Shipping containers to house homeless people in San Diego neighborhood

A project that could become a model for developing housing at record speed is beginning to take shape in the El Cerrito neighborhood of San Diego and is on track to open in December.

With construction of a ground-floor medical clinic and parking garage still underway, crews are placing 21 shipping containers each day on the site at El Cajon Boulevard and 55th Street. By the end of the year, 137 shipping containers will have been converted into 40 housing units for homeless people, plus one for a manager, at a cost of $23.3 million. A planned second phase will add an additional 132 units at a cost of $60 million.

The housing units are being created by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), an L.A.-based homeless service provider that also operates a shelter, housing and outreach in San Diego. The ground floor will have a new medical clinic for Family Health Centers of San Diego, with two levels of underground parking below the clinic and two parking levels above it. The five stories of housing units are being built above the clinic and garage.

The modular housing project still is expected to have shaved about a year off the time it would have taken with conventional construction.