Recent Press & Media

The housing crisis is among this country’s major problems, spawning a host of negative issues that include homelessness, overcrowding and rent-burdened communities. Fueling these challenges has been a stagnant housing market that has barely grown since 1980.

The combination of rising demand with a static housing supply that does not support a growing population means the overall cost of living has painfully increased for renters. California has one of the tightest housing markets in the nation, making affordable housing one of the state’s biggest problems, with Oregon and Washington state facing similar concerns.

Impact Housing
Los Angeles-based Impact Housing is producing functionally designed, stackable apartment modules in their Yorba Linda manufacturing facility, which they assemble into a fully functioning residential building. Their manufacturing expertise and efficiency enables them to deliver housing for low-and-moderate income renters across California.

Committed to giving low and moderate-income families attainable housing, Impact at the same time refuses to sacrifice quality for the sake of cost. This is possible thanks to Impact Housing’s internal design team and their efficient approach to assembling and constructing apartment buildings to maximize usable space.

To carry this intent into the bathrooms within the units, Impact Housing is installing high-quality/high-function in-wall concealed tank and carrier systems for wall-hung toilets carriers and flush plates manufactured by the Geberit Group, a leader in sanitary products worldwide to enhance the quality of the interiors.

The out-of-reach cost of new housing leads to displacement and put decent housing beyond the budgets of local workers, such as teachers, firefighters, and police officers vital for community services. In addition, many of these essential workers must commute an hour or more from home to work, creating additional pollution and stress on an already jammed transportation system.

A Los Angeles modular housing developer is planning to build workforce housing projects in four San Diego neighborhoods.

The projects by Impact Housing in Stockton, North Park, the College Area and Barrio Logan would include a total of 1,330 apartments and cost an estimated $350 million in total development costs, said Drew Orenstein, CEO of Impact Housing.

Orenstein said he chose San Diego for the projects because the city has adopted zoning regulations that make it attractive to build low-income and middle-income housing in urban neighborhoods.

“We are constantly reacting to what’s available in the market in terms of where we can find sites to develop,” Orenstein said. “Beyond that, we do follow good housing policy and San Diego’s leadership has definitely identified that one of the biggest roadblocks to healthy development, especially at a fair price, is good housing policy.”

The first project to be built would be a five-story apartment building with 34 apartments in Stockton at 3167 Market St.

“We’ve been working on that project for really the last six to nine months, and construction will be starting here shortly,” Orenstein said, adding that construction will be finished in about a year.

Next up would be a 72-unit apartment building in North Park at 2911 Adams Ave. and a 324-apartment project in the College Area at 6440 El Cajon Blvd., both scheduled for completion in 2024.

The most ambitious of the four projects is what Impact Housing is calling Logan Yards in Barrio Logan at 1521 National Ave.

Logan Yards would have 900 apartments with the first phase of 570 apartments scheduled for completion in 2025.

To be built on a nearly four-acre vacant lot, Logan Yards would include more than 10,000 square feet of commercial space along National Avenue and 32,000 square feet of green space, including a paseo and rooftop terraces.

The projects are made of modular units that are manufactured in Yorba Linda, trucked to San Diego, then stacked on top of and next to each other.

“The easiest way to think of it would almost be like it’s like an RV (recreational vehicle) that doesn’t have wheels and then you’re building the RV off site, and then you’re stacking the RVs up on top of each other. And then a majority of the work’s been done already at the RV plant,” Orenstein said.

The modular units are six-sided boxes, “almost like Lego pieces, if you want to think of it that way,” Orenstein added. “The interiors are completely finished, so we have everything from our fixtures and our finishes put in, the fridge’s in the stove is in, the air conditioners are in.”

The completed apartments come in one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom models.

Impact Housing has yet to determine what the monthly rents will be, but Orenstein said they’ll be targeted at low- and middle-income tenants.

“It’s individuals that make, say, between about $45,000 a year and then from there on up, so you’re talking about full time, fully employed, 40 hour-work week workforce, so everything from teachers to healthcare workers, city staff, you name it,” Orenstein said.