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The first thing you notice when you walk into Carol Phillips home is that it is spotless. As a woman with a licensed cleaning business, this makes for a pretty good first impression on her resume.
The second thing you find out in talking to Carol is that she cares about her neighbors, loves her community and that as a long-time resident and leader at Mutual Housing at Sky Park, she has also made it her business to make it better.
“To be here for 20-plus years, I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve been interacting with my community and meeting different cultures, people that are Asian and Mexican, black people, white people, and how we all communicate and interact with each other,” Carol said in an interview at her Sky Park home. “I feel blessed. I feel fortunate. I feel safe.”
Carol sits on the Sky Park residents’ council. She is a cluster leader, taking charge of issues that come up in her block of homes and apartments in the Sky Park community. She works on community watch and has spent hours walking the grounds at night within the gated confines of Sky Park to make sure the tranquility of her community stays that way.
Now, Carol Phillips is trying to take a major leap.
With her business that she licensed last year, her client list is mostly made up of people in the surrounding neighborhoods who need her expertise to give their homes that finished sheen of professional cleanliness. For her next chapter, she is seeking to become a Mutual Housing California vendor, to work with any resident who needs it, in their homes, throughout all 20 Mutual Housing communities, with the minimal goal of making sure that everybody can pass their twice-yearly inspections.
Mostly, the inspections target the usual wear and tear on appliances and the other technical health and safety aspects of residents’ homes and apartments, such as trip hazards and things like blocked windows and entrances. Inspectors occasionally come across housekeeping issues, too, and that’s an area where Carol Phillips can lend a very valuable helping hand.
“Miss Carol is amazing,” said Sky Park property manager Reanna Goebel. “She has been here the longest, and her house is just amazing. Whenever we use the community rooms for meetings, she’s always volunteering to help. I adore her.”
Carol and her family moved into Sky Park the same year Mutual Housing opened the community consisting of 80 apartments and townhomes in 1996. She had been living at Mutual Housing at Norwood but headed south to the community near the Florin Towne Center Mall when the construction crews completed the new affordable housing community.
Like 40 percent of all Mutual Housing residents, Carol Phillips works for a living, but at an income level that qualifies her for affordable housing.
For 16 years, she was employed in a custodial capacity at the old Campbell Soup plant on 47th Avenue and Franklin Boulevard that closed down in 2013.
“It was devastating to all of us,” Carol said, of the plant shutdown.
A native of Macon, Ga., Carol’s father died when she was 3 and her mother passed away when the little girl was 5. Carol moved in with an older sister who raised her in a stable home. In 1989, when Carol was 23, she moved to California and eventually met her husband, Robert L. Thomas, Sr., a career military man who died in 2010. They had four children.
“Most definitely, it’s been a struggle,” Carol said. “But by the grace of God, He pulled us through. We made it through the storm.”
Carol credits Mutual Housing with helping her navigate the waves.
“I thank God for Mutual Housing,” she said. “They opened the door to a lot of people who are not as fortunate as some other people or who are homeless and on the street. I’m blessed. We’re all blessed to have a roof over our heads. I love it here. I love the management. I appreciate them giving me and my family an opportunity to be a part of Mutual Housing.”
In return, Carol has done her volunteering on the assorted Sky Park councils and committees. She watches kids. She picks up around the grounds. If any event needs help at Sky Park, Carol is usually first through the door to help make it happen.
“I see her as being an inspiration,” said Tuyet “Ni” Ton, a Mutual Housing community builder who works out of Sky Park and other communities. “She works with the residents and staff, and now she’s closer to becoming a vendor. She’s always volunteering, always helping, always giving her input. She has the ability to go forward, starting her goals and finishing them.”
For Carol Phillips, her commitment to her community is a fairly simple matter.
“You take pride in where you live,” she said. “This is home. You take care of where you live.”