45-701 South Monroe St.
Suite G, Plaza 1 Indio, California 92201

Phone: (760) 347-3157
Fax: (760) 342-6466
john.mealey@cvhc.org www.cvhc.org/index.html

Counties Served: Riverside

Incorporated: 1982

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STRATEGIES & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) focuses on providing the agricultural and largely Hispanic population of Riverside County’s eastern Coachella Valley with safe, affordable housing and desperately needed community services.

Affordable Homes
CVHC develops multi-family housing for the local farmworker population, as well as housing tailored to meet the needs of seniors, people with disabilities and those living with a chronic illness such as HIV/AIDS. It also builds multi-family housing for the general low-income population of the Coachella Valley. The organization has won numerous awards for its developments, including the 1995 Fannie Mae Award of Excellence for its 76-unit Tlaquepaque Apartment complex in Coachella.

All together, CVHC has completed 16 multi-family developments containing a total of 1,164 units of housing. It built and owns a 36-unit, single-room occupancy complex that provides independent living to seniors and individuals with special needs and a 39-unit special needs housing development for people living with chronic illnesses. CVHC is currently in the construction or development phase of five additional housing developments that will provide 264 more homes for low-income families and farmworkers.

In addition to new construction, CVHC rehabilitates rental and homeownership homes. Since its inception, CVHC has rehabilitated homes for nearly 200 low-income families.

Home Ownership
Since 1987, CVHC’s Self-Help Housing program has helped low-income families, working together in groups of 10 to 12 under the direction of CVHC’s construction supervisors, build their own homes.

Their "sweat equity," generally equal to at least 10 percent of the value of their home, is used as the down payment. CVHC also provides participating families with homebuyer and financial management counseling. To date, about 700 homes have been built, with an additional 42 under construction and 219 more in pre-development.

Community Services
CVHC recognizes the need for and benefit of project-based community support services. In 1993, it installed a water delivery system in Riverside County that provides more than 200 households with safe drinking water. CVHC coordinates with other service providers, local government agencies, and school districts to provide child care centers on the grounds of six of its multi-family developments. In total, the centers serve more than 250 children. In addition, CVHC runs a family computer learning center and two after-school tutoring programs that provide 125 children with the help they need to succeed in school.

Because access to adequate health care in the region is a persistent challenge, CVHC built a medical clinic in 1996 on the grounds of its Nueva Vista Apartments. The clinic, which is run by a Brawley, Calif.-based organization, is the first and currently the only medical clinic in Mecca.

CVHC runs the Coachella Valley Community Organizing Project to help low-income residents build leadership skills and promote positive change in their communities. The project has organized the creation of three community gardens and a number of resident support programs, including art classes for children and English as a Second Language (ESL) and citizenship classes for adults.