{"id":759,"date":"2018-08-08T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mutualhousing.com\/blog\/?p=759"},"modified":"2022-09-23T10:10:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T10:10:00","slug":"state-usda-director-wowed-by-mutual-housing-at-spring-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mutualhousing.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/08\/state-usda-director-wowed-by-mutual-housing-at-spring-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"STATE USDA DIRECTOR WOWED BY MUTUAL HOUSING AT SPRING LAKE"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"\"$
\nKim Vann, the state director of Rural Development, talking to Holly Wunder Stiles, Mutual Housing Californina director of housing development, in one of the Mutual Housing at Spring Lake units.<\/p>\n

The state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural economic development division visited the internationally-acclaimed Mutual Housing at Spring Lake development in Woodland and came away more than a little impressed with the one-of-a-kind residential community for farm workers.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think we could have a better model of farmworker housing in the state if we tried,” Kim Dolbow Vann said Tuesday afternoon, after her lunch-time tour of the 62-home community tucked into the attractive new housing tracts on Woodland’s far southeast side. “I’m very impressed with the staff and crew. I’m looking forward to doing more with them.”<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ Several other USDA dignitaries from Washington, D.C., as well as from California accompanied Vann on the tour that featured presentations from several Mutual Housing staff members as well as from a resident farm worker.<\/p>\n

Mutual Housing at Spring Lake won an award last year from the United Kingdom-based World Habitat organization for opening the first Zero Net Energy rental housing community in the United States in February 2015. Mutual Housing received the World Habitat Award in a ceremony earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Besides its energy-saving credentials, the community also has been hailed by World Habitat for its digital literacy, financial education and green leaders programs.<\/p>\n

USDA rental subsidies have helped maintain Spring Lake’s affordability to its residents, and the federal agricultural agency is also providing a $3 million loan to assist in the construction of a second, 39-home development that is currently under construction adjacent to the first phase on Farmer’s Central Road in Woodland.<\/p>\n

Vann is a former Colusa County supervisor who was appointed by the Trump Administration last November to be the State Director of Rural Development.<\/p>\n

“I was impressed with the first phase when I came out here a couple days after I first started this job back in November,” Vann said. “But I’m even more impressed seeing how well it has been maintained. And then to look at what they’re doing with the new project, that’s even more impressive, (as well as) the community that it’s in – the importance of the children going to the same schools as the communities that surround it, the single-family homes that are around here.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kim Vann, the state director of Rural Development, talking to Holly Wunder Stiles, Mutual Housing Californina director of housing development, in one of the Mutual Housing at Spring Lake units. The state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural economic development division visited the internationally-acclaimed Mutual Housing at Spring Lake development in Woodland and… <\/p>\n