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KERO-TV (
New Apartments Cater To Farmworkers, Low-Income Families
LAMONT --
These apartments look like they could be in any new neighborhood, but
the Lamont Family Apartments and the DiGiorgio Road Apartments in Lamont
have been built exclusively for farmworkers and low-income families.
There's a glaring need for low-income housing in Lamont, which is why
the Corporation For Better Housing, in conjunction with the county,
stepped forward to provide the new apartment options.
"We found the market here to be very in demand for rental housing," said
Gwendy Silver Egnater, the executive director for the Corporation For
Better Housing. "So many people here are very pleased to be able to rent
an apartment that's new, safe, affordable."
The Lamont Family Apartments, a 64-unit complex for low-income families,
opened earlier this year and is already at 100 occupancy.
Just next door, the DiGiorgio Road Apartments just received its
certificate of occupancy, which will enable residents to move in
starting Monday. It's an 80-unit complex that offers low-income housing
exclusively to farm workers. Some of the future tenants are currently
homeless, and are eager to move in.
"When they're homeless, it creates an urgency to move somewhere," said
Veronica Sierra, a leasing manager for Beacon Property Management. "I've
met a lot of people who are homeless who come here for our homeless
program and find that it helps out a lot."
The apartments offer a variety of social services to residents. They
have forged a partnership with the Farmworker Institute for Education
and Leadership Development, or FIELD, to bring English as a Second
Language and high school diploma classes to adults. The property
managers also offer tutoring, homework help and fun after-school
activities for kids.
"Most people are extremely happy to be living in something new," Egnater
said. "Other residents are just happy to be in a place where the school
bus drops their children off after school and they walk right into a
community room that's air-conditioned."
The Corporation For Better Housing, which owns several low-income
apartment buildings throughout
Both the corporation and Beacon Properties say they are committed to
providing affordable housing to low-income families and farm workers.
"They come from something small where they value every dollar they
make," Sierra said. "Coming to something like this that we're offering,
a lot of which are things they can't afford, it just makes things a lot
better for them."
The corporation has also purchased the two lots next to the apartments,
which Egnater hopes will be used to build more low-income housing, based
on the level of interest the receive from the community.
"So far, the response has been outstanding," she said.
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