Self-Help Enterprises offers an exciting work environment where you can bring your high caliber skills to a true career opportunity and impact the world around you.
We are hiring a
Construction Superintendent for the north service area (Fresno and north). The superintendent is responsible for the training and supervision of mutual self-help housing participants in the construction of their new homes. We are also hiring two full-time
AmeriCorp members to serve as
Community Development Specialists
.
The AmeriCorps members will assist rural low-income community volunteers in facilitating actions to promote safe drinking water and sanitary sewer disposal facilities.
Self-Help Enterprises offers great benefits including year-round, stable work; medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401K; paid holidays; and more.
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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: PEOPLE'S SELF-HELP HOUSING
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Thank you to our peer and partner, Peoples' Self Help Housing Corporation (PSHHC)! In order to make the financing work for Self-Help Enterprises' upcoming Palm Terrace rental community in Lindsay, CA, PSHHC partnered with us in a unique collaboration.
With shared missions to improve the lives and living conditions of hardworking, low-income families, PSHHC's partnership is a critical component of what will be an exciting zero-net energy rental housing community that also includes significant local infrastructure improvements.
Thank you PSHHC!
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Our deepest thanks to our partners who have provided grant funding for the Gateway: Homeownership Education program. Through the program, Self-Help Enterprises offers homeownership preparation classes as well as free financial management and home preservation workshops throughout the year.
Self-Help Enterprises recently received $30,000 from Bank of America, $37,448 from UnidosUS, and $50,000 from the NeighborWorks Strategic Investment Fund.
Some of the grants are being matched by the generous support of the Whitney Foundation.
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TOM'S TAKE ON STATE HOUSING LEGISLATION
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By Tom Collishaw, CEO of Self-Help Enterprises
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In an earlier newsletter, we called upon our state legislators to "step up" and support an unprecedented package of housing bills. After a momentum-killing month of recess, the outcome of the housing package promised by the Governor and leaders of both legislative houses was anything but assured in late August. Yet, we were thrilled last week that our key Assembly Members Rudy Salas (Bakersfield), Dr. Joaquin Arambula (Fresno), and Adam Gray (Merced) all came through with guts and leadership to support the package of bills that were years in the making.
SB 2 proved to be the toughest challenge because it creates a new recording fee for non-homebuying transactions. The funds generated from the fee will go to critical local and statewide efforts to build affordable housing and combat homelessness. The margin for success was razor thin because it required a two-thirds vote. That's where the guts came in for our legislators from conservative districts who tend to view efforts to raise money as new taxes.
 Another critical bill for the San Joaquin Valley is SB 3, which will place a $4.2 billion bond for affordable housing on the 2018 ballot. While early polling for such a measure is quite positive, expect to hear more about this important effort in the coming year (it's now been over ten years since the last bond measure was passed for affordable housing).
Other pieces of the housing legislative package included a permitting streamlining measure favored by the governor (SB 35), improvements to the farmworker housing tax credit program, and firming up the requirements for cities to proactively plan for housing their most economically challenged residents.
All in all, this represented the most prolific session for housing bills we have yet seen, testament to the pervasiveness of the current housing crisis in the state. While these bills won't solve all of our problems that have been decades in the making, it is a great start.
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DRINKING WATER FOR SCHOOLS GRANT PROGRAM
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 The Drinking Water for Schools Grant Program was established for the purpose of improving access to, and the quality of, drinking water in public schools. Through the State Water Board Division of Financial Assistance, there is $9.5 million available to eligible applicants for this purpose.
Eligible applicants include Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) serving kindergarten, or any grades 1 through 12, and preschools and child care facilities located on public school property. All projects must be located at schools within or serving a disadvantaged community (DAC).
Self-Help Enterprises has been selected to provide Technical Assistance to LEAs throughout the Central Valley, and can assist with site assessments (identifying issues and potential solutions), school board resolutions, funding applications, and/or project implementation.
Interested applicants are encouraged to register for the upcoming informational webinar listed below.
Thursday, September 28
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Community Water Center
900 West Oak Ave.
Visalia, CA 93291
To join via webinar:
If you believe your
LEA would be eligible for the grant program and are interested in receiving technical assistance to apply for the grant, please fill out and submit an interest form found
here.
For more information, visit the State Water Resources Control Board website
here
. Guidelines can be found
here
and the grant application is to be released soon. Additionally, you can contact Vanessa Soto at (559) 802-1604 or
[email protected]
for more information.
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