Image Credit: CRC
(North County Beat) – The Community Resource Center (CRC), a local nonprofit, is set to undertake essential upgrades to its downtown Encinitas office to create a more dignified and supportive environment for its clients and staff.
Serving around 7,000 individuals annually in coastal North County, CRC offers food distributions, domestic violence programs, housing assistance, and counseling services. These services are currently provided from the organization’s aging 1940s-era building at 650 Second Street, which no longer meets the needs of its clients.
The planned $10.5 million renovation will revamp both the interior and exterior of the existing office and construct a new food and nutrition center on the adjacent property, which currently houses a small multifamily apartment complex.
“We’re not adding new services; we’re expanding program space to meet the increased demand and to provide a trauma-informed, healing-centered environment for our clients,” explained CRC CEO John Van Cleef. According to city spokesperson Lois Yum, the project’s plans are under review by the city’s planning department and will eventually be presented to the city’s Planning Commission for approval. A community meeting about the project took place on June 25 at City Hall.
The new improvements aim to create a more welcoming space, address food storage issues, provide more privacy for counseling and other services, and offer employees a better break room. Currently, clients must wait on the sidewalk for food assistance, and staff and volunteers prepare food in a cramped kitchen. The new food and nutrition center will allow clients to wait indoors and enable staff to distribute food more efficiently.
Van Cleef noted that the need for updates became apparent when he first visited the campus six years ago, and the urgency increased with the COVID-19 pandemic as more people sought services. CRC now assists around 60 households per day, with a noticeable increase in middle-income seniors seeking help. “The pandemic highlighted that our facilities were insufficient. We’re seeing more people now than we did during COVID,” Van Cleef stated.
In 2021, CRC purchased the adjacent apartment complex at 660 2nd Street, allowing for an expanded remodeling vision. The complex’s five tenants will be relocated when construction begins, anticipated next fall.
To fund the project, CRC has launched a capital campaign called One Community, One Heart. Van Cleef mentioned that the organization is engaging with private donors before launching the public phase of the campaign.
