Lemon Grove Gets Nod from San Diego Housing Federation

The city may soon be seeing red—but in a good way.

Lemon Grove has been nominated for two Ruby Awards by the San Diego Housing Federation for its efforts to provide residents with low-income housing. The ruby-red recognition in the Outstanding Government Agency category is for taking “unusual risk or initiative to support affordable housing and/or community development initiatives in the past year.”

The other finalists in the category are the City of Escondido, and the California Housing Finance Agency.

Barbara Kraber, the Main Street Promenade project manager, was nominated for a John Craven Memorial Award, which honors a public employee “who has taken risks and has gone above and beyond the call of duty to assist affordable housing developers.”

Other finalists in the category are Jeff Graham, Centre City Development Corp.; Rachel Hurst, City of Coronado; and Margery Pierce, City of Oceanside.

The San Diego Housing Federation is a nonprofit organization that supports the creation of affordable homes in the region, and whose members are affordable housing developers, financers, and advocates, and government agencies.

“For the past five years, the city has focused on revitalizing its downtown and the local economy,” Lemon Grove City Manager Graham Mitchell said in a press release.

“By working with an innovative developer, securing several grants, and relying on the input from the community, the city has developed a renaissance plan for the city’s downtown core,” he said. “This project involves new commercial space, housing for working families, and a gathering space adjacent to the trolley station.”  

Winners will be announced June 14 at an awards ceremony at the McMillin Events Center at Liberty Station.