Needy Families Build Own Houses in Moorpark
Along the four streets that make up the latest housing development in Moorpark, there are 62 dreams waiting to be realized. But first, 62 houses need to be built from the ground up.
This is no ordinary construction project, but one in which houses will be built by the low-income families who will own them. This is Villa Campesina.
Work on the innovative project began Dec. 10 as 20 workers gathered to carefully mark the leveled lots with stakes and yellow string.
When it is finished next year, Villa Campesina will be the first housing development in Ventura County to take advantage of a federal housing assistance program that gives needy families a chance to build their own homes for about a third of the area’s average home price.
“This is something I’ve always wanted to have and was never sure I could,” said Maria Magdaleno, 28, digging her foot into the dirt where her new three-bedroom home will stand.
Not only will the 62 families get their houses, they will get to choose the color of their paint. They have chosen the names of their streets and will have a say in shaping the character of their community.
“I can’t believe it,” Teresa Cortes, 32, president of Villa Campesina, said as she stood on the sidewalk in front of her lot. “I have this funny feeling in my stomach.”
Families agree to work 40 hours a week on the project for 10 months. Their labor amounts to a down payment. Many of the project’s future residents are farm workers.
“This work is in addition to their regular jobs,” said Karen Flock of Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., which is in charge of the project.
A nonprofit agency working on the project, People’s Self-Help Housing of San Luis Obispo, provides a supervisor to direct each group of 10 families through construction of 10 houses. The groups work as teams and do everything but electrical and plumbing work, Flock said.
The housing agency has built more than 500 homes through similar projects in California since 1970, Flock said.
The families came equipped with shovels, hammers and plenty of enthusiasm. Men worked in teams to set stakes and mark property lines with chalk as women put the finishing touches on a small toolshed at one end of the development.
“The families working together will enhance the community spirit,” said Moorpark Mayor Pro Tem Bernardo Perez, who has supported the project since its inception nearly 8 years ago.
Street names in the development, picked by its future residents, reflect the community spirit. One street, Unidos, means united in Spanish.
“For us, it’s a very key word because always we work together, united,” Cortes said.
Another street is named after James Weak, the former mayor of Moorpark who was influential in getting the project off the ground. A third is called Juarez, after former Mexico President Benito Juarez, a reformist in the years 1858 to 1872, whom the future residents referred to as “a very just person, like Abraham Lincoln.”
The residents credit the city of Moorpark for its cooperation and enthusiasm. “As a city, Moorpark is just a baby, but it’s so mature about understanding housing needs,” Cortes said.
The 10-acre piece of property south of Los Angeles Avenue and east of Liberty Bell Road sits between what residents call “old Moorpark” and “new Moorpark.” The city bought the land from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with $500,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds.
More than 200 Ventura County families applied for the project. But the strict qualifying process weeded that number down to 62. Families of four cannot quality if they earn more than $29,350 a year.
The monthly mortgage payment on the low-interest loans, including taxes, will not exceed 20% of the family’s income. The average price of the two- to five-bedroom houses is less than $70,000; Moorpark houses usually sell for nearly three times that.
Cortes is credited with starting the project in 1981 while working as a volunteer for United Farm Workers. She was inspired by the need for affordable housing for local farm workers.
“Villa Campesina is like my baby, and now this is like my delivery.” Cortes said. “Every morning I come to see the lot and make crazy dreams in my head and trying to believe it, touching the ground and saying, ‘This is ours.’ ”
