Another 16 units of low-income housing were officially celebrated Tuesday, on a glowing morning matched by the good vibe of a deed done well. The new units were created after dividing several five-bedroom apartments at Villa la Esperanza, an existing complex on South Kellogg Avenue in Goleta originally financed by contributions from area churches and built by Michael Towbes in 1971 to house homeless people. Over the past three years, People's Self-Help Housing and myriad partners have been rebuilding to create 83 rehabilitated apartments. The rents on the units, already completely full, allow the tenants to pay the recommended 30 percent of income on housing.
Many of the residents are English-language learners, as well as being on the low-income side of the economic scale, said Gillian Cole Andrews, a spokesperson for People's Self-Help Housing. The property's Frank Renda Community Room — named for a longtime project proponent with the Goleta Valley Housing Committee — was rebuilt as a 5,000-square-foot, two-story social center that houses meeting rooms and a tutoring area for students, with computers that are also available to their parents. Andrews explained one of the learning center goals is to ensure that all are working at their grade level. "The critical point for math is the 5th grade," she said. "If you're not at grade level then, that's when you start to see detrimental impacts. For literacy, it's the 3rd grade."
People's Self-Help Housing has similar centers at 12 of its housing developments, working with the school districts to achieve results, which Andrews listed with pride. "The high school graduation rate is pretty much 100 percent over the past 13 years. Our very first student who entered the program back then is at university, and all of them are in four-year programs. Two are in their master's programs," she added. "One is at Columbia."