Hundreds showed up to Thursday night's Lemon Grove Community Forum meeting to voice their opposition to a plan for new sleeping cabins to be built in the city.
The turnout was so large, the crowd was asked to move from the Lemon Grove Community Center to the Rec Center across the street.
The sleeping cabins are currently planned for Troy Street and Sweetwater Road.
The meeting was supposed to include a presentation from Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe followed by public comment, but the presentation did not go as planned.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
"Supervisors unanimously voted to move forward with the sleeping site cabin," Montgomery-Steppe said.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the 70-unit sleeping cabin site, in an effort to help people who are unsheltered.
It's set to replace a similar project that was planned for Spring Valley, which supervisors rejected after hearing residents concerns' about safety issues.
Local
Tina Cupp lives across the street from the proposed Lemon Grove site.
She first learned about the plan last week, when someone knocked on her door and gave her a flyer.
“This was snuck by, this was done very sneaky. It was like, Hey guess what, we’re putting this here and they voted on it. They said, we’re going to have a meeting about it on Thursday, well they voted on it on Tuesday and they put it through and that’s wrong," Tina Cupp said.
Jeff Hutson also has concerns.
“We couldn’t even organize a meeting that could handle the people that were here. How are we going to organize and fund and take care of a small community for the homeless,” Hutson said.
“How are we going to pay for it? You know, it costs a lot of money to do this," Hutson said.
Montgomery-Steppe didn't get a chance to share her presentation and was not available for comment after the meeting.
According to her proposal, $8.5 million in federal funds will be reallocated from the Spring Valley site to pay for the cabins.
She called the project a "major investment" in the health and well-being of the community.
However, neighbors may take more convincing.
In a statement to NBC 7 following Thursday's community forum, Montgomery-Steppe said, "Lemon Grove Community Forum allowed us to hear community concerns about the Troy Street Sleeping Cabins Project. We will continue to engage and provide the information necessary to address these concerns. I remain committed to providing solutions for homelessness while keeping all community members safe."
