Owning a home in the South Bay is an expensive dream that has
become a reality for Teresa and Miguel Castro’s family through
South County Housing.
Morgan Hill
Owning a home in the South Bay is an expensive dream that has become a reality for Teresa and Miguel Castro’s family through South County Housing.
The Mexican immigrants, who have lived in California for nearly three decades, spent years renting a house in Gilroy while they dreamed about putting the money towards their own house. In October of 2006 their goal was realized when they applied for affordable housing through SCH.
In partnership with the City of Morgan Hill, the Gilroy-based affordable housing builder constructed 12 single-family homes and 55 apartments in an area called Royal Court Community located between Monterey Road and Del Monte Avenue. The couple was one of the nine applicants chosen from a pool of 42 applications for single-family housing.
“South County Housing gave us the opportunity to get a low price, not the same price as the market,” said Teresa Castro.
After years of renting a house, Castro said, “Now I can do whatever I want because its my own house. There are no rules from other people.” She plans on hanging new curtains and eventually repainting their four bedroom, two and a half bathroom, 1,827-square-foot home. They started their renovations by retiling their small backyard.
Teresa, 48, said that owning their own home feels like they’re providing the best they can for their family.
“It feels good,” said Teresa.
Briauna Stewart, a single mom of two young boys, has been renting a two-bedroom, one-bathroom, 874-square-foot apartment for $895 through SCH at the Royal Court Community since July. She studied nursing at Everest College and she’ll continue her education at Gavilan College while working part-time as a medical technician.
“I wanted to move back to Morgan Hill so badly and I needed something affordable,” said Stewart. “It takes so much weight off of my shoulders to be able to go to school, work part-time and still afford a place to live.”
Since 1979, South County Housing has been providing housing for low- to moderate-income families. The Royal Court development is among the over 2,000 housing units the agency has provided in four counties.
Jack Foley, the communications and fund development manager at SCH, said that the agency’s goal is allow low-income families a chance to live regular lives without rent payments being so burdensome they can’t do anything else with their lives.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Foley.
The project celebrated its grand opening Tuesday afternoon.
