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July News from Peoples’ Self-Help Housing — Building Together Book Now for Sale!

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Newsletter | July 2020

Amidst COVID-19, PSHH’s educators have been working tirelessly to support students and families with the transition to distance learning. Educators have helped families obtain free internet access, secured chromebooks and laptops, taught internet navigation skills, facilitated meetings with school districts, delivered hundreds of free school meals, provided school supplies, and so much more!

During these months, we added 96 new students to our learning centers, raising our enrollment from 274 to 370 students – a 35% increase!
Dear Friend,
It has become a tradition at Peoples’ Self-Help Housing to participate in a summer reading club. My first pick for this year is The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963. For many of us, summer memories include a road trip; all bundled into the station wagon, we’ve headed to destinations near and far. Coming from a very large family myself, I have both fond and painful memories of these trips. The pleasure of escaping the heat of the Central Valley, but coupled with the prospect of being cooped up with my siblings, saw me both anticipating but dreading the event.’The Watsons Go To Birmingham’ was a great read and it highlights the hilarity of the summer road trip, but it is also cast against difficult realities and struggles for racial equality of the 1960s. What we now know with hindsight to have been some of our darkest hours, the book allows us to experience through the eyes of a young child, not only confused by the hatred toward him from some simply because of the color of his skin, but by the extent others were willing to manifest that hatred during those terrible days.

With seismic shifts occurring in our society today, I’d like to invite you to read along with me. I would love you to share your thoughts on this read as well as make your own recommendations for books to inform this important contemporary conversation.

I am looking forward to hearing from you and growing together in awareness of where civil rights have come, and explore how together we can continue and strengthen our efforts for a more equal and just world.

John
What does home mean to you?
This spring, when the coronavirus first found us sheltering at home, we wanted to find a way to keep our communities connected. Through Building Together, we found a creative experience to share what home means to us all.We received so many heartwarming submissions from all around the world that, although only originally intended to be an online point in time event, we felt the singular moment needed to be captured and remembered more permanently.

Celebrate the importance of home through the companion book ‘Building Together – What Home Means to Me’, available now on Amazon! All proceeds benefit PSHH residents.
Do you know a farmworker who needs housing?
With 38 beautiful new rental units reserved for farmworkers (current or retired) and their families, our newest property, Guadalupe Court comes with supportive services, onsite amenities, an affordable rent based on income – and applications are still available! Make a successful referral* and you will receive $800 in gift cards or rent concession (for current residents)! To see an inside tour of the property, visit our YouTube channel.Email gc@pshhc.org or call (805) 249-2040 to receive an application or make a referral!

*Applicant must move in by September, 1 2020 to receive the referral
Improving Access to Healthy, Fresh Food 
Thanks to generous support from Dignity Health and the California Coalition for Rural Housing, PSHH has new funding to help residents access healthy food amidst COVID-19.This resource is provided directly to residents so they can purchase healthy options from grocery stores, fresh produce from local farms, and, for those housebound, food delivery services!
During COVID-19 closures, contact us with inquiries at (805) 781-3088 or info@pshhc.org. For property contact information, visit pshhc.org/looking-for-housing.
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We build affordable homes with site-based services that offer opportunities to change lives and strengthen communities on the Central Coast of California.