25 years of helping provide low-income housing to the
community
South County Housing is celebrating 25 years of providing low-income families in four counties with affordable housing.
Over its quarter-century history, the nonprofit organization has changed the way local governments think about affordable housing. More than 1,700 affordable units have been made available because of South County Housing.
The organization’s original mission in 1979 was to provide more affordable housing to low-income farm workers and their families in southern Santa Clara County. It has since expanded to build affordable housing for seniors, the disabled, single-parent families and the homeless in Santa Clara, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
South County Housing also develops single-family homes through its mutual self-help construction program, where groups of 10 to 12 families build homes for themselves and other families under the organization’s administration and construction supervision.
Additionally, the organization provides a range of community resources including financial training and health information, as well as after-school programs for at-risk youth.
In Morgan Hill, the organization is working on a project that will construct affordable housing for teachers. Also opening, by year’s end, is a mixed-use community called Jasmine Square with 5,000 square-feet of commercial-retail space, 72 low-income apartments and townhouses, a community center to be used by those in the apartment units plus an on-site day care center for 45 children to be run by Go Kids, all on Monterey Road, right next to the post office on Monterey Road.
One South County Housing project of particular significance is the Los Arroyos community in Gilroy, a 373-unit development for families with mixed levels of income.
Another unique development, to be complete in late 2007, will transform the former cannery site in Gilroy, now a decrepit building at Fourth and Monterey streets, into a mix of apartments, condos, for-sale townhouses, commercial offices and businesses.
