By Aryka Randall, Contributing Writer
Unhoused Veterans and low income seniors are getting a chance to secure housing thanks to a movement called YIGBY in San Diego County (Yes In God’s Backyard). On Friday, January 12th, Bethel AME broke ground on their affordable housing project in Logan Heights. Dozens of locals in the area as well as people involved in the project itself came by to see what YIGBY has in store for the 7,000 square foot plot of land.
The building, which has been named Bethel One, will have 25 one bedroom apartments available along with one additional apartment available for the property manager on site. Rev. Harvey Vaughn III, the senior pastor at Bethel AME has always taken a special interest in providing shelter for the unhoused. His connection to YIGBY gave him a clear direction as to how the two of them could work together to create housing within the community.
“I connected with YIGBY a little over 5 years ago and it’s been a blessing. This kind of thing takes a lot of hard work and patience. It’s not something that happened overnight, but we were all passionate about getting it done, and the community was very supportive of everything we’re doing,” says Rev. Harvey Vaughn III.
Yes In God’s Backyard (YIGBY) was formed under the non profit Catalyst of San Diego and Imperialist Counties. When the group became connected with Pastor Harvey, they were both looking for a way to help the community. YIGBY was in search of faith based communities interested in using some of their land to build affordable living, and Pastor Harvey was looking for a way to serve the unhoused population in San Diego. Together they came up with Bethel One.
During the groundbreaking ceremony the team behind the project also spoke of some of the challenges they faced with pulling everything together. Like many others, the pandemic played a part in delaying their process which required extra time and over $1 million dollars in donations to remedy.
Bethel One is set to be completed by the end of 2024.
