July News from People’s Self-Help Housing

eNews | July 2021

Helping residents plant a community garden at Rolling Hills Apartment in Templeton, a local organization recently helped kids plant bulbs, food plants, and other tasty greens!
Dear Friend,
People’s continues to build at a full clip throughout our Central Coast service area. Last month we began an apartment rehabilitation project in Isla Vista, a new apartment construction project is starting soon in Pismo Beach, and a self-help builders’ homeownership project is heading toward completion in the months ahead in King City.

Though our pace has increased, so has the unrelenting advance of the affordable housing crisis. In light of statistics back in the headlines, we will need to take it to the next level to move the needle further. We define housing as being affordable when it does not exceed 30% of a households’ income. This gives a senior living on Social Security only $283 to spend. Recent reports indicate that fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in our footprint is now at $1,522. For a full time employee earning $13 an hour, they would have to put in 90 hours of work a week to afford this.

The mathematics clearly don’t add up, so the majority of renters along the Central Coast are burdened by spending at least 50% of their income on housing. This explains why so many report being just one financial challenge, such as a car repair or a medical bill, away from losing the roof over their head. For many of our once next door neighbors, that has already happened. In a hole, impossible to climb out of on their own, those experiencing homelessness find themselves with one compounding ill after another.

People’s believes that affordable housing has become so challenging and expensive, that it will take all of us working together to make more headway. We have to all ‘Build Together’ through increased collaboration, and in our partnership with you lays our best joint hope to make significant progress.

Thank you for supporting us for over the past five decades. Now we invite you to join us in continuing this good work, take local affordable housing to a new level, and effect significant change in the next half century together!

Ken Trigueiro, CEO & President

Boosting the Connection
Our Education and IT departments are collaborating with Comcast to install new wifi ‘lift zones’ at all three Los Adobes de Maria properties in Santa Maria. These lift zones will boost wifi connectivity for students and residents in both our learning and community centers. It will also strengthen the existing, free wifi that is currently offered to our everyone at these sites!
Creating a Legacy
The Legacy Circle celebrates our cherished planned givers. The gifts that will come from their estates, will have a profound and lasting impact on generations of PSHH residents.

Listen to community advocate Adele Rosen discuss her reasons for joining the Legacy Circle:

If you would like to support our mission in this impactful way, please contact us at giving@pshhc.org.
Supporting our Community Partners!
El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) hired the PSHH construction team to support the rehabilitation of their homeless shelter. Through this partnership and in collaboration with Precision Construction Services, ECHO was able to repaint the property, build new partitions, install updated lighting fixtures and ductwork, complete ADA upgrades, and much more. This project was funded by the State of California and will provide much-improved facilities for the individuals and families staying at the shelter!
 Before:
After:
Distinguished Properties
The Distinguished Properties Awards measure PSHH properties quarterly on an assortment of key performance indicators (compliance, financial reporting, maintenance, resident satisfaction, etc.). Congratulations to our 2021 Quarter 2 Platinum Awardees:
  • Casas de las Flores, Carpinteria
  • Jardin de las Rosas, Santa Barbara
  • Los Adobes de Maria II, Santa Maria
  • Pacific View Apartments, Morro Bay
Mentorship in Action
PSHH Camino Scholars recently gathered for a special event. Representing UC Riverside, University of Redlands, Cal Poly, University of Rochester, and UC Merced, student mentors shared their experiences, challenges, and lessons-learned.

The event also provided a special opportunity to recognize everyone’s educational achievements from the past school year, and to celebrate those who have been accepted to top-name universities across the nation. To make more great stories like this happen, support our Camino Scholars program!

July Partnerships
Thank you to these incredible partners who have helped support our mission this month:

  • City of Goleta – $10,000 in support of Camino Scholars
  • Community Foundation San Luis Obispo – $10,000 in general support and for Camino Scholars
  • Herbert & Gertrude Latkin Foundation – $4,000 in support of Camino Scholars in Santa Barbara County

PSHH offices are back open to the public!

Visit or contact us at (805) 781-3088 or info@pshhc.org.
For detailed property information, please visit our website.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
YouTube