financial assistance and the project benefits residents from both jurisdictions. These are projects that serve special needs populations, such as veterans, victims of domestic violence, and former foster youth.
So that explains the County’s involvement with a project squarely within the boundaries of Chula Vista.
South Bay Community Services hosted an open house at Muncey Manor—named after South Bay foster youth benefactor Fran Muncey— in late October. Housing and Community Development Assistant Director Todd Henderson and County Supervisor Greg Cox, a longtime supporter of programs for foster youth whose district includes Chula Vista, were there to celebrate the work and wish residents well.
