Congratulations to the
2020 Ruby Award Nominees

This year, as we hold the event digitally, we are using the website to show the information for each nominee.

Congratulations to the 2020 Nominees and don’t forget to join us on Thursday, July 23 at 3 pm to find out who the winners will be!

Follow along and join in on the conversation.

#30thRubyAwards #RubyAwards2020

Outstanding Resident Leader

• Bruce Carron

  • Bruce Carron became a Senior Homeless Advocate three years ago after going through a long period of homelessness himself, eventually becoming housed through a permanent supportive housing program. Since then, he has made it his mission to give a voice to the voiceless.

• Elia Huerta

  • Elia Huerta has an exceptional reputation in her community. She has taken the initiative to create better communication among residents by creating a message group where she notifies them of any events. In addition to her commitment, Elia is a Resident Leader Academy graduate and hopes to advocate for her community in affordable housing.

• Jason Pannell

  • Jason Pannell has donated hundreds of hours to bring food to the residents of Atmosphere Apartments. He goes out of his way to make others lives better; through his dedication and charity work he has brought gratitude and unity to the Atmosphere community.

• Guadalupe Regalado

  • Guadalupe is a member of Resident Leadership Academy, Guadalupe lends her lived experience as a longtime resident of Manzanita by contributing to topics and resources for the bettering of her community. She is always eager to jump in and help with all the projects that have been developed, having recruited her neighbors to come join the group to become leaders/advocates for their community themselves.

Outstanding Service to Residents

• The lease-up team from The Beacon

  • The Beacon team gave care and guidance to 44 residents who moved into this supportive housing community in 2019. The Beacon’s lease-up team was able to ease residents’ transition from homelessness and provide a soft landing for them to rest, recover and find stability.

• BRIDGE Housing Management Team at Celadon

  • The staff has taken a client-centered approach to the goal of providing secure, livable, affordable housing, with voluntary, wraparound services that promote residential stability and self-sufficiency. In the last year, the team was able to show their residents that they have a voice by accommodating residents' requests, promoting community, and supporting the continuity of care for individuals who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness and were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

• Remy Gaither

  • In the community, Remy goes out of her way to help people in need by organizing clothing and food bank events in her current position as Supportive Housing Program Manager at Interfaith Community Services. She volunteers at Eleanor’s Place for Women, helping previously incarcerated women find their way back into their families and communities.

• Judy Ann Jones

  • Judy Ann Jones is committed, hardworking and always looking to help make Community Learning Center students more successful. As an active community volunteer, she has supported and assisted the Center with many services to include homework tutoring, one-on-one reading, events, and collaborating with other residents to ease parents’ concerns about the major educational shift in their children’s learning and the community. The joy she shares with our youth is evident.

• Veronica Lagler

  • Veronica consistently delivers high-quality work. Her commitment to service is reflected in all that she does and within the relationships she holds. She has cultivated respect in her CHW affordable housing communities, and most importantly, has worked to develop new methods in the organization and with her residents. She has also been instrumental in providing support to the onsite Resident Service Coordinators as a Financial Coach.

• Leticia Leal

  • Leticia Leal embodies an endless devotion to the person across from her. Leticia manages the Resident Services team at the City Heights Community Development Corporation, maintains the budget, plans trips, travels between properties, juggles countless resident concerns, enforces fair housing, and is constantly implementing new programs that make life better for her residents. Most beautiful of all, though, is Leti’s relationship with her residents. She knows them. They know her. She can barely walk through an apartment complex without being stopped repeatedly for hugs, conversation, or a shoulder to cry on.

• Lissie Parra

  • Lissie Parra has been delivering services at Laurel Tree Apartments for a relatively short time, however she has made a tremendous impact in building relationships with residents. Lissie embodies a philosophy of inclusiveness, compassion and gratitude, having fostered collaborations and was recently featured by National Conflict Resolution Center for her success in a full house Bystander Challenge Workshop among other similar trainings. She has truly made her residents feel like a family community.

• Robin Strickland

  • Robin Strickland is a caring, thoughtful person with an infectious laugh most cannot help but gravitate towards. She has a gift for transforming challenging circumstances into positive outcomes. With her thirst for creating a happier and healthier community, she influenced change in the residents’ moods, minds, and hearts. She listened and responded to problems, provided interludes of fun, and smoothed misunderstanding whether between residents themselves or residents and property management. She brought stability to the residents’ lives by establishing structure, expectations and giving them hope.

Outstanding Development Partner

• Allgire General Contractors

  • Allgire General Contractors is a local family-owned business that has worked with most of the major affordable housing developers in San Diego to complete numerous developments – including previous Ruby Award winners Talmadge Gateway in 2018 and Hotel Churchill in 2016. They are an impressive team of highly-qualified and knowledgeable employees from the office to the field who work well together and with other team members on the job. Over the years the company has demonstrated qualities that make the firm an Outstanding Development Partner including the ability to deliver high-quality projects, a solid reputation for integrity, and a dedication to the affordable housing sector that has led to the establishment of a new charitable foundation funding scholarships for people in affordable housing along with starter kits that include much-needed household supplies for new residents.

Innovations Award

• Monica Ball

  • Monica is a 40 year resident of San Diego and 20 year volunteer for vulnerable and homeless populations. She is currently a residential Realtor with Pacific Sotheby’s, formerly in broadcast sales with Clear Channel & management for Nordstrom and serves as a volunteer and advocate for many local nonprofits.

• Community Health Improvement Partners

  • This year, Community Health Improvement Partners helped secure stipend funds for Community Housing Work’s Lakeside Resident Leadership Academy to advocate for community safety and walkability. They convene trainings covering topics such as Social Determinants of Health, Community Organizing, Communication with Law Enforcement, and more. They are engaging residents at the grassroots level of health and housing. They have supported CHW through the RLA program to get residents of affordable housing to take immediate action to improve their quality of life.

• County Board of Supervisors

  • San Diego's County Board of Supervisors with its forward-thinking and innovative leadership has deployed numerous tools to address the severe local need for affordable housing and to combat homelessness. The Board's establishment of the "Innovative Housing Trust Fund", a $50 million affordable housing fund, is bolstered by additional Board-approved programs and initiatives including the use of surplus County-owned land for future affordable housing and other programs. Further, the Board voted to support an application of more than $1.4 million in state emergency funds to address homelessness. With these actions, deployed in conjunction with the IHTF, the Board of Supervisors is comprehensively and deliberatively addressing homelessness and affordable housing.

• ElderHelp’s Homeshare

  • Affordable housing issues persist throughout San Diego County, one of the best long-term solutions is ElderHelp’s HomeShare program. ElderHelp’s goal is to bring relief to low-income seniors in the County, but the program actually addresses a broader swath of adults who need financial relief and stable housing. Every housing need is an individual one, and the sustained support from ElderHelp staff is a unique approach. The innovation of HomeShare has endured for many years and promises to fit the needs of San Diego seniors for years to come.

• PSH Lease-Up Team - San Diego Housing Commission and San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless

  • In 2019, the San Diego Housing Commission and the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless worked collaboratively to improve the supportive housing lease-up process and shorten the time it takes to move someone experiencing homelessness into their new home. The innovations that these two agencies put in place will have long-lasting impact on the affordable housing sector in San Diego, making it both easier for residents to find housing and developers to efficiently lease-up their properties.

• YIGBY - Yes In God's Back Yard

  • Yes In God's Backyard Housing is an innovative approach to low cost, quick construction of affordable housing. It partners modular housing with Faith Community Partners looking to utilize underutilized land or airspace above their parking lot through the use of a platform.

CSH Supportive Housing Award

• The Beacon

  • The Beacon is a high quality supportive housing project that not only ends homelessness for 44 adults and transition-aged youth in San Diego, but also provides a home filled with the supports that enable tenants to thrive. The Beacon’s tenant focused approach prioritized design and operational details that make an incredible difference for people moving from the street into housing, record-setting three-day lease up, and units filled with resources that demonstrate the depth of supports for tenants now that they are home

• Foundation for Developmental Disabilities for Pacifica at Play del Sol

  • People with developmental disabilities want the same things that we all want; a satisfying job and an affordable home in a safe neighborhood. The grant was the largest that the Foundation for Developmental Disabilities has ever made in its 32-year history in support of persons with special needs. There are presently no requirements to set aside affordable units for the developmentally disabled. Together with Chelsea Investment Corp. and Southern California Housing Collaborative the FDD is hopeful that this project can be a model for future projects that other private and government organizations can utilize as an emulate to provide affordable housing for persons with developmental disabilities.

• Stella Supportive Housing by Affirmed Housing

  • Through the leadership and vision of Affirmed, Stella has developed a platform that supports residents in thriving. Stella has provided residents with a level of on-site clinical services that have yet to be duplicated in other supportive housing developments in the region. Residents of Stella have been given the opportunity to play a vital role in the Grantville neighborhood association, it continues to empower its residents to advocate getting their needs met.

• Vista del Puente

  • Vista del Puente, a partnership between Townspeople and National CORE, is a striking 52 unit affordable and supportive housing development in the Southcrest neighborhood of San Diego. Vista del Puente, so named for its unmatched view of downtown San Diego and the Coronado Bridge, features 38 supportive apartment homes set-aside for homeless individuals and families who have a disability or serious illness with a specific focus on those individuals living with HIV/AIDS. A subset of the 38 apartments is reserved for veterans.

• Zephyr

  • Zephyr is a permanent supportive housing community offering 84 apartment homes to formerly homeless veterans who were either chronically homeless, or homeless, in the City of San Diego. Zephyr’s service provider, PATH San Diego, provides on-site, wrap around supportive services include gardening classes, life skills support, a tenant association group, cooking classes, mental health counseling, community engagement events, computer classes, anger management support groups, walking groups, food distributions, spiritual support groups, and a SMART recovery group. Overall, Zephyr is an excellent example of how permanent housing and supportive services combined can help individuals who have served our Country gain stability and reintegrate back into housing.

2020 Housing Housing Champion Rich Juarez - Award to be Accepted by his son, Chris Juarez

Richard was a native San Diegan with roots and ties that were deep and strong, in particular to Barrio Logan, where his parents moved in the 1930's. Richard grew up with his sisters in the Barrio and proudly embraced this connection his entire life. Shortly after Chicano Park was created through the community’s activism, Richard became a driving force in the city’s redevelopment of the area, and a passionate advocate for the community’s vision of environmental justice and ecologically sensitive land use. His family’s history and his early involvement with the Barrio Station propelled him on a 17-year labor of love that ultimately enabled Richard and MAAC (Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee) to build the Mercado Apartments in 1994 - the first new housing in the area in over 50 years. Richard’s community vision helped to ensure numerous features desired by the community, such as: Neighborhood kids trained in construction trades and hired for the project; Residents hired for the onsite Head Start/childcare/social services; Gas stoves in the kitchens (for tortillas, of course); Front porches. Richard said of the project, “It’s a statement to people, especially kids, that this is what our culture is all about”, and “Somebody has to go home and make things right.” All who know Rich will not be surprised that the latter statement is one of VERY few where he acknowledged his primary role. He ALWAYS spoke of the results as what “the people” or “the community” accomplished. The process, and the housing that resulted, was always his greatest source of pride (until his granddaughters arrived). The Mercado Apartments project focused on neighborhood revitalization AND affordable housing, instead of at the expense of affordable housing, which so often occurs today. The project has been cited in two books, Comeback Cities, and Restoring America’s Neighborhoods: How Local People Make a Difference, as examples of how to revitalize older neighborhoods – with the people still in them.

Richard’s passion was always about “More Than Housing”, however, and his later efforts helped result in the Mercado del Barrio retail center and the Estrella del Mercado Apartments. This passion continued throughout his career, including as a Partner at Urban West Development where he worked with organizations such as Project New Village, supporting food insecure neighborhoods in Southeast San Diego. Almost up until his passing, he continued working on the details of his projects, in his quest to improve the lives of all people in our communities. Earlier highlights of Richard’s career include teaching urban planning at UCSD, working as a City Planner for the City of San Diego, serving as Governor Brown’s appointee on the Southwest Border Regional Commission, and co-founder/President of the Nonprofit Federation for Housing and Community Development (later renamed the San Diego Housing Federation to reflect its diverse membership).