CENTRAL COAST — When it comes to building a healthy life filled with opportunity, Pacific Premier is banking on the bright futures of students who live at Peoples’ Self-Help Housing (PSHH) properties. Knowing that being able to live in safe, affordable housing is only the start, the community bank, headquartered in Irvine, has made a $20,000 investment towards the opening of the nonprofit’s newest education center in Santa Barbara and to general operating support for San Luis Obispo County.
Slated to open in December, the education center located at Jardin de las Rosas, a 40-unit development in Santa Barbara, will feature afterschool programming, workforce readiness, financial literacy, and college preparatory classes. It will be named in honor of founding President and CEO of PSHH Jeannette Duncan, who helmed the affordable housing nonprofit for over four decades. The education center will not only serve students living at the flagship property, but also those studying at neighborhood schools.
“This amazing gift from Pacific Premier Bank is an investment in education that will pay dividends for years to come,” said current President and CEO John Fowler. “As I like to say, we are not just building houses, we are building futures.”
The success of the education program, which is already in operation at nine other PSHH properties, is evident in the achievements of its alumni. This fall, 46 college freshmen joined other students from their PSHH neighborhoods on 10 different campuses around the nation, with one student beginning master’s level studies at the Ivy League’s Columbia University.
Founded in 1970, PSHH is an award-winning nonprofit organization that develops affordable housing and community facilities for low-income households and homeownership opportunities for working families and special needs populations, such as seniors, veterans, the disabled, and the formerly homeless. With nearly 1,200 self-help homes completed and almost 1,800 rental units developed, PSHH is the largest affordable housing developer on the Central Coast, with offices in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. For more information about Peoples’ Self-Help Housing, visit www.pshhc.org, email communications@pshhc.org or call (805) 781-3088.