self help: Self-Help Enterprises Awarded Grant for Central Valley Housing

California Political Desk August 2, 2006 SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Bill Maze (R-Visalia) is pleased to announce that the Department of Housing and Community Development has reserved over $500,000 funding from the 2006 HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program Awards for Self Help Enterprises (SHE) of Visalia. This award is part of $13 million block grant designed to help meet the affordable housing needs of low-income household. The San Joaquin Valley is amongst the world’s most productive agricultural areas, yet there is an astonishing quantity of inadequate, if not hazardous housing. Self Help Enterprises has been providing services to improve the lives of low-income residents for over 40 years throughout the San Joaquin Valley through housing and related programs and services. Of the first-time homeowner projects offered by SHE, the “Self-Help Housing” program employs families to form an informal partnership and agree to help each other build their houses with technical assistance provided by a competent construction supervisor from start to finish. The HOME grant will assist up to 11 families with secondary financing to lessen the cost of their primary mortgage, as well as, pay the costs for those who help with the construction and building of the housing developments. Through the Self-Help program, SHE is able to help over 150 low-income families a year acquire a home of their own. Said Maze, “The Central Valley isn’t immune to the larger housing crisis in California, and we have our own unique circumstances that further complicate the problem. HOME funds are instrumental in creating affordable housing for low-income households. As housing costs continue to escalate, this calling is greater than ever before.” Assemblyman Bill Maze represents Tulare, Kern, Inyo, and San Bernardino Counties.