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We provide the housing, and the programs, but that is only the beginning for the 3,600 residents who live in Mutual Housing California communities.
As their journeys unfold, it is these people themselves who lean on and learn from each other, whose transformations from isolation and fear to power and achievement have amazed us for 30 years.
In our communities, they find strength and confidence. Stress becomes peace. High-blood pressure gives way to the calming influence of clean, safe neighborhoods. Accomplishment follows: some of our residents are on track to earn their doctorates. Others gravitate towards professions that had never been on their horizons. Some of them save enough money to buy their own homes.
Mutual Housing residents discover what it truly means to be a neighbor. They bond through their children. They care for each other. They encourage and hold each other accountable. Like one woman did on her living room floor at one of our Sacramento properties, they even deliver each other’s babies.
Their stories show us how personal and community health occurs naturally in environments that foster engagement, responsibility, care, and connection.
At Mutual Housing, we find that people have a natural urge to be drawn towards each other. They take advantage of our social infrastructure – resident councils and attentive on-sight management. We find that everybody wants to belong. Our residents reflect the great diversity that is Sacramento and California, and their ability to get along, in peace, provides nothing less than a model for the world.
Many of our residents come to our communities having past experiences with oppression or discrimination. Some have emerged from abusive relationships. In our communities, they find strength in each other. They learn and teach each other how this American system works. They begin to flourish within it.
They share their stories and concerns in our residents’ meetings. They offer ideas and see them take shape. They resolve neighborhood issues. They strategize. They listen to each other. They respect each other. They don’t always agree, but they come out of their discussions knowing that the process was fair and that everybody has been heard.
We are hungry to expand our model in Sacramento and beyond, to the LGBT community at the planned Lavender Court by Mutual Housing, and with partners committed to seeing our resident members reach their full potential. Like all of us, we understand the need for connection and housing security is urgent. Like few others, we know how to make it happen.