Jim Schmid — Affordable Housing Champion

The founder of Chelsea Investment Corporation is proving that affordable housing can work for low-income families, veterans, seniors and people with special needs.

It is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic human right for everybody, not only in San Diego, but throughout the country, and the reason is simple – without stable shelter, everything else falls apart. According to Jim Schmid, founder, and CEO of Chelsea Investment Corporation: “The whole affordable housing issue needed a new, fresh approach, and I think we have been able to get the city, county and state working together to figure out how to provide affordable housing that does not obligate San Diego taxpayers.” 

Since 1984, Jim Schmid, and the Schmid family, have become synonymous with building beautiful housing communities that also happen to be affordable and attainable for low-income families, veterans, seniors, and people with special needs. Chelsea Investment Corporation’s success is a vivid example of affordable housing leadership. Chelsea focuses on the financing and development of affordable housing. An attorney with an advanced degree in tax law, Schmid has extensive experience in all areas of development and management of commercial and residential properties.

With $3 billion invested, and over 40,000 lives changed for the better, it is not only affordable housing for low-income families, but they are beautiful communities for farmworkers, and people with developmental disabilities and special needs.

Well-known San Diego architect Joseph Wong of JWDA, has partnered with Chelsea on many affordable housing projects, including Saint Teresa of Calcutta Villa – a partnership with Father Joe’s Villages, Weingart Tower in the Skid Row District of Los Angeles, and Alpha Square located downtown, which won development of the year in 2016. 

“We have enjoyed an incredibly positive relationship with Jim and the team at Chelsea. What we enjoy most is Chelsea’s approach to architectural design in all of its affordable housing developments,” said Wong. “It is very important at the highest level at Chelsea that their affordable communities are inclusionary, supportive of its residents, and most of all that the communities they build are visually attractive and fit into the fabric and lifestyles of any residential area in the county.”  

San Diego’s Affordable Housing Dilemma

According to a recent study issued by SANDAG, renters in San Diego County need to earn $36.62 per hour – 2.8 times the City of San Diego minimum wage – to afford the average monthly asking rent of $1,904. In San Diego, state funding decreased 31 percent while federal funding increased 131 percent for housing production and preservation from FY 2008-09 to FY 2018-19. San Diego now tops the list for having the nation’s most unaffordable housing market. In order to begin an aggressive plan to build affordable homes, local and state government must take bold steps, which, in fact, it is beginning to do under current leadership.

And now we are faced with inflation at an alarming rate. In March 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a report stating that the rate of inflation in the U.S. reached almost 8 percent in February, a 40-year high. As has been with other pandemic disruptions, this has had the greatest impact on Americans with the fewest resources. “Both the city and the county have made great strides to make way for affordable housing developments, but even that progress does not protect the market from setbacks as a result of unprecedented inflation in recent history,” said Schmid. “We will continue to work with local and state government leaders to identify creative ways to combat this problem, whether it’s entitlement and permitting processes, or by allowing surplus land to be developed for affordable housing, we know it can be done.” 

Carlsbad-based Chelsea Corporation has largely remained out of the limelight, preferring instead to cast light on its business partners and the nonprofit service providers that support the residents of its affordable housing developments. Affordable Housing Finance magazine named Chelsea the largest California-based affordable housing developer in 2021. Chelsea has built over 8,000 beautiful affordable places to call home in the County of San Diego alone and is now building its 135^th community. 

With expansive projects throughout the state of California, Chelsea recently broke ground on three additional affordable housing developments and celebrated two grand openings with total of 376 units, with a combined value of nearly $150 million. 

For Jim Schmid, it’s Personal

Jim Schmid has a passion for affordable housing, and since 1984 has built the company from the ground up. Chelsea, named after Jim’s eldest daughter, is a family business in the truest sense of the word. Not only because several of Jim’s now-grown children are involved in either Chelsea, or other family-owned enterprises, including Emmerson Construction Inc., and Border Communities Capital, but because the heart and soul of Chelsea is building affordable housing communities throughout the southwestern United States where families are given a chance to thrive. 

Building Chelsea Investment Corporation was not just a business venture for Jim Schmid, it was deeply personal. Ten years ago, Schmid began adding affordable housing units for people with physical and mental disabilities. It is personal because his granddaughter, Avery, has Quad-spastic Cerebral Palsy. He committed to including apartment homes for those who would benefit from inclusionary housing, like Avery, and others with developmental and physical challenges within new Chelsea developments. Avery’s dad, Nathan Schmid, is the executive director of the Southern California Housing Collaborative which develops housing for developmentally disabled people. Schmid recalls the gratitude expressed from a wheelchair-bound resident in one of Chelsea’s developments who said that he was so thankful to have an apartment — a home — that was built with a roll-in shower he could use with his wheelchair and not have to rely on others to bathe. 

Schmid said: “Once you hear something like that, it changes you forever.” Avery said of her grandfather: “What my grandfather does for the community of San Diego and people with developmental disabilities like me, he helps them find independence and homes. He gives them a space of their own.” Chelsea has built 115 specialized units, with an additional 80 units to be added over the next three years. 

Family Matters and Inclusionary Values 

A privately held company, Chelsea incorporates family values into everything it does, from its own family to the families it serves. The Schmid family includes Charles, Nathan, Justin, Chelsea, Brianna, Haley, Afton, and Emma, all of whom are committed to the legacy their father is building for them and their families.

Charles Schmid, a UCSD graduate and chief operating officer of Chelsea Investment Corporation, and president of Chelsea affiliate Emmerson Construction – which builds most Chelsea developments, said of his father: “Jim has deep integrity and a work ethic like no other, and he’s instilled that ethic in his family. Not only in the work environment, but in all aspects of our lives.” He continued to comment on Jim’s own family involvement saying: “He always takes it a step further, though, in being a leader that embraces family values — not only in our own families, but in creating an environment that supports the families of our employees.” 

Historically, men have dominated development and construction professions. Chelsea is proud of the fact that many of its top executives are women. Cheri Hoffman, the president of Chelsea, has been part of the Chelsea development team since 1994 and has participated in the development of over 100 affordable apartment communities, involving over $2 billion in financing. Hoffman is an authority in financial modeling incorporating tax credits and tax-exempt bonds, and has extensive experience securing multiple forms of local, state, federal and private funding. 

“I have always felt empowered to be bold and make tough business decisions at Chelsea because Jim did create the kind of environment where women thrive,” said Hoffman. “Twenty-eight years ago, he trusted me to help drive the company where it wanted to be, and I’m here because of that trust and the encouragement, and the space I needed to move ahead to eventually becoming president of the firm.” 

In San Diego, Chelsea has built 73 affordable housing communities, including Alpha Square, a $42.6 million, 203-unit infill development for low-income families; Estrella Del Mercado, a $43.9 development also for low-income families; Courtyard Terrace, a $24.5 million, 88-unit affordable housing community for seniors; Fairbanks Ridge, a $58.2 million inclusionary development with 204 units; and Potiker City Heights, a $34 million community for senior citizens with 150 units. 

On Feb. 10 this year, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma joined Mayor Todd Gloria and Chelsea Investment Corporation for the grand opening of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, a 14-story, $186 million, 407-unit affordable housing development in East Village. Of the 407 apartment homes, 270 units were set aside for permanent supportive housing, and 70 units were set aside for veterans. 

“Saint Teresa of Calcutta Villa is a prime example of the housing needed to get our unsheltered neighbors into homes — not only ending their homelessness, but also providing the supportive services needed to lay the groundwork for a safe and healthy life,” said Mayor Todd Gloria. “The city’s partnership with Chelsea Investment Corporation has helped us bring more than 400 individuals and families in from off the streets and is a monumental step in the right direction and a genuine commitment to the principles of Housing First.” 

Chelsea Investment Corporation successfully obtained both public and private resources to fund the $186 million project, including private banks, and by leveraging state and federal funding sources. 

“This housing community developed by Chelsea is exactly what California needs to tackle homelessness,” said State Treasurer Ma. “I congratulate all the partners involved, the members and staff of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, two of the entities which I chair, for their collaboration on this project to create permanent homes for veterans, families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities in the San Diego area.”

Also at the grand opening celebration was military veteran Joseph Fish, who spoke during the program, saying; “My daughter Abigail and I are not unique; like many others over the past 24 months, life has been challenging. Last year we were faced with a very real and very personal housing crisis when given a 45-day notice to vacate. After six weeks of a vigilant search for housing, Abigail and I were homeless. After three months of rotating between motels and our Toyota’s air mattress, I received a call that we had been accepted into Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Proudly, I was able to give my daughter a Christmas gift like no other — a home.”

 Last September, Chelsea broke ground on a years-in-the-making Weingart Tower, a 278-unit, 19-story permanent supportive housing high-rise located in the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles (officially known as Central City East). The development is strategically located to create a significant improvement in the quality of life for hundreds of people living in the largest concentrations of unhoused people in the United States. “With the right combination of government leadership, financial institutions, and tax credit tools to fund these important projects, there’s no reason why we cannot dive into these projects that change and, in some cases, save lives,” said Schmid. “When Weingart Tower is completed, there’s no doubt in my mind that – finally, when driving through Skid Row – and hopefully there will be a new name to change the stigma of that community – people will look up and say: ‘what a beautiful building.’”

Affordable Housing Wrap-Around Supportive Services for Residents 

Chelsea goes beyond providing affordable housing opportunities for low-income families, veterans, senior citizens, farmworkers, the unsheltered, and people with developmental and physical disabilities. It also partners with local nonprofit organizations that provide supportive services such as adult education and skill-building classes, computer literacy, English as a Second Language (ESL), job counseling, financial literacy, health, and wellness. Most family apartment communities also offer an on-site tutoring and homework help program which includes mentoring, arts and crafts and other educational enrichment activities. 

Nonprofit partners of Chelsea include Serving Seniors, St. Vincent de Paul/Father Joe’s Villages, Housing Development Partners, Southern California Housing Collaborative, Weingart Center Association, Pacific Southwest Community Development Corporation, United Cerebral Palsy, and others. 

Pacific Southwest Community Development Corporation (PSCDC), a nonprofit company that acts as the managing general partner for low- and moderate-income apartment properties in California, has partnered with Chelsea to provide these services to the residents of Chelsea communities on numerous affordable housing communities. “It’s the ideal partnership with Chelsea Investment Corporation,” said Juan Arroyo, executive vice president of PSCDC. “Their business model brings help and hope to those who need it, and we provide the wrap-around services for educational and community services that support and empower the residents in order to achieve economic and social stability.” 

Chelsea’s corporate values include a commitment to San Diego-based nonprofit leaders that provide, in many instances, life-changing support to the residents of the communities they develop like Father Joe’s Villages, Serving Seniors, and Pacific Southwest Community Development Corporation. Outside of San Diego, Chelsea supports the Central California Family Crisis Center, Bakersfield Police Activities League, and other organizations that provide important services that help the families in the cities and counties in which they build.

On a personal level, Schmid’s alma maters are University of Minnesota and Boston University. He holds a FAA Pilot’s License, a U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s License and is former chairman of the San Diego Building Association. He also is a past president of the Encinitas Soccer League. 

“The heart and soul of our company is not just building affordable housing, but also changing lives. It has been gratifying to work with local and state government leaders and elected officials throughout California. We have been able to accomplish new projects and completed affordable housing developments because of that leadership. It goes a long way to help improve the lives of so many families,” said Schmid. 

As is customary, Chelsea is currently teaming with other development partners on potential projects, including being the affordable housing partner on the Midway Rising team for the redevelopment of the Midway/Sports Arena site, and is a contender to build an affordable housing community for SDSU at the former Qualcomm site.