Thursday, Jul 7 2011 3:34PM
The grant money given to the Peoples' Self-Help Housing project will build an affordable apartment building for local farm workers.
The Peoples' Self-Help Housing (
PSHH) project, Los Adobes de Maria III, recently received $605,000 in grant money from the city council of Santa Maria, California, according to the Santa Maria Times.
The
PSHH project is in its third phase of apartment construction. The affordable housing units will be provided to low-income farm workers living in the area, the paper reports.
However, seven other nonprofit organizations and service groups didn't receive any of the city's $1.4 million in grant money, the paper states. Many of the cuts were made when the city reevaluated its allocations after receiving roughly $400,000 less from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development than it had anticipated.
Agencies to receive no funding included the Boys and Girls Club of the Santa Maria Valley,
Cabrillo Economic Development, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and the Youth Education Enhancement Program run by
PSHH.
One service group member whose group didn't receive funding, CASA executive director Kim Davis, told the Times children's services in the area need additional funding just as much as other groups.
Mayor Larry
Lavagnino told the paper financial constraints were the reason for the limited funding provided to local service groups and nonprofit organizations. "It isn't a matter of commitment," he said. "It's a matter of dollars and cents."