East County advocate excited about Lemon Grove tiny homes project

EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) - San Diego County approves 70 tiny homes in lemon grove on Tuesday.

“Awesome. Great. I’m excited about that,” Pastor Rolland Slade of the East County Homeless Taskforce said.

Slade said The East County Homeless Taskforce a group of volunteers finding solutions to the crisis in East County.

He told 10News he’s in favor of tiny homes; seeing as they have six emergency sleeping cabins for women and children on their church property.

“One of the first ladies that moved into our village, when we opened the doors, she just burst into tears because I’m actually going to have a place to lay my head,” Slade said. “She was able to get a job, get an apartment get back in school.”

He’s eager to know more about what’s to come of the county’s version in lemon grove.

“(I) would really like to know what the plan is for taking care of the folks, providing services for them, how can we help them,” Slade said.

Seeing as he had issues with the original plan in Spring Valley which has 150 tiny homes in on Jamacha Road which was pulled back in June.

“You have that many cabins in one location can you really effectively service them or provide services in that big of - for a lack of better term – encampment,” Slade said.

The County said it’s going to use federal funding to create, maintain and provide services like case management, security and support services.

But Slade told 10News there’s a bigger solution to address homeless outside of tiny homes.

“Where are we going to build additional housing? How are we to create additional housing? That’s to me the issue. We know that’s the end game. What we’re doing right now is really kind of putting a band-aid on the situation,” Slade said.