A design focused on enhancing the health, recovery and sense of community for formerly unhoused residents establishes a new model for a hybrid of housing and healthcare.
On a city block in Mid-City San Diego, the first phase of El Cerrito is a combination of healthcare and supportive housing designed to address the broader challenges facing formerly homeless people. The eight-story complex combines mental and physical healthcare services with five stories of prefabricated, fully finished modular units. With 41 apartments built, and more planned for future phases, it was conceived as the largest steel modular project on the West Coast.
Developed in a partnership between Family Health Centers of San Diego (FHCSD) and PATH Ventures, a supportive housing specialist, El Cerrito is focused on elevating residents’ health and sense of belonging, while bringing together the supportive services needed to help them recover, reskill and reintegrate into their community.
“We knew from the beginning that this would be a one-stop-shop for folks to have a place to call home, which we know is the very first thing people need to have any chance at a more stable future.” — Cynthia Wong, Senior Project Director for PATH Ventures
“These services are rarely easily accessible for our target population,” says Cynthia Wong, Senior Project Director for PATH, the housing developer on the project. “We knew from the beginning that this would be a one-stop shop for folks to have a place to call home, which we know is the very first thing people need to have any chance at a more stable future.”
El Cerrito is the first housing project for FHCSD, the leading provider of mental health care in San Diego and one of the nation’s largest Federally Qualified Health Centers. Charged with providing healthcare access in underserved areas, the group saw housing as an opportunity to address health outcomes, recognizing the impact of rising rents, overcrowded living conditions and substandard housing on physical and mental health issues, especially for families.
Floor-to-ceiling windows fill the apartments with natural light and create views that connect residents to their place.
The key challenge for LPA designers was to coordinate the needs of two distinct but complementary user groups. The project hinged on early coordination meetings and work by the interdisciplinary team to understand and align housing and healthcare needs. “Finding those synergies made this building more than the sum of its parts,” says Director of Mixed-Use Matt Winter.
The eight-story building features a ground-floor health clinic, five levels of affordable and supportive housing and four levels of parking (two underground). Featuring a hybrid of traditional and modular construction, the building uses a concrete structure for the clinic and parking before transitioning to the prefabricated shipping containers for the 41 housing units — a strategy that compressed the construction schedule by six months.
Perforated metal screens and strategically channeled ocean breezes provide passive cooling of outdoor circulation spaces.
“The design is really ‘housing as healthcare,’” says Matthew Porreca, Design Director at LPA, “where in addition to all the practical spaces for acute care, the building itself cocoons residents in an atmosphere of health and community.”
Every aspect of the design revolves around well-being, including the organization of the spaces, the mix of social environments, supportive landscapes, healthy materials and spaces with fresh air and natural light. The ground floor hosts three specialized clinics — one each for families, veterans and individuals with substance-use issues. Each clinic has its own entrance, allowing for personalized care, while shared back-of-house spaces improve efficiency.
Open spaces throughout the complex offer views of the surrounding neighborhood.
The mixed-use project features three health clinics on the ground floor with separate entrances for families, veterans and people seeking substance-use treatment.
Supportive services and property management are located on the fourth floor, giving residents access to help in real time. “Our Housing First approach isn’t Housing Only,” Wong says. “Having staff on-site makes a huge difference in supporting residents effectively.”
Beyond addressing basic healthcare needs, the design goes to great lengths to enhance mental health and well-being for residents. Instead of affordable housing’s traditional “donut” shape with an enclosed courtyard, the building’s configuration and orientation are crafted to capture ocean breezes, shade social spaces, provide sun to plantings and make outdoor environments usable year-round.
“You can definitely feel the breezes when you’re standing in those courtyards and corridors,” says Wong.
Four volumes of housing rise from the fourth floor, forming voids in between that evoke slot canyons and serve a wide variety of social and solo functions. Landscaping connects residents to nature while promoting biodiversity, treating stormwater through biofiltration and providing water for irrigation.
To foster community and a sense of belonging, wide circulation paths encourage interaction, and planted areas bring nature into everyday spaces. Stairs are intentionally prominent, encouraging residents to use them, creating more opportunities for casual social connections.
Design of the living spaces focused on creating a high quality of life for residents, setting a solid foundation for recovery, reskilling and a return to independence.
Common areas are spread throughout the building, from a rooftop community garden to a dog park, reflecting research demonstrating that open, shared spaces are crucial for combating isolation, a common issue for those transitioning from homelessness. A resident-managed community kitchen garden helps foster relationships and teach healthy eating habits.
“It’s a place where neighbors can meet, share food and rebuild social ties,” says Rocio Gertler, the project’s landscape architect. “It gives sense of ownership and encourages people to leave their spaces and create a community.”
A wide variety of outdoor social spaces reinforce a sense of community.
Throughout the complex, outdoor walkways and terraces connect residents with nature, reinforcing the idea that housing can promote well-being. Greenery plays a significant role, from the rooftop garden to the planted outdoor decks, creating a calming environment in the heart of the city. Public spaces on the fourth floor offer residents views of the street while maintaining privacy and security.
Inside, the apartments are bright and welcoming, showing that a well-designed space can support recovery and stability. Floor-to-ceiling windows flood the spaces with natural light, making them feel larger. “We really focused on making them feel spacious despite their relatively small size,” says Porreca. “Everybody that walks through the front door is always amazed.”
The hybrid structure, with a concrete podium and steel modular upper levels, enabled the health clinics to open immediately while progress continued on the residential portion.
For PATH, which has developed more than 1,900 units of permanent supportive housing across the state, El Cerrito is most notable for the partnerships it created. Teaming with a healthcare provider in FHCSD enabled PATH to support residents in new ways, providing access to the mental and physical health support needed to truly recover and integrate back into the community.
“With these tools, we can meet our goals of providing a stable community for individuals and families,” Wong says. “We believe this project will be an example for future collaborations between housing and health organizations.”
SIDEBAR: HIGH-PERFORMANCE HOUSING
Vertical brise-soleil respond strategically to solar conditions, protecting apartments from excessive light and heat gain.
Large-scale, high-performance housing is an elusive target for designers and builders. For El Cerrito, a combination of in-house landscape architects, engineers and designers collaborated early in the process to enhance energy efficiency and water conservation while elevating quality of life.
Hot water — one of the biggest sustainability challenges for residential buildings — was addressed through a solar thermal system. Designers aimed to meet 100% of the building’s hot water needs using solar panels on the rooftop, while leaving enough roof space for PV to generate electricity for the building. Mechanical systems were placed in the underground parking garage, freeing up two-thirds of the roof space for the PV panels.
Careful coordination among architects, landscape architects and engineers was essential for bringing water and power to the fourth-floor amenity spaces, supporting irrigation and drainage systems. The resulting landscape design immerses residents in greenery, from the exterior walkways to the patios to the corner public spaces, and softens the appearance of the modular steel structure.
