An organization that's been providing services to the South Bay's unhoused community for five years may be shutting its doors permanently unless it receives adequate support.
Community Through Hope, located in the heart of Chula Vista, announced that its suspending its operations effective immediately due to the lack of funding.
Relevant:
"If we do not receive significant support soon, September will likely be our last month as an organization providing full-scale programming," Sebastian Martinez, the executive director of Community Through Hope, wrote in a statement.
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
In an interview with NBC 7, Martinez said that the organization has the only street medicine team in the U.S. that's in a border city, providing medical services directly to unhoused individuals.
"We provide them with daily access to nutrition," he said. "This is a mail pick-up spot for folks. This is where they get relief funding. We have the only weekly mobile shower program in the South Bay."
And Martinez says the need for help continues to increase.
"The unsheltered crisis, in particular in the South Bay, is vastly growing. Just this last year from 2022 through 2023, it has gone up 54%, so the need for our services has grown more and more," he said.
Martinez says the organization is the leading service for the unhoused community in Chula Vista. Despite this, he says the organization doesn't receive any funding from the city or San Diego County.
"We don't receive any government dollars. It has all been a grassroots efforts — grants and private funding," he said.
The city of Chula Vista sent NBC 7 the following statement:
"The city provides all nonprofits with the opportunity to apply for grants annually. Community Through Hope has not submitted a grant application in several years."
Community Through Hope's nonprofit status was revoked for not providing a 990 form, according to an IRS website search. The organization told NBC 7 that they're working on getting their tax exempt status restored.
The city of Chula Vista also added that the organization chose to end an agreement related to federal funding due to data collection and reporting requirements.
The city also said that, over the past few years, it has taken on some significant projects to help unsheltered residents move into permanent housing and become self-sufficient.
But Martinez says Community Through Hope's absence is going to be felt.
Rosy Vasquez, the CEO of Community Through Hope, says she is willing to move their operation elsewhere.
"It is our moral responsibility to do everything we can to keep our doors open, whether it's in National City, whether San Diego or San Ysidro," Vasquez said.
Both Vasquez and Martinez said they have received support from people in the community since they announced that they would be suspending operations but that it hasn't been enough to keep their doors open.
