San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced that Hillcrest Hall has broken ground, calling it a project that will bring affordable homes to a neighborhood close to jobs, transit, schools and opportunity. The announcement, posted Tuesday, marks a milestone for a development that has been winding through city and housing commission approvals for roughly three years.
“Proud to break ground on Hillcrest Hall, bringing affordable homes to a neighborhood close to jobs, transit, schools and opportunity,” Gloria wrote
, adding that the city is “using every tool we have to build more homes San Diegans can afford, in every neighborhood.” The mayor's post did not include additional details about the project's construction timeline or current status.
Documents from the San Diego Housing Commission describe Hillcrest Hall as a 98-unit multifamily rental facility at 1601 University Avenue, including one manager's unit. An earlier presentation from the commission put the number at 97 affordable rental units plus one unrestricted manager's unit at the same address, with those units reserved for households earning between 30 percent and 70 percent of San Diego's area median income under a 55-year affordability term.
Construction Timeline and Costs
That April presentation estimated construction would begin in July 2026 and wrap up by June 2028, with an estimated development cost of $734,585 per affordable unit across the 97-unit count. A 2023 report from the San Diego Union-Tribune described Hillcrest Hall as a 97-unit project that would include 10 units reserved for formerly homeless residents and receive $3.18 million in city funding.
Financing details for the project have shifted over time. The April presentation proposed issuing up to $20 million in tax-exempt bonds and up to $40 million in taxable bonds, while the Housing Authority's later authorizing resolution instead set a ceiling of $55 million in aggregate multifamily housing revenue bonds, citing an intended issuance of up to $18.2 million tax-exempt and up to $36.8 million taxable. The commission's records do not explain why the figures differ between the two documents. The resolution also states that the Housing Commission held a public hearing on the proposed bonds on April 16, 2026, and that the project is meant to help people with low and very low incomes obtain decent, safe and sanitary housing.
Part of a Broader Regional Push
Hillcrest Hall's groundbreaking lands amid a string of affordable housing openings and ceremonies across the county. Just two weeks earlier, Father Joe's Villages held a groundbreaking for an eight-story project at 16th Street and Island Avenue, described by the Times of San Diego as the city's first affordable housing development built with mass timber. That project will include 124 units — 68 studios, 55 one-bedroom apartments and a single two-bedroom unit — for households earning 30 to 60 percent of area median income, with the switch to mass timber construction reportedly dropping the cost per unit from $530,000 to $380,000.
Last Thursday, San Diego Union-Tribune reporting on a third Turning the Key location in downtown San Diego described another eight-story, 124-home affordable community with completion expected by March 2028. The same report noted Father Joe's Villages has proposed a separate mixed-use project with 98 affordable apartments near the Rancho Del Oro Sprinter rail station in Oceanside.
County-Wide Inventory and Funding Gaps
Beyond San Diego's city limits, the San Diego County News Center has reported that its affordable-housing dashboard tracks 127 developments and 9,516 affordable units, including 1,051 units under construction and 1,625 more in the pipeline. In National City, the $85 million Union Tower development added 94 apartments for low-income families and veterans, with 70 homes reserved for National City residents and 24 apartments designated for veterans who have experienced homelessness, according to the county.
Statewide, the funding picture remains tight. Enterprise Community Partners reported that nearly 40,000 affordable homes across California — projects capable of serving more than 432,000 low-income households over 55 years — are shovel-ready but awaiting final funding, warning that without adequate public money, those projects will not move forward. Whether Hillcrest Hall's financing has fully closed, or how its construction is actually proceeding beyond the mayor's announcement, was not addressed in the available records.
