Waterman Village: Progress, Plans, and Perspective

You may have heard of the lawsuit brought by the SLO Business and Property Owners Association (SLOBPOA).

Lawsuits opposing affordable housing are common and contribute to the high cost of building it. The lawsuit is just one of the development challenges this project has faced over 5 years of planning, design, and permitting. We diligently worked to overcome those obstacles, and we expect to overcome this one as well. The plaintiff, SLOBPOA, is a consortium of private rental property owners. Not all lawsuits are in the public interest.

Smart Share Housing Solutions, a nonprofit, was founded by local San Luis Obispo County residents to provide low-cost housing and continues to be run by local residents, many of them volunteers. We are not “big developers,” trying to grab a profit. We are your neighbors, working to support your mothers, grandmothers, and aunties through multiple housing and senior support programs, such as the development of Waterman Village.

Approximately 80% of Smart Share clientele are senior, single women, particularly susceptible to increasing rents: women generally have lower retirement incomes than men. They are more likely to live alone for years, with many relying on incomes of less than $1,500 a month. Multiple clients have worked their entire lives, and still find themselves priced out of any housing options, looking at homelessness for the first time in their seventies. As a community, this should not be our reality.

The building permit application for Waterman Village has been submitted. With your financial support, we will bring new life to a long-boarded-up historic home, replacing the makeshift mattress that has sat in the backyard for years with real beds under secure roofs for more than 20 older adults seeking stable housing and a community that has their backs as they age.

This is a level of dignity and support we believe everyone deserves, and one that our well-resourced community is capable of offering. It is unfortunate that ongoing legal challenges have prolonged the process and increased its costs.

Please learn more about the Waterman Village, which will rehabilitate a neglected local treasure, the Rosa Butron de Canet Adobe, for community use with a public neighborhood park, in addition to the new homes, here:

Learn More Here