Bridgedeck Partners, LLC

What they do

Bridgedeck Partners is a meaningful partnership between Naturally Affordable Housing and The Hampstead Companies with the united goal of bringing affordable housing to San Diego’s Normal Heights neighborhood. Their combined experiences have highlighted the importance of local partnerships as they have a significant role in strengthening affordable housing developments and enhancing the community.

This $65 million, 190-unit development will provide rental housing for very low and low-income individuals and families earning between fifty and sixty percent of area median income. The access to major thoroughfares and public transportation at the neighboring City Heights Transit Plaza makes this an attractive location for working families to call home.

Naturally Affordable Housing strives to provide a solution to the lack of affordable housing in San Diego—a solution for low-income residents and for those with special needs, but also for moderate-income working families and young professionals. Their mandate is to accommodate San Diego’s growing population and continued economic development.

The Hampstead Companies is a San Diego-based development and investment organization that specializes in the acquisition and rehabilitation of existing low-income housing projects and community redevelopment efforts.

Why we invested

With this investment, 190 families in the Normal Heights and City Heights communities will have access to affordable housing.

“Recent regional housing needs assessments show a current estimated gap of roughly 70,000 units of low-income housing needed to meet demand,” said Sarah Lyman, Executive Director of the Alliance Healthcare Foundation, which invested $500,000 in this project.

“To realize just, equitable and resilient communities, we need to increase access and resources for San Diegans facing barriers to realizing full and healthy lives,” shared Mark Stuart, President & CEO of The San Diego Foundation, which invested $1 million.

David Iwashita and John O’Connor of Naturally Affordable Housing, both born and raised in San Diego, have families going back generations that owned and ran businesses along the El Cajon Boulevard corridor and are invested in responsible growth and development of the area.

Members of Iwashita’s own family, who were interned during World War II, said, “It became my personal mission to help build back neighborhoods that were welcoming and were there for my father’s business and were taking care of my grandparents.”

To learn more, see our press release.