Living Rooms at the Border

In 2018, the Civic Community Partners provided $9.325 million in NMTCs for Casa Familiar’s new, 13,469-square-foot community-focused mix-use Living Rooms at the Border development.

Originally built in 1927 as the first Mount Carmel Catholic Church, this structure will be adaptively re-used to establish “El Salon.” El Salon will be the new space for the expansion of Casa’s art and culture programming that will host a theatre and pop-up events with other San Diego arts and culture institutions.

The “Casa-Patio” will house the UCSD Border Community Station, which serves as an urban laboratory that promotes interaction and collaboration with the community to address social and economic issues and support community development. A 120 square-foot coffee kiosk will support the “El K-Fe” Youth Barista training program to provide employment opportunities for youth ages 16-24. The project will also include 10 affordable rental housing units.