CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – Crystal Furness has been on a journey.
“I’m not going to lie; I never thought I would find myself in a situation like that,” Furness said.
She moved out of troubling living situations, spending her last dollar jumping from hotels to Air BnBs, then getting a referral to the Chula Vista Homeless Outreach Team as a Southwestern College student.
“I was terrified. I didn’t know what I going to do,” Furness said.
Last September, Furness ended up in Chula Vista’s tiny homes and shelter for the homeless.
“When I got there, everyone that works there at the shelter’s, even the security, everyone made me feel safe and comfortable,” Furness, a former Chula Vista tiny homes client, said.
Furness was there for five months.
Then, that rocky route started to smooth out for her.
“It’s okay to ask for help. And today, I’m in my own apartment,” Furness said.
“And that’s what we want. We want to see them transition and finally get their life back,” Angelica Davis, the City of Chula Vista's Homeless Solutions Manager, said.
Since the doors opened in May 2023, Davis told ABC 10News that 70 people sought help at the 65-unit tiny home shelter.
“We actually had 14 people placed into permanent housing. So we are at about, I think, in the 40s (people),” Davis said.
And that’s how many people are currently at the shelter.
“And that is the goal, right? It’s not meant to be permanent. The idea is to stabilize them and then find permanent housing,” Davis said.
The 2024 Point In Time shows 60% of the City’s 120 emergency shelter beds.
Davis told ABC 10News they’re seeing the success of these tiny homes, sleeping cabins, pallet homes, whatever you want to call them. She added that they’re working for their City as they could for others.
“The model that we created, I think, gave the community a sense of safety, if you will. It’s not a drop-in center. It’s not a day center. You won’t see a lot of people around the perimeter. The clients that are here are vetted through the HOT team and referred by the HOT team,” Davis said.
Other communities with similar shelters, like Sacramento County, have been able to help nearly 300 people between their two sites, which opened in 2023. Twenty-seven of them have been put into permanent housing.
It is something Furness hopes can be done elsewhere in our region.
“I just needed a little bit of help, and there are so many other people in these shelters who are just like me. Not everyone wants to stay on the streets. Some people need help,” Davis said.
