53-unit affordable housing complex opens in SLO County beach city. How to apply
People’s Self-Help Housing’s first-ever affordable housing complex in the city of Grover Beach celebrated its grand opening on Wednesday.
On a pair of lots that were joined together in an L shape behind the gas station on the corner of West Grand Avenue and South 13th Street, a new 53-unit affordable housing complex named Cleaver & Clark Commons is now bustling with new occupants.
Originally donated to the city in 1990 by the Cleaver family to support the creation of a park, the city made the space available for multi-family housing development in 2020 — a decision aided by fiduciary Corki Clark-Henderson, who shares a name with the new building.
Clark-Henderson’s father, lawyer and philanthropist Clifford Clark, previously represented the Cleaver family’s interests for the property, and is known locally for his contributions to the Clark Center for the Performing Arts. His daughter picked up his efforts with the property, and pushed for its use as an affordable housing site.
At Wednesday’s grand opening, Clark-Henderson said her father — who died Dec. 30 at 98 — would have been proud of the finished project.
“My family is thrilled that this is actually not a park, because we have enough parks,” Clark-Henderson said. “It’s really necessary for the local kids — also, for families — to be able to afford to live in this beautiful community, especially if they work here.”
New project brings 53 affordable units to Grover Beach
People’s Self-Help Housing CEO Ken Triguiero said as the nonprofit’s first foray into Grover Beach, Cleaver & Clark Commons had to fit with the city’s changing development landscape.
As with many residential projects recently approved in the city, the development was able to achieve a high unit count through a pair of high-density buildings that reach three stories high, Triguiero said.
The development consists of 24 one-bedroom units, 15 two-bedroom units and 14 three-bedroom units, Triguiero said in 2024 during the project’s groundbreaking.
In addition to a pair of community rooms totaling 1,950 square feet, the 1.38-acre property features approximately 5,750 square feet of common outdoor courtyard space featuring a massive oak tree that was protected during the development of the site.
“We were able to save the majestic oak here that’s on-site — it wasn’t easy, but we’re really pleased that we’re able to do that,” Triguiero said. “I think everybody in the community who lives here is going to appreciate that for a long, long time.”
Clark & Cleaver Commons serves clients who earn between 30% and 60% of the area median income, with some rooms reserved specifically for farmworkers and formerly homeless individuals, Triguiero said.
The 30% end of that income range will be housed in 23 units that come with project-based housing choice vouchers from the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo, HASLO executive director Michelle Pedigo said.
Providing project-based vouchers guarantees that those units will continue receiving income even when their occupants can pay next to nothing, while the residents of the non-project-based voucher units will pay the standard 30% of their monthly income, Pedigo said.
“A lot of times, for people ... coming directly out of homelessness, they haven’t had time to stabilize and build up an income that could support those even-lower rents,” Pedigo said. “Those vouchers really help get people across a wide spectrum of incomes qualified and moved in and able to pay their rent and support themselves.”
New complex already nearly full
Celeste Rojas, the People’s Self-Help Housing property manager who helps residents navigate the leasing process and resides on-site in one of the units, said the project has been well-received by the first wave of residents to move in so far.
Over the past few months, Rojas has helped residents fill all but a handful of units while herself moving into the building, giving her a “front row seat” to the process, she said.
“I had residents that had been local to the Grover Beach area for years, and the fact that an opportunity arose for them to take a chance at an affordable housing unit had such a massive impact on them,” Rojas said. “We see each other on a day-to-day basis, and it’s been nothing but sincere gratitude on both ends, because it’s definitely been a collaborative effort for both residents and then our team to get through the extensive process of course settling in.”
Applications for the remaining units can be made at pshhc.org/ccc.
