ENCINITAS — Local nonprofit Community Resource Center is pursuing much-needed updates to its office in downtown Encinitas to better provide a dignified environment that supports client and staff needs.
Community Resource Center, or CRC, provides social services to around 7,000 individuals annually in coastal North County through food distributions, domestic violence programs, housing assistance and counseling.
Most of these services operate out of the organization’s 1940s-era office building at 650 Second Street, with infrastructure that no longer meets clients’ needs.
The center’s planned $10.5 million renovation will remodel the interior and exterior of its current office and construct a new food and nutrition center on the property directly next door, which currently contains a small multifamily apartment complex.
“We’re not adding new services; it’s adding program space to respond to the increased demands we’re seeing and to provide a trauma-informed, healing centered environment where people can receive support,” said CRC CEO John Van Cleef.
According to city spokesperson Lois Yum, the project plans are currently being reviewed by the city’s planning department and will eventually go before the city’s Planning Commission for approval. A community meeting about the project was also held on June 25 at City Hall.
In addition to creating a more welcoming space, the new improvements will address food storage issues at the current campus, create more privacy for clients participating in counseling and other services, and provide employees with a more suitable break room.
Clients have to wait in line on the sidewalk to receive food assistance, and staff and volunteers prepare food in a cramped kitchen area. With the new food and nutrition center, clients will be able to wait indoors, and staff will be able to distribute food more efficiently.
Van Cleef said the need for updates has been evident to him since the day he first walked onto the campus around six years ago. The situation became more urgent with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic when more people needed services.
The organization currently assists around 60 households per day and has seen an increase in clients who are middle-income seniors.
“Certainly, the pandemic really highlighted the fact that our facilities were insufficient, or not quite meeting our needs in a meaningful way … We’re seeing more people now than we were during COVID,” Van Cleef said.
In 2021, CRC acquired the small apartment complex next door at 660 2nd Street, which allowed them to expand their remodeling vision. The organization also inherited the five tenants living in the complex, which will be demolished when construction begins, hopefully, next fall, Van Cleef said.
CRC has launched a capital campaign called One Community, One Heart to raise funds for the project. Van Cleef said the organization is continuing to engage with private donors before launching the public-facing campaign.
1 comment
This is a great pitch for the good work that the CRC does. Unfortunately, it doesn’t highlight the concerns expressed by neighboring business and residents who have seen an uptick in less than stellar homeless behavior in the surrounding community.
Even local law enforcement has stated privately to citizens that the CRC’s growth over the last few years continues to add to our recurring homeless issues. Those issues include vandalism, theft, public defecation, drug use and mental health outbursts. We have less than a 1/2 dozen deputies on duty at any time and we share them with two neighboring cities.
Is downtown Encinitas, already short on parking and a tourist hub, the best place for this non profit to expand their services? Our small, touristy surf town, has now become the go to city and the only city for CRC’s services.
It’s time to spread the goodwill to other north county cities, especially those more equipped with supportive housing services and shelters. The CRC should be expanding in other cities, lessening the strain on resources in Encinitas and spreading their good works to neighboring communities.