SPRING VALLEY, Calif. — Tempers flared Tuesday night as the Spring Valley Planning Group considered asking the state to return ten million dollars in homeless funding that was taken back from the county last month.
Governor Newsom made the decision after the county rescinded a plan for sleeping cabins for the homeless on Jamacha Road in Spring Valley last month.
But an alternate plan for 70 sleeping cabins has now been approved for nearby Lemon Grove, renewing the need for these funds.
Lemon Grove residents came out in large numbers, infuriated that the Spring Valley Planning Group would try to ask for these ten million dollars for sleeping cabins for the homeless that would be in Lemon Grove: a plan that many residents are passionately opposed to.
"We have to start the discussion, we have to figure this out," said the chairperson of the Planning Group, Christopher Pierce. "We cannot kick the can down the road."
Many Lemon Grove who showed up to the meeting railed against it.
"I don't think we should be asking for that money back,": one resident said. "They took it away for a reason. The people of Spring Valley didn't want it so Monica (Montgomery Steppe) threw it into Lemon Grove's bucket!"
"We have government officials who have shafted the people, railroaded the people," said another speaker. "You guys are just in the pocket of the county!"
'There is no communication," added another resident. "There is no trust! I am fully against asking for the money back because you have no plan!"
Many residents were incensed that a planning group representing Spring Valley would be requesting funding for a project that would go into Lemon Grove.
Lemon Grove City Councilmember Liana LeBaron spoke out at the planning group meeting. "I think it is fair from what everybody is saying... that they do not want you to ask the governor for the $10 million," LeBaron said.
In the end, the planning group appeared to heed that call. While a motion was made to write a letter to the state requesting the funds for the Troy Street project, there was no second to the motion, effectively killing the proposal.
Even without these state funds, though, county leaders say the Troy Street sleeping cabins in Lemon Grove can still move forward and should be operational within two years.
WATCH: San Diego County leaders consider Lemon Grove as possible site for 'sleeping cabins'