STRATEGIES & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Alliance for Better Housing (ABH) faces challenges including: exclusionary zoning practices; municipalities that favor large, expensive homes; and high prices for land and homes. ABH focuses on strengthening existing communities using infill and other development methods, and uses designs that fit in with the historic areas in which it builds and renovates homes.

Affordable Rental Housing
ABH builds and manages affordable rental housing for farmworkers and other low-income families. It also renovates existing homes that are in severe disrepair, making them safe for residents. The organization's first development was the renovation of two attached duplexes built in 1852. Since its inception, ABH has rehabilitated and built some 55 homes for sale and rent to low-income families.

Homeownership Services
ABH provides farmworker and other low-income families with homeownership counseling, loan packaging services, and rental referrals. The organization has helped more than 100 families become first-time homeowners, providing credit, homeownership counseling, and low-interest loans. In 1998, ABH developed Buena Vista, a subdivision of 24 three- and four-bedroom homes. ABH sold all of the homes to lower-income homebuyers - people who earn an average of 34 percent of the area median income. Most of the residents are from Mexico, and about half work on area farms.

Strategic design
ABH employs traditional neighborhood design principles to foster community. This means that new homes look like older homes and are planned around people, incorporating alleys, sidewalks, porches, and garages. ABH also concentrates on the adaptive re-use of existing properties. This strategy is a necessity in this rapidly growing and gentrifying area.