(From Press Release) – Mutual Housing California will hold a “Grand Welcoming” ceremony this week for farmworkers and their families who are moving into the second phase of the award-winning Mutual Housing at Spring Lake affordable housing community in Woodland.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 13, at the Mutual Housing at Spring Lake community at 2170 Farmers Central Road in Woodland. The 39 homes in the second phase are located next door to the 62 apartments and town homes that were opened at the Mutual Housing site in Woodland in 2015.
“These are the people who harvest our food, yet they have always lived on the outskirts of society, in substandard housing, and even in their cars,” said Roberto Jimenez, CEO of the nonprofit Mutual Housing California. “At Mutual Housing at Spring Lake, we will provide them with homes that they can afford in the vibrant City of Woodland where they will have access to grocery stores, better schools for their children, libraries, and, of course, each other.”
Jimenez will deliver remarks at the Thursday ceremony along with Mutual Housing Board President Cathy Creswell and residents from the two different phases of Mutual Housing’s Woodland community. Also scheduled to speak are Rich Lansburgh, Mayor Pro Tempore, City of Woodland; Kim Vann, California state director, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development; Eric Liembach, vice president-senior relationship manager, Wells Fargo; and Inman Rouce, real estate consultant, NeighborWorks America®. Other partners, elected officials, and Mutual Housing representatives also are expected to attend the ceremony and add their comments.
The public is invited to attend the program that will also include tours of the newly-constructed apartments.
Phase I of Mutual Housing at Spring Lake gained international attention as the first federally-certified Zero Net Energy rental housing development in the United States. The designation earned Mutual Housing the 2015 Housing Innovation Award from the U.S. Department of Energy. Mutual Housing also received the 2017 World Habitat Award given out by the United Kingdom-based World Habitat in conjunction with UN-Habitat.
Phase II will build on the success of the first stage of the development with expanded solar systems and design improvements that will establish it as a Positive Net Energy community, or one that over the course of a year is designed to produce more energy than what its residents are expected to consume.
With the addition of the second phase of Mutual Housing at Spring Lake, the footprint of the Mutual Housing operation in Sacramento and Yolo counties will expand to 20 such affordable housing communities. More than 3,100 people now live in the 1,110 homes and apartments in the 20 communities developed and managed by Mutual Housing California.
For a deeper look into the Mutual Housing at Spring Lake story, please see the attached: http://www.mutualhousing.com/creating-sense-place-farmworkers/
