Naturopathic Doctor Near Lemon Grove, CA

As part of a new effort to connect homeless residents to permanent housing and supportive services, the city of Lemon Grove and the Regional Task Force on Homelessness will close a long-standing encampment Wednesday.

The encampment along North Avenue is one of several along California State Route 94 the city and RTFH are tackling using an $8.4 million Encampment Resolution Fund grant. The Lemon Grove project has already seen more than 30 people staying at the encampment placed into housing with case management and ongoing support.

A similar project targeted an encampment straddling the border of Oceanside and Carlsbad and showed success in getting people off the street, a RTFH statement read.

"Both projects demonstrate what's possible when collaboration is rooted in compassion, coordination, and accountability," said Tamera Kohler, CEO of RTFH. "Through the state's Encampment Resolution Fund and strong partnerships with Lemon Grove and Oceanside, we're not only housing people -- we're restoring safety, dignity, and community for everyone involved."

Lemon Grove's effort involved multiple partners, including local landlords, nonprofits and healthcare providers. Over eight weeks, teams "conducted outreach, retrieved essential documents, matched participants with available housing, and provided ongoing case management, including connections to employment, behavioral health, and mental health services," the statement read.

"These ERF projects show that when jurisdictions and organizations commit to a shared goal, we can deliver immediate, life-changing results," said Lahela Mattox, COO of RTFH. "What's happening in Lemon Grove builds on the success we saw in Oceanside and Carlsbad -- and it's proof that when the system works together, we can end homelessness one community at a time."

The Encampment Resolution Fund is administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development and is intended to support local jurisdictions in "resolving" large encampments through permanent housing solutions.

The Lemon Grove project funding will sustain housing and services for the residents for two years.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

The Groove Grows in Lemon Grove by Calvin Manson

You can smell the living earth here, that sweet perfume of promise and persistence. Fresh greens still whispering the names of the hands that picked them, honey jars shining like gospel lights in the dusk, and them tomatoes? Lord, they blush red like they know they’ve been blessed. Then - hush - the evening exhales. A hum rides the wind, soft as Sunday lace, and she steps to the mic. Kimiblery Jackson. Now that name carries weight like Mahalia in a silk dress, like Etta leaning into heartbreak. Her voice doesn’t just pour, baby, it testifies.

Velvet and voltage, faith and fire, each note barefoot-walking through your memories, each run rising like prayer smoke over supper tables. And beside her sits Michael Hankins, fingers baptizing ivory painting the air in blue and brass, turning chords into confession. No, this ain’t your regular market night this, this is the Church of Sound. The soul of Lemon Grove stretches wide enough to hold us all, our joy, our hustle, our humanness. Here, R&B shakes hands with the Blues, Jazz leans in close to whisper history, and Soul - oh, Soul-it comes home, wearing Kimiblery’s voice like a crown. She’ll make you clap your hands, tap your feet shout amen between sips of sweet tea. Because when she sings, you don’t just hear the music, you feel your ancestors nodding in rhythm. So bring your lawn chairs, your cousins, your babies, and a heart ready to remember ’cause in Lemon Grove, child, the groove doesn’t just grow, it rises. Like hope. Like hallelujah. Like home.

WalletHub released its 2025 Best Small Cities in America list. Several cities in San Diego County made the rankings.

LEMON GROVE, CA — Some of the country's best small cities are in San Diego County, according to a new report.

To determine the Best Small Cities in America and help people choose the perfect small place to put down roots, researchers at WalletHub crunched the numbers and compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 based on 45 key indicators of livability. They range from housing costs to school-system quality to the number of restaurants per capita.

"Moving from a bustling metropolis to a small city could drastically cut down your cost of living. On top of that, the best small cities offer strong job markets, high-quality education, good health care, safe living conditions and plenty of local flair to help you achieve a high quality of life," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. "While small cities may lack some advantages of big cities, like robust public transportation systems, they make up for these shortcomings in other areas."

Given the large sample of cities ranked in the study, researchers at the personal finance website grouped results by percentile. The 99th percentile represents the top 1% of small cities in America.

Nine San Diego area cities made the list, including Lemon Grove, with two local communities ranking in the 70th percentile or higher.

Encinitas ranked as the best small city in the county, followed by Poway and San Marcos. Here are the San Diego area cities that made the list. Their percentile is in parenthesis:

Carmel, Indiana, ranked as the best small city in the country, followed by Brookfield, Wisconsin, and Apex, North Carolina.

Bessemer, Alabama, ranked as the worst small city in the country. The community scored in the 1st percentile.

In late July, Richard Quinones saw a woman lying in a ditch near the trolley tracks in Lemon Grove, northeast of San Diego.

He called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, which dispatched a deputy to the area. But the deputy drove off without checking on the woman, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Quinones, a local resident, called the Sheriff’s Office again and was told the woman was a “transient” and that he should leave her alone, the outlet reported.

On Aug. 1, Quinones saw the woman was still in the ditch and phoned authorities again. This time, first responders pulled her out and took her away in an ambulance. The woman, Irma Perez, 43, died two days later.

The San Diego County medical examiner’s office will determine her official cause of death, though that process could take months.

Quinones didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Times. The Sheriff’s Office, however, confirmed receiving calls for a welfare check on July 29 and Aug. 1 near Main Street and Buena Vista Avenue in Lemon Grove.

The Sheriff’s Office said an “administrative investigation” was initiated into the case and that the involved deputy was placed on administrative assignment. The spokesperson declined to provide more details or name the deputy.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected,” the office said in a statement.

Perez’s family told ABC-10 News that they think her death could have been averted if the Sheriff’s Office had acted sooner.

“It’s been hard,” Andres Espinoza, Perez’s brother-in-law, told the outlet. “The kids are taking it hard. I’m taking it hard too. We just want justice.”

Perez’s family has also launched a GoFundMe page to help raise money for costs related to her death.

“We are raising money for Our mom IRMA unexpected passing, she left behind her three beautiful children, Raquel, Adrian and Ysabella Espinoza,” according to the fundraiser. “Please help us lay her to rest.”