Over the last year, Mohamed Mbengue has attended several workshops alongside his Mid-City neighbors, dreaming of what the future could look like for the area’s refugee and immigrant community.
The 19-year-old is one of about 700 residents who have helped design a new space — called the Refugee and Immigrant Cultural Hub, or RICH — that will provide resources to current and recently-arrived refugees and immigrants, including long-term and transitional housing, medical care, job training and food assistance.
At the workshops, residents from all backgrounds and ethnicities came together, clustered around scaled maps of the space on more than two dozen tables, to brainstorm what services would be most valuable to them and future neighbors.
Many of the adults didn’t speak the same language, so Mbengue said their kids helped translate.
“I feel like it just exemplifies the USA being a melting pot and just a bunch of different cultures coming together to excel,” said Mbengue, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. decades ago from Senegal.
The workshops have been a key part of the hub’s development. And on Saturday afternoon, the community will be able to see their work paying off.
The Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, the group spearheading the project, will unveil the master design plan at the 2.2-acre property near Chollas Parkway and University Avenue.
Community members and City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera will also attend.
“There’s the value of what will happen in the space that will certainly make a difference in people’s lives,” Elo-Rivera said on Friday. “But the existence of that hub also … lets (our immigrant and refugee communities) know that there are folks in this community who see them, appreciate, love them and want them to have everything that they need in order to thrive.”
PANA bought the property in April 2023 expects to complete the $155 million project by 2030. The space is located near the proposed Chollas Triangle Neighborhood Park, and the architects for the hub are hoping to incorporate some of that green space into its design.
But there are already two buildings on the property, so community members and local nonprofits can start using the space in the coming months, said Ramla Sahid, PANA’s executive director.
And amid concerns about how the incoming Trump administration will impact immigrant communities, Sahid hopes the new space can help people access information, relief and other resources and stay safe.
The need for services for local refugees and immigrants has become more critical in the last year, particularly since more people began arriving in the county start fall.
For seven months, San Diego County has been working to establish a permanent center to provide temporary services to migrants with the help of $19.6 million in federal funding, but the efforts have been stalled. The county already operates two welcome centers — one in National City and another that opened this week in Escondido — to help connect migrants with services.
“San Diego is really badly missing the full scope of infrastructure we need,” Sahid said.
The new hub, she said, would provide resources not only to those settling in San Diego but also to those passing through. But its goal is to put the community at the heart of its development.
During the workshops, she said residents identified four programming areas that they specifically wanted to see at the new space: a health center, a space for housing, a nonprofit hub where people can access local resources and a global village market where people can create and sell goods.
The market was a priority for the residents, Sahid said, especially for those who sell their products and want to transition from the informal economy to the formal economy.
It will also be a valuable resource for the various cultures represented in City Heights — one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the county, with more than 30 languages and 80 dialects spoken and residents hailing from all over the world.
PANA also plans to build 115 homes, along with transitional housing for migrants and asylum seekers.
The organization has explored different ownership models for the space. It’s working with the city and attorneys to determine how the community itself could ultimately own the property.
“We’re clear about our role as a steward of this process,” Sahid said.
The project is being overseen by an advisory board made up of 15 local organizations, including the Climate Action Campaign, Eritrean Community Services, Somali Youth United and the Horn of Africa Community.
For Mbengue — who already plays an active role in his neighborhood, serving on PANA’s Youth Congress — the emphasis on the community has helped him feel more connected to the hub’s development.
He’s most excited about the medical services that will be offered, plus recreation elements like a basketball court.
“This community hub will be different than other community hubs, because we’re giving the power to the community,” he said. “They get to see what they want to see.”
