AboutUS

Everyone Needs A Place to Call Home

About Townspeople

For more than 25 years, Townspeople has been serving low-income people living with HIV/AIDS in San Diego find and maintain an affordable place to live. Over the years, this has been challenging with rising rental and housing rates and the lack of supportive services to help people maintain their housing and improve their quality of life.

Today, Townspeople offers a wide array of services, programs and housing options that is making a significant difference in affordable housing in San Diego County. While our mission and focus is supporting low-income people with disabilities especially HIV/AIDS, we are expanding our services and programs to provide more self-sustaining support for all low income residents of San Diego County.

Among our services:

Housing Information and Referral Services – This program, serving more than 20,000 visitors each year starts with a comprehensive listing of affordable housing vacancies in San Diego. This list is researched and published twice per month.

In addition to this important listing, Townspeople also offers a variety of services:

Emergency rental assistance to prevent homelessness of currently housed individuals and families

Emergency utility assistance to help protect utility services for the ill and disabled in order to maintain their health, safety and housing

Access, information and support to access federal, state and local entitlement programs including Section 8 housing

Individual Housing Plans – developed with an individual through our case management services, helping people on the path to permanent housing

Residential Supportive Services – This program focuses on individuals/families who reside in Townspeople owned and managed properties. This program includes case management, providing residents with essentials for living including basic needs such as bed linens, blankets, cleaning supplies. We offer referrals and assistance in job training, financial education and other social services.

Food and Nutrition: On-site food pantry for our residents.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing – This three year program was developed by Townspeople and is supported by the San Diego Housing Commission in response to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Our goal is to help at least 350 individuals/families avoid eviction, or if they became homeless due to the recession we help them to rapidly be re-housed. This includes financial assistance, social service support and legal aid. The mission is to return these people to self-sustainability.

Case Management and Coordination – For all of our 66 residents, Townspeople offers case management and coordination for individuals/families who are low-income and disabled living with HIV/AIDS. This program insures that residents have primary medical care and the needed social support. Each resident meets various income eligibility requirements and develops with case management a detailed individual housing and sustainability plan.

Community Housing Development Organization – Townspeople acquires, rehabs and operates affordable housing apartment complexes in San Diego. Townspeople operates 66 affordable housing units over three complexes. Not only does our housing program provide needed affordable apartments for low-income people it is also engaged in assisting the City of San Diego in neighborhood revitalization.