IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) - One resident is still feeling stuck after a decades-long on-site security resident program with the South Bay Union School District ended in June of last year.
Pete Salisbury is a resident for Oneata Elementary School and currently lives next to the school, a fence bordering his home with the school on one side and the playground on the other.
"Going through a lot of grief," said Salisbury. "When you have a place that you really care about and the students and parents and the teachers of this school, they really appreciate me, they care about me very much."
The South Bay Union School District's security program was created in the 1970's to provide security to the schools. Residents would own their homes but not their land, exchanging living on campus for security services.
"Losing my house is one of my biggest purchases of my life," said Salisbury. "I used a lot of my retirement savings and it's mine but in the process of me having to leave, the school district is going to just bulldoze it down because it's too old to move. So losing that is really hard."
However, in a statement to ABC 10News, the Board of Trustees for the district ended the program because they identified it as a significant uninsured liability risk, obsolete due to current security technology, and limited the potential open site access between classrooms and outdoor play space.
The district said he's required to leave his property by April 5th.
"If I tried to find alternative housing, got on lists for affordable housing, senior lists, go through the VA and make to show efforts that I was trying to find a place to move to, that things would be sort of okay," said Salisbury. "I had a lot of parents and teachers get involved."
Salisbury hopes he can find a place to call home after more than 20 years.
Click here for a GoFundMe page to help with Salisbury's moving expenses.
