STOCKTON DAILY RECORD

February 26, 2006

Agency likely to forfeit grant for farm worker housing
Without land for project, funding could be lost

STOCKTON - The agency that provides affordable housing in San Joaquin County will likely forfeit a $2 million grant for farm worker housing because it can't secure land for a proposed apartment project.

The San Joaquin Housing Authority's $2.4 million "rest stop" for single farm workers has been in limbo since October, when the city said it wouldn't support plans to build downtown near the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless.

The authority has pursued alternate sites in north Stockton and east of Highway 99, but it hasn't reached agreements with property owners, said Ed Sido, the Housing Authority's chief executive officer.

And now, a $2 million grant the agency is counting on to fund the project is being shopped to other cities and counties in the state. Hector Fernandez, the rural development manager for the nonprofit Rural Community Assistance Corp., said Friday that money needs to be spent in the next few months and the Stockton project isn't likely to meet that time line.

"We can't commit to that project," Fernandez said. "Based on the information that we've gotten from the Housing Authority, it's not going to happen."

The nearly 38,000-square-foot Mision Campesina De San Joaquin was proposed last summer to give migrant workers without families a place to stay in Stockton. The two-story apartment complex would house up to 62 farm workers in shared rooms equipped with kitchenettes and bathrooms.

It was first proposed under Highway 4 at the intersection of Washington, Lafayette and Lincoln streets - blocks away from St. Mary's Interfaith Community Services, the homeless shelter and the Father Alan McCoy Dining Room. The Housing Authority drew up initial plans and received approval from the California Department of Transportation but backed off after city officials said they wouldn't support the project. The city also turned down two other sites before suggesting an area along Fremont Street near Highway 99, said Laurie Montes, Stockton's housing director.

Some of the Housing Authority's appointed commissioners believe the city should have accepted the downtown location. Commissioner Nancy Perez said during a special board meeting last week the funding is now in jeopardy because of local government's disinterest in approving the project.

"We've been kicked around with this for a long time," Perez said. "They've just thrown us around on it. And I don't want to leave it."

Montes said the city told the Housing Authority all along it didn't want housing to be built under the freeway. The location would be noisy and unsafe, particularly in the event of an earthquake, she said.

The city doesn't want to see the project eliminated, Montes said. Mayor Ed Chavez supported a resolution that would allocate $100,000 to the "rest stop" if it is built on the Fremont Street site, an unincorporated area.

"The city was trying to be very supportive of that project," Montes said. "Just not at that site."

The grant is part of a $17.5 million windfall from Proposition 46, a state housing bond approved by voters in November 2002, Fernandez said. The Housing Authority won the grant after submitting a proposal to build in downtown Stockton.

Sido met a Jan. 31 deadline to keep the funding alive by submitting a list of alternate sites for the migrant housing complex. But Fernandez said the agency needed "site control" - either ownership of the land or some type of lease agreement - to keep in the running.

"We've already started looking for other projects," Fernandez said. "We've got a time line that we're under to make sure these funds go out in a timely manner."