Del Mar, nonprofit protect at-risk renters

By Laura Place DEL MAR —

For the past two and a half years, Tracy Mull has lived in limbo, wondering if she will be able to maintain her rental housing subsidy or if she, her teenage son and her dog will be forced to move out of the community she has lived in for nearly four decades.

Mull, 57, is one of four Del Mar residents who rely upon the city of Del Mar’s rental assistance program, a longtime subsidy initiative that city officials say has become too expensive to operate in recent years.

Peace Pies plans Leucadia reopening

Raw food cafe raising money to rebuild after fire

By Samantha Nelson ENCINITAS — Years

after a fire took out its Leucadia cafe along Coast Highway 101, Peace Pies is preparing a return to North County.

Peace Pies, an eatery specializing in raw vegan and gluten-free foods, started out making pie and pizza crusts for farmers' markets in 2007 before opening two locations in Ocean Beach and Leucadia.

The cafe became a local favorite over the years, offering unique vegan and gluten-free pasta, pizzas, tacos, nori rolls, and other global dishes.

“We take fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts and manipulate them into traditional entrees,” said owner JP Alfred.

Tragedy struck in September 2019 when a fire broke out at the Mozy Cafe and consumed the building that housed Peace Pies, Shatto and Sons Custom T-Shirts and the Cali Life art gallery.

For the last three and a half years, loyal custom- ers made the trek to Ocean Beach to visit Peace Pies, with many asking when, if ever, the cafe would return to Leucadia.

“People want us up there,” Alfred said.

Since the fire, Alfred has been working with the property owner, Jim Shatto, to bring back Peace Pies.

In September 2022, Shatto broke ground on a reconstruction project at the same Leucadia plot once home to his t-shirt shop.

The Shatto building will be home to four businesses, including Peace Pies, which will return to operate in a restaurant space with an outdoor patio on the backside of the building.

“We’ve been working on it for a very long time,” Alfred said.

Alfred said the new space will be “bright, beautiful and clean” and nearly double the size before the fire.

Though reconstruction is almost complete, there are still likely months of paperwork and other technical matters to attend to before Peace Pies can reopen. As a result, an official reopening date has yet to be determined.

A GoFundMe created by organizer Brielle Martell is collecting donations to help aid Peace Pies in its efforts to rebuild and reopen the Leucadia location.

“Please help us reopen our Peace Pies Encinitas location and get us back up and running to help serve the community with good vibes and raw vegan food,” Martell said.

Alfred is grateful for the strong community support his business has received from North County over the years and looks forward to returning to Encinitas.

“We’re super excited,” he said.

The program was planned to sunset on June 30, with no alternative housing options in place for the four residents, all of whom are disabled. The threat of homelessness has hung over Mull’s head as she has tried and failed to find an alternative housing option that doesn’t have a multi-year waitlist.

“I don’t necessarily have an exit plan. When you make $17,000 a year, you don’t have a lot of float,” Mull told the City Council on Monday. “One of the things that we actually practiced was, how do we sleep in the car? How do we make a home when there is no home to go to? I don’t know if any of you guys have ever car camped or even camped in a tent … it’s not an easy situation,”

Following months of conversations with Del Mar Community Connections, the nonprofit overseeing the program, city officials agreed on Monday to continue the program indefinitely and enter into a new funding model that will come partially from the city and partially through community fundraising.

This arrangement will remain in place until all four current participants have voluntarily exited the program, and no new participants will be accepted.

The new funding arrangement requires the city to continue funding 50% of the program’s costs — an annual total of $40,000 rather than the current cost of around $95,000 — with the remainder to come from community fundraising.

LITHIUM

CONTINUED FROM 5 per minute and eventually ramping up to producing a cell every second.

The company’s annual cell-production goal of 1.5 million battery cells, a relatively small amount compared to companies like Samsung and LG, will allow ALE lead time to eventually hit those larger numbers.

“As a result, the company is now moving from research and development and engineering and prototypes to full-scale production,” Hadala said.

“This grant will allow us to go from making tens of thousands of cells per year to our target of 1.5 million cells per year in the next 18 months.”

“All we are here to talk about is, ‘how do we protect the four existing participants in this program?’ There will not be a reopening of the program, and there will not be a reopening of the waitlist,” said DMCC President Bob Gans. “We’re proposing a public-private partnership between the community and the city that will allow not for a restart of the program but for an orderly wind-down that is fair and humane and makes sense.”

The City Council’s unanimous approval elicited applause from the audience and hugs between program participants, community members and DMCC leaders.

“This is in some ways exactly what we were looking for, some way that the program could continue, and I really appreciate Del Mar Community Connections for stepping up on this,” said Councilmember Dave Druker.

The rental assistance program started in 1988, has historically been funded entirely by in-lieu housing fees received by the city from developers. However, city officials said the program’s model has become infeasible due to a lack of incoming fees — Del Mar received none of the $25,000 projected annual revenue in the past two years — and the rising cost of running the program itself.

Plans to cancel the program have been in the works since the fall of 2021, with leaders hoping to discontinue it and transition all participants into new housing by June 2022. However, it was extended to July 2023 after efforts by San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency to identify local alternative housing options came up fruitless.

One major obstacle is that participants would first have to exit the program to qualify for additional subsidies or other housing assistance, leaving them vulnerable for an unknown amount of time.

“Due to the unprecedented demand for social service resources and assistance throughout the region, no programs or services that would allow the program participants to stay in Del Mar or find comparable living arrangements in the immediate surrounding area have been identified,” a staff report read.

The uncertainty around the program for the past few years has also created unease for participants’ landlords, Gans said, which is why it was essential to find a long-term solution.

David Ralph, another program participant, said he would have to move far away if the program were to end. The 70-year-old’s remaining family is in Florida. He has lived in his rent-subsidized housing for over a decade, where he enjoys tending to his well-maintained garden, being near his close friends and living by public transportation, as he can no longer drive.

“I’ll have to find a new place to live, and I don't know where. My community is here in Del Mar, where I have lived most of my adult life,” Ralph told the council. “Having to leave my home would truly break my heart. I don't know how I could start over in a new place … How would you feel if you were in this situation?”

Gans said any fundraising shortfall would be made up from the nonprofit’s reserves, although he anticipates that the support from the community would not allow this to happen.

On the other hand, city officials agreed that if the city saw in-lieu fee revenues return, they would be obligated to direct all those funds toward the program.

“We’ve come up with what we think is a compromise proposal that helps achieve some of the city’s

Who’s NEWS?

Business news and special achievements for North San Diego County. Send information via email to community@ coastnewsgroup.com.

NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK

Adrienne Falzon, a Rancho Santa Fe resident who has written several children’s books, recently spent time reading from her new release, “Olivia and the Sea Turtles,” and sharing her knowledge about sea turtles with elementary school students at the R. Roger Rowe School. Her appearance as part of the RSF School District’s Ocean Week programming, which is intended to promote environmental awareness among young learners.

STAR STUDENTS

• Ray Cheverton, Sarah Shin and Liliana Amato of Carmel Valley; Keona Lee and Isabelle

Montez of Oceanside; Sarah Michelsen, Kathryn Yi and Rocco Polanco of Carlsbad; Will Shapiro of San Marcos; Paris McClung and Skylar Hutcheon of Rancho Santa Fe; and Huon Fitzpatrick of Encinitas were named to dean’s list for Emerson College’s fall 2022 semester.

• Taylor Peters of Carlsbad was named to the Le Moyne College fall 2022 dean’s list.

• Madie Hamblin of Oceanside was named to the Abilene Christian University fall 2022 dean’s honor roll.

• Sarah Crane of Oceanside; Nathan Lesher, Sofia King and Gavin Ryder of Solana Beach; and Henry Vercoe of Carlsbad were named to the University of Mississippi fall 2022 honor roll.

• Named to the University of Maryland Global Campus dean’s list for the fall semester were Mario Alba, Calvin Albright, Jeffrey Brown, Sarah Czech, Kianna Brown, Joshua Baptist, Brad Breaux, Chris- topher Desamours, Kyle Dougherty, Brian Fentress-Taglisferi, Anthony Figueroa, Adam Hamilton, Sarithy Kong, Joshua Kutcher, Jake Mettam, Jan Vincent Lopez, Rachell Murphy, David Nero, Sandra Newman, Bradley Noel, Lupe Ofa, Kevin Ohm, Francisco Ortega, Robert Parnell, Promyse Patterson, Roberto Penaherrera Reyes, Samantha Perez, Abimael Reyes Aguilar, Benjamin Smith, Viviana Tatum and Matthew Villanueva of Oceanside; Jaden Graham, Riphlei Martinez, Ela Uhuru of Camp Pendleton; Kaitlynn Hopkins, Ashtyn Lamb and Charles London of Vista; Martin Michel of Rancho Santa Fe; Jason Noble of Carmel Valley; and James Rose of Carlsbad.

NEW SPA SERVICES

Ocean Pearl Spa, at the Westin Carlsbad Resort & Spa, officially reopened after undergoing an interior renovation and reimagination of its treatment and service offerings, including a new product partnership with local brand Skin Authority designed to enhance each guest’s overall wellness experience. The new features are aimed to enhance the spa guest’s experience with the reimagination of the venue including the remodeling of interiors and revamping of treatments and services.

SUMMER VOLUNTEERS

The Escondido Public Library is looking for enthusiastic teens, ages 14 to 18, who would like to volunteer at the library June 5 to Aug. 5. Applications are available beginning March 6 at the Youth Services Desk or library@escondidolibrary.org.

ROTARY SCHOLARSHIPS

Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary is opening its scholarship application period for high school seniors who live or attend school in Carlsbad. Scholarship applications are available on the club’s website, carlsbadhinoonrotary.org. Scholarship application deadline is March 29, 2023. All high school seniors who live or attend school in Carlsbad are eligible.

FUNDING SENIOR SERVICES

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proposal today to improve and expand services for se- nior citizens, in connection with San Diego County’s “Aging Roadmap.” Supervisors also directed Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer to suggest elements that can be incorporated into the roadmap.

POST OFFICE CLOSED

Retail operations at the La Jolla Village Post Office at 8861 Villa La Jolla Drive, have been temporarily shut down due to a damaged roof. The PO box area of the facility is still accessible and open to customers.

GALLERY ONLINE

Torrey Pines Gallery is online and featuring collaborations along the 101. It invites all to gaze upon art and nature by bringing the outside inside. The online gallery, “Nurtured by Nature,” is a new state of the art process that allows visitors to see what nature could look like in their own property's interior for aesthetic pleasure and relief, instantaneously. Visit torreypinesgallery.com.