Chula Vista just got a giant new social services hub

All Kathryn Lembo had wanted to do was renovate an existing office building.

Lembo ran that idea by board members overseeing the organization she leads, the Chula Vista-based nonprofit SBCS. “They walked in and they said, ‘no, no, no, no,’” Lembo recalled Wednesday in front of a large crowd. Then she gestured at the gleaming structure behind her. “So, this.”

“This” refers to the “Center for Impact,” a new four-story, 61,000-square-foot social services hub that now sits across the street from Chula Vista’s police department and library. The $33.9 million building brings together a range of aid for South Bay residents, including tutoring for kids and job training for young adults. Homeless people can walk in and ask for help at the hotel-style front desk. Parents separated from their children may sign up for supervised visits in fully stocked play rooms.

“When you see this kind of transformation up close, you realize it isn’t just about social services,” Chula Vista Mayor John McCann said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “It’s about changing people’s lives.”

SBCS, which used to be known as South Bay Community Services, began using the center at the start of the month, leaders said. The building will allow the nonprofit to close other, smaller offices spread throughout the area.

Many organizations that work with vulnerable people have made similar moves. One of the most frustrating parts about living on the edge of homelessness is navigating the region’s complicated aid bureaucracy, and getting help sometimes requires visits to multiple offices. In response, groups like Monarch School in Barrio Logan or Father Joe’s Villages in downtown San Diego have increased the number of services offered in their main complexes.

SBCS’s center features a room for teens with pool and foosball, a computer lab that should soon hold around 20 PCs and a glass-walled meeting room that can be rented by outside organizations. Staffers say they’ll now be able to serve thousands more people a year.

Donors to the building included the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation, Sycuan Casino Resort and the McMillin family.

The center’s annual operating cost is still being determined.