Visalia, Calif.-Based Nonprofit, Developer Team to Provide Affordable Housing Self-Help Enterprises will help provide affordable houses in a new, 260-home subdivision under way in southwest Bakersfield
RISMEDIA, July 18, 2006—MCT)—For many renters, homeownership seems like a distant dream, especially with the incredible price increases of recent years.
But with some help from a unique partnership and a little hard work, more than 50 local families will soon start building houses of their own.
Visalia-based nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises is teaming up with developer Matthews Homes to provide affordable houses in a new, 260-home subdivision under way in southwest Bakersfield.
Each of the 52 low-income families selected for the program will work at least 40 hours a week, labor goes toward down payments, said Self-Help vice president Tom Collishaw. For many, the sweat equity program is their only chance at homeownership, he said.
“They put so much work and effort into it, they tend to build it as their home for life,” he said.
Collishaw said he expects the homes to appraise at $230,000 to $250,000, though the families should be able to get into them for less than $160,000.
Market rate houses in the subdivision will likely sell in the high-$200,000s to mid-$300,000s.
Started in 1965, Self-Help has assisted roughly 5,400 Central Valley families, building 120 to 140 houses each year. The nonprofit has done two or three projects in Bakersfield over the years but not since the late 1990s, Collishaw said.
Homeowners haven’t been picked yet for this latest project—a process that will start in the next 30 to 60 days -- but more than 1,000 people have already shown interest in the program, he said.
This is the first affordable housing project Matthews Homes has been involved with, said Dave Corry, who handles land acquisitions for the company.
The Stockton-based developer is using a density bonus from the city of Bakersfield to build more homes than would have typically been allowed on the 50-acre site behind Ridgeview High School.
As part of the program, Matthews is required to use 20% of the project for low-income housing, Corry said. The bonus hasn’t provided the profit gains hoped for, but the company would consider doing a similar project again, he said.
The density bonus is a little used tool that more developers will hopefully consider using, said Vince Zaragoza, a planner with the city’s Economic and Community Development Department.
It can help builders increase their profit margins by being able to build more houses, while providing much needed affordable housing, Zaragoza said.
This type of mixed income neighborhood is “the wave of the future,” he said.
Along with building equity by doing the work themselves, families in the program may also be able to qualify for a low-interest, secondary loan from the city.
Many families who come into the program have never even picked up a hammer, Self-Help’s Collishaw said. But there’s a full-time supervisor and various subcontractors who help out, he said.
“Building houses is not rocket science,” he said. “It just takes good people, willing to work, willing to learn.”
Copyright © 2006, The Bakersfield Californian
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