Gardopia sprouted in 2015 to address health disparities in a high-crime corridor on the near-Eastside of San Antonio. Initially funded by the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA), Gardopia implemented crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) as a methodology to reduce crime around an abandoned lot. Working with SAHA, this became San Antonio Eastside's first "gardopia," or garden utopia, where neighbors grow their own food and transform their community.