New affordable apartments for SLO County veterans and seniors open in Templeton
People’s Self-Help Housing celebrated the opening of a new affordable housing complex in one of San Luis Obispo County’s more under-resourced communities on Monday afternoon.
Templeton Place II, a 36-unit affordable apartment complex that specializes in housing veterans and seniors over the age of 62, hosted a group of the county’s biggest players in housing — and its first group of residents — to celebrate its grand opening.
People’s Self-Help Housing CEO Ken Triguiero said the new complex is the end result of a development process that started in 1996, when People’s Self-Help Housing purchased the plot of land at 1035 Petersen Ranch Road.
The first Templeton Place complex, which opened in 2001, consisted of 29 units for seniors, with the remainder of the project on hold due to a lack of resources to fully develop the property.
Triguiero said it was important to limit the Templeton Place complexes to seniors due to the area’s lack of dedicated affordable housing and access to nearby medical services such as Twin Cities Community Hospital.
“We just see so many seniors who have come up and lived here in the county over the years, and once they’re on a fixed income solo, it’s such a gap between the affordable ... and the not affordable,” Triguiero said.
What is Templeton Place II?
Templeton Place II consists of 36 units that serve seniors and veterans, with 10 units permanently set aside for formerly homeless veterans, Triguiero said.
According to People’s Self-Help Housing’s website, the property consists of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, which feature an oven, refrigerator, heating, air conditioning, and an emergency call system.
Other onsite amenities include a furnished community room — where People’s Self-Help Housing held its celebration of the complex’s opening — property management, free supportive housing services, community gardens, accessible design and numerous outdoor spaces, the organization’s website said.
When the first Templeton Place complex was built, each unit cost around $100,000, Triguiero said during his opening presentation.
Now, per-unit costs are four to five times what they were in 1996, he said. People’s Self-Help Housing director of public affairs Gillian Cole-Andrews said the development cost around $17 million.
Triguiero said the project was funded through state tax credit programs and support from funding partners including the county of San Luis Obispo, Merritt Community Capital Corp., the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo, NeighborWorks America, the Federal Home Loan Bank, the San Luis Obispo County Housing trust Fund, Pacific Western Bank, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
The event was attended by representatives of several other housing and government organizations, including the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo, the Veterans Affairs office and a representative of the office of State Sen. John Laird.
Grover Beach City Council member and senior district representative Clint Weirick presented People’s Self-Help Housing with an official State Senate certificate of recognition for the opening on Laird’s behalf.
“I’m not the kind of senior that gets to enjoy living here, but my boss is a senior, so he appreciates what this place actually means to you all,” Weirick said at the event.
Newly housed veteran appreciates ‘totally awesome’ new home
Retired United States Marine Corps veteran Ronald Medina moved into the new complex with many of his fellow residents on June 20, and said he was grateful to finally have a roof over his head after around three years of homelessness and couch surfing.
“It’s awesome — I can’t describe it,” Medina told The Tribune. “For somebody who’s lived on the streets and bounced around like I have, it’s totally awesome — a brand new place.”
Medina went from homelessness to his own studio apartment at Templeton Place II relatively quickly, using his status as a veteran to find housing help along the way, he said.
Around a year ago, while homeless in Bakersfield, Medina reached out to the Office of Veterans Affairs, who connected him with the organization’s Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, commonly known as HUD VASH.
HUD VASH vouchers circumvent some of the long wait times associated with standard Section 8 housing vouchers, include a wider range of eligible veterans than most other veteran housing programs, and can use funds to provide landlords with incentives for accepting formerly homeless veteran tenants.
In Medina’s case, HUD VASH started a housing search for him near the end of 2022.
“HUD VASH called me, and boy, they got the ball rolling — picked me up and got the paperwork done,” Medina said. “The next thing I know, (Supportive Services for Veterans and Families) steps in, and they promised to find me a place to live and it just happened to be at the right time.”
This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
