Curtis La Chusa, chairman of the Mesa Grande Band of Diegueño Mission Indians, grew up on the tribe’s reservation in rural San Diego County. He remembers a time when many tribal citizens were encouraged to build their lives elsewhere because the reservation’s limited housing, infrastructure and economic opportunities offered little reason to stay.
“There was no electricity, there was no opportunity, there was no education. There was nothing here for anyone,” La Chusa said. “And that was by design.”
Today, Mesa Grande leaders are working to reverse that trend through a long-term effort to expand housing, strengthen infrastructure and create opportunities for tribal citizens who want to return to their ancestral community.
The tribe recently completed its first public clean-energy installation, adding solar and battery storage systems to three administration buildings supporting tribal government, housing services, cultural programs, food distribution and emergency response. La Chusa said he views the project as one of the investments needed to support future housing and community growth, while also advancing a tribal goal of becoming net-zero.
The systems serve the Tekamuk, Hallyeyaaw and Golden Eagle administration buildings. According to an Oct. 20 announcement from the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), the systems are expected to generate about 60 megawatt-hours of electricity annually and save at least $16,780 in electricity costs each year while providing backup power during grid outages. Project costs were not disclosed.
The project was completed in partnership with SELF, a nonprofit that helped design the systems, raise funding and coordinate installation. Four tribal members who had previously received solar installation training were employed on the project, according to the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. The effort received support from the William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation and other donors.
For SELF Executive Director Bob Freling, the significance of the project extends beyond lower electric bills or renewable energy production. Freling said Mesa Grande’s leadership approached the project as part of a larger effort to increase self-determination, strengthen resilience during outages and support future development.
“We as an organization like to think about energy as the foundation for a lot of the other development goals,” Freling said. “We strive hard to connect the dots between energy access and water and food security, healthcare, education, women’s empowerment and economic development.”
Reliable energy infrastructure also supports the tribe’s next priority: housing.
Mesa Grande has not built a new home on the reservation since the early 2000s, according to the tribe’s housing director, Danielle LaChusa. The Mesa Grande Indian Housing Authority manages 22 rental homes constructed in two phases in 1995 and 2000. The lack of new housing has limited opportunities for tribal citizens seeking to live on reservation land.
Now, the tribe is pursuing a housing master plan that envisions as many as 150 homes over multiple phases, Danielle LaChusa said. The initial phase, North Field Phase 1A, is planned to add 12 units on the tribe’s Golden Eagle property. The tribe has partnered with Native-owned Sovereignty Construction, based on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation, to provide owner’s representation and construction management services.
Future phases could include smaller units for “younger, single people who may want to move home,” Danielle LaChusa told Tribal Business News.
The housing initiative received funding through California’s Tribal Homekey program. State records show the Mesa Grande Indian Housing Authority received a $12.432 million award on Dec. 4, 2025, after applying in December 2023. The award includes $12 million in capital funding and $432,000 in operating subsidies.
Mesa Grande also received $800,000 through the San Diego Association of Governments’ REAP 2.0 grant program, which helped support planning, development and community engagement efforts, Danielle LaChusa said.
Separately, the California Strategic Growth Council announced Oct. 30 that the Mesa Grande housing authority had been awarded nearly $3 million through the Tribal Housing Pre-Development. Fund.
The demand already exceeds the number of homes planned in the initial phase. Danielle LaChusa said the tribe currently has about 50 people on its housing waitlist, a number that continues to grow as more citizens learn about the project’s future phases. Many tribal members are living with relatives or outside the reservation because of the high cost of housing in the San Diego region and the limited housing supply on tribal land, she said.
The first 12 homes must be completed by spring 2028 under the conditions of the Homekey program, LaChusa said. Much of the initial investment will go toward infrastructure improvements on undeveloped land to support additional phases of housing construction, she said. She pointed to electrical infrastructure and zoning work as some of the initial costs.
“This is going to have such a huge impact,” LaChusa said. “And once we get the infrastructure in, it’s so much easier grant-wise to say, hey, we have the infrastructure already to plug into, and we can continue with the rest of the phases to provide these homes.”
The project follows years of grant writing, planning and community engagement. LaChusa said tribal citizens have shared news of the housing effort with relatives as anticipation for the development grows.
“We’ve been so excited just to meet with tribal members and talk about it and help see that there’s a big future out here,” she said. “We’re going to provide that for them.”
For Curtis La Chusa, the energy and housing investments are part of creating opportunities for more Mesa Grande citizens to return.
“The Mesa Grande Indian did not die; we’re not extinct. We are still here,” he said. “I firmly believe as we go forward, this next generation from Mesa Grande is going to contribute so much, and they just need the opportunity to be able to do it.”
Brian Edwards contributed reporting.
