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To Mutual Housing California Residents and Friends,
Perhaps you noticed a change with Mutual Housing? Our logo now has a new look to coincide with our recent change of address. Having moved in September 2019, we are excited to have completed the relocation of our central office to a space that can accommodate our growing nonprofit.
Adopting this new logo along with upgrading our corporate office space marks a new chapter in Mutual Housing California’s 30+ year legacy. It’s color palette and geometric arrangement of people (and houses) working together are designed to be distinguishable within our industry. As we move forward, we will continue to go beyond purely developing and managing housing, elevating the landscape of affordable housing along the way.
We will continue to provide more than just landlord services because we care about the people and places where we work.
We will continue to recognize the importance of local focus and working actively with our local authorities and other local partners to improve and shape places at both a strategic and operational level resulting in homes that respond to local housing need.
Our distinct recipe of community building, community organizing, and resident programs enables Mutual Housing to meet the needs of our world—with engaged communities being more important than ever. After all, decades of specialty in leadership development has demonstrated that we grow stronger and benefit immensely with resident leaders and stakeholders involved in maintaining a strong, independent, diverse, values-driven housing organization.
As we turn the page together symbolically—with our office move and a new logo—toward the next 30 years, everyone is invited to add their own spices and seasoning to the Mutual Housing stew. Together with our resident members, we will all play a part in shaping engaged communities where people can unite around shared values as a voice for change.
Summer Tour Illuminates Mutual Housing For Industry Insiders
The bus pulled in about 11 o’clock on a Thursday morning and more than two dozen staff members of the state Department of Housing and Community Development poured out to receive a first-hand look at the product of their labor.
Mutual Housing at Spring Lake represented the last of about a dozen stops the HCD contingent had made in its Sept. 12 tour of affordable housing communities in the Sacramento and Yolo County region.
Like they did elsewhere on the tour, the staffers found the stop at Spring Lake enlightening.
“This was to build a connection between the work that we do with the state and to really see where the funding is going, to see the end product,” said HCD housing and community development specialist Julio Lamas. “We spend a lot of time in the office doing paperwork and making sure we’re following the regulatory process and that we’re in compliance with how the money is supposed to be distributed. It’s really neat to see the end product and the final build-out.”
Besides Mutual Housing at Spring Like, the bus tour hit stops at the Quinn Cottages near the Loaves and Fishes complex just north of Sacramento, the warehouse artists lofts on R Street, a couple of rehabilitation projects, and a community for dually-diagnosed people in Woodland.
At Spring Lake, Mutual Housing senior project manager Vanessa Guerra, community organizing manager Alexandra Alvarado and community builder Miriam Vazquez Tapia greeted them staff members and gave them a quick rundown on the 101-unit affordable housing farmworker community that’s been honored internationally for its Zero Net Energy and Positive Net Energy designs in its first and second phases.
Besides providing high-quality housing to farmworkers, Spring Lake also makes available to community residents a variety of services that range from summer lunch and emergency food programs, to digital literacy, health, and “culture of college” workshops, to Neighborhood Watch, to lending circles to help residents save money.
“I’m glad I came to check out this property,” Lamas said. “I love the way it’s been developed. It’s a beautiful community. I love to hear how the residents have built a strong sense of community and how they’re having such a great experience living here, how families have students that are now attending UC Davis and Sacramento State, and how they’re really getting grounded in the neighborhood and in the region. It’s amazing.”
Former interim HCD director and current Mutual Housing California board president Cathy Creswell helped put the tour together, and she took the bus ride with everybody else for the stop at Spring Lake.
“This was the perfect opportunity to provide the people who are doing the nuts and bolts and the hard work in HCD to see the fruits of their labor,” Creswell said. “They are changing lives throughout the state, whether they’re in a policy unit or a loan unit or in codes and standards. Their work produces this: a new life and a new home for people.”
Mutual Housing to be honored for smoking cessation program
The Sacramento County Tobacco Control Coalition has designated Mutual Housing California for a certificate of recognition for working to stamp out smoking in its multifamily affordable housing communities.
TCC’s annual recognition event that will honor 14 individuals and groups will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 9 a.m. at the Sacramento County Office of Education, 10474 Mather Boulevard.
“Every year the coalition likes to nominate and recognize the different organizations and people and groups that have really done some significant work related to tobacco control,” said Neela Satyanarayan, the project director of the Sacramento County Tobacco Education Program. “Part of having the county being smoke free in the 21st Century is to make multi-unit housing smoke free, and Mutual Housing’s action was a great step in the direction towards protecting their current and future residents in their homes.”
Mutual Housing owns and manages 20 communities in Sacramento and Yolo counties that provide 1,100 homes and apartment to 3,170 low-income people. The no-smoking rules that went into effect April 1 prohibited smoking in all 19 Mutual Housing multi-family residential communities and virtually all of their indoor and outdoor spaces. The policies do not apply to The Westerner, a Mutual Housing mobile home community where the residents own their own homes.
In rolling out the no-smoking campaign, Mutual Housing partnered with the Sacramento regional office of Breathe California to distribute informational door hangers and present workshops on smoking cessation programs.
“We recognize the harmful effects second hand smoke can have on non-smokers, particularly those living in apartment communities,” said Bryan Dove, the director of asset management for Mutual Housing. “We also did our best to accommodate those that do smoke by setting up designated smoking areas and providing cessation resources for those that would like to quit. The new smoke free policy has been well received and we’re glad we can help provide safe and affordable housing in the Sacramento region.
Dove and Mutual Housing Resident Programs Manager George Xiong will accept the certificate that will be presented by TCC chair Carol Maytum.
Other honorees include the Sacramento City Council for the restrictions it placed on flavored tobacco products and the Citrus Heights City Council for passage of smoke-free ordinances for public places that went into effect this year.
Please see the link for a list of all honorees: http://www.mutualhousing.com/sac-county-tcc-nominees-2019/
You’re Invited: Building Up Breakfast 2019
Come learn about how Mutual Housing is shaping the future! This one-hour event includes a full complimentary breakfast (and lot’s of coffee!), inspirational resident stories, and our vision for growth and expansion from CEO Roberto Jiménez. At Mutual Housing, community is both people and place and our Place-Shaping philosophy drives us to integrate people into place and to make place reflective of people. There is no charge for the event, but registration is required.
We hope you’ll join us and be inspired to support our work by making a contribution to our Shaping Futures Fund. Together we can address California’s acute housing shortage while building communities that offer a sense of belonging and connectivity for all. Contributions from this Building Up Breakfast will support the Shaping Futures fund.