Workers on Friday were installing 34 tiny homes that will be part of Recurso de Fuerza, a community meant to house homeless residents living on the Pajaro River Levee.
The village in the parking lot of Westview Presbyterian Church at 118 1st St. in. Watsonville, will be managed by the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County.
Recurso de Fuerza has garnered praise from the nonprofit sector, whose advocates say it will provide wraparound services and give the unhoused a chance at permanent housing. But it also has drawn scrutiny from neighbors, many of whom live on the other side of a chain-link fence from the project.
The project is an effort to clear the Pajaro River Levee in advance of a $400 million rebuild, which is intended to give 100-year flood protection to the area.
Flood control officials say that many residents of unsanctioned encampments dig into the levee to make shelters, weakening the structure and endangering the surrounding communities.
The project was funded by an $8 million Encampment Resolution Funding grant in 2023 from the State of California. Organizers plan to create a community advisory board to help keep the surrounding neighborhoods a part of the community.
The village is expected to open in November.
