Category Archives: Housing

Articles, Health, Housing

Last Week’s DNSO Operation To Get Waldo Area Homeless To Move On Raises Questions; Advocates Say It Came On Short Notice

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Thumbnail photo: Unhoused people living in Waldo area encampments were told to pack their belongings and move along during a Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office operation on Oct. 2. The DNSO went to the area with Behavioral Health Branch staff and Del Norte Mission Possible representatives. | submitted photo

Del Norte County Sheriff’s Capt. Melanie Currie said an operation last week to urge people living in the encampments near Waldo Street to move along wasn’t about kicking them out.

Deputies didn’t arrest anyone on Oct. 2, she said. They arrived with the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office chaplain, specialists with the Behavioral Health Branch and Daphne Lambert, Del Norte Mission Possible’s director of homeless services. The intent, Currie said, was to offer services and get people help.

“Daphne came out with a truck and we were helping people call family members that could come and help them pack,” she told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. “Daphne was offering totes for people to put their belongings in and transportation, the same with Behavioral Health.”

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Articles, Business, Crescent City, Economy, Housing, Infrastructure, Local Government

Workshops Delve Into Potential Architectural Styles For Downtown Crescent City

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Thumbnail image courtesy of ccdowntownplan.com.

Before launching into a presentation of the different architectural styles that would preserve Downtown Crescent City’s small-town character, Don Arambula mentioned the opposition some have to the city’s plans.

Arambula, principal planner and urban designer for Portland-based Crandall Arambula PC, spoke at a workshop Wednesday for business owners, nonprofit and other government representatives — members of a steering committee driving the development of Crescent City’s Downtown Specific Plan.

During the workshop, Arambula urged steering committee members to think about context. The city’s architectural guidelines and standards need to reflect its “Redwoods to the Sea” motto, he said.

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Local Government

After Suffering Major Setbacks, Battery Point Apartment Developers Are Working To Weatherize Structures By November

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Thumbnail photo: Plagued by water damage last winter, the developers spearheading the Battery Point Apartments project are working to weatherize the structures by November. The first phase of the development, including the senior housing building, is expected to go online in 2027. | Photo by James Brooks

Wanting to avoid a repeat of last winter’s water damage, the developers behind Battery Point Apartments say their internal goal is to have two of its three buildings protected against the weather by November.

Contractors and sub contractors are also laying the foundation for the third building and ensuring that it is protected against the winter rains, Synergy Community Development Corporation Chair Jason Hobson told the Crescent City Council on Monday.

Two years after Synergy and Step Forward Communities broke ground on the site at Gary and E streets, Hobson said the goal is to get the project’s first phase, Buildings A and C, online between the summer and fall of 2027. Building A will consist of 40 senior housing units and Building C will be housing for families.

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Local Government

Crescent City Joins SoCal Cities In Effort To Combat ‘State Overreach’ In Housing, Land-Use Matters

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Thumbnail photo: Battery Point Apartments near Joe Hamilton Elementary School is one of a handful of housing projects in Crescent City that is being developed as part of California’s statewide housing goals. | Photo by James Brooks

A statewide proposal that has its origins in a Riverside County community and aims to enforce local authority over California’s housing and land-use initiatives put Crescent City’s mayor pro tem at odds with her colleagues on Monday. 

Citing the University of California and Harvard University’s Joint Center of Housing Studies, Candace Tinkler noted that the Golden State is home to six of the top metropolitan areas with the highest share of cost-burdened households. 

About one in three renters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area spends more than 50% of their post-tax household income on rent, she said, and as of last year there were 1,000 more homeless people in San Francisco than in all of Missouri.

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Articles, Community News, Crescent City, Economy, Housing, Infrastructure, Local Government

Crescent City Starts Public Outreach On Second Phase Of Downtown Plan Next Week

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Thumbnail photo: Early concept art of the Redwood Downtown, a mixed-use building that includes residential units planned for 3rd and J streets in Downtown Crescent City. Housing is one of the key components of the city’s Downtown Specific Plan. | Image Courtesy of the City of Crescent City

Don Arambula thinks of Whitefish, Montana as an example of the downtown Crescent City could have in about 20 years.

The Rocky Mountain community, population 7,751 as of the 2020 U.S. Census, is about the same size as Crescent City. It’s isolated, a gateway to a national park and, similar to Crescent City, was “kind of struggling.” 

Arambula, principal planner and urban designer for Portland-based Crandall Arambula PC, said the downtown masterplan his firm developed for Whitefish is comparable to Crescent City’s Downtown Specific Masterplan. 

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Articles, Community News, Health, Housing, Local Government

‘A Warm Dry Bed’: Del Norte Opens Its Emergency Homeless Shelter, Micro Village

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Del Norte County celebrated the opening of its first emergency homeless shelter and micro village on June 9. | Photos by Aisling Bludworth

From the ashes of the old mental health building the emergency shelter and micro village was revealed to the public last week.

Community members came to celebrate the hard work that brought it to fruition.

“It’s really not every day that your career comes full circle, and you literally find yourself helping make plans to burn down your [old] office.” said Shiann Hogan, deputy director for Del Norte County’s Behavioral Health Branch during the June 17 ribbon cutting at the facility on 200 Williams Drive. 

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Infrastructure, Local Government

Construction On Battery Point Apartments Set To Resume By June 29, Developer Says

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Thumbnail photo: Changing state regulations and water damage from winter storms sidelined construction on the senior housing portion of Battery Point Apartments in Crescent City. | Photo by James Brooks

Construction is expected to resume at Battery Point Apartments in about two weeks, a representative of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit behind the affordable housing project said.

The project’s subcontractors are paid and a crane will be on site later this week, Synergy Community Development Corporation President Bill Rice told the Crescent City Council on Monday. The investor working with Synergy and its partner, Step Forward Communities, also brought in a construction management firm to remediate water damage to the senior housing structure.

Rice was reluctant to give an exact date of completion, but he told councilors that Synergy and Step Forward Communities are working with their insurance company to ensure the remediation is “done right.”

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Articles, Community News, Health, Housing, Infrastructure

Del Norte To Cut The Ribbon On Long-Awaited Emergency Shelter, Micro Village

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Thumbnail image courtesy of the Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services

Ranell Brown says she’s expecting a large turnout to cut the ribbon at Del Norte County’s new emergency shelter and micro village on Wednesday.

The result of a collaboration with the county, Del Norte Mission Possible and True North Organizing Network, the shelter’s grand opening comes about a year after the Point in Time Count identified 482 individuals as homeless, according to a Department of Health and Human Services press release.

The campus needs a handful of finishing touches, but Brown, who directs DHHS, said the shelter will begin accepting clients within 30 days of the ribbon cutting.

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Infrastructure

DANCO Communities To Take Over The Redwood Downtown Mixed-Use Development

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Thumbnail image courtesy of City of Crescent City

DANCO Communities President Chris Dart said his company is trying to alleviate parking concerns associated with the 36-unit residential development that is expected to replace the old Daly’s building in Downtown Crescent City.

Dart noted that Community System Solutions had already done a lot of design work on The Redwood Downtown. It will now be up to Crescent City 3rd Street LP, a DANCO Communities limited partnership, to move the project forward. 

The new developers will be open to “any changes that make sense,” Dart said, including parking.

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Infrastructure

Developer Says Construction Will Resume on Battery Point Apartments

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Thumbnail photo by James Brooks

The Los Angeles-based nonprofit developing Battery Point Apartments has obtained the additional grant dollars it needs to pay its subcontractors and resume construction, its president told Crescent City councilors Monday.

Bill Rice told councilors that Synergy Community Development Corporation closed on an additional $9.7 million in federal HOME Investment Partnership Program dollars from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. 

In addition to paying its subcontractors by the end of the week, Synergy is bringing in additional construction management to help its general contractor get back to work on the 162-unit affordable housing development at Gary and E streets, Rice said.

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