street roots
May 24, 2013
Above left: The
Cervantes family,
shown on page 7,
stands in front o f
its new three-
bedroom
apartment, one o f
many units in
newly-opened Nueva
Amanecer Phase
IV, a Farmworker
Housing
Development
Corporation
complex in
Woodburn. Their
previous housing
was a studio-size
apartment. Top
right, a traditional
welcoming bowl o f
fru it sits in the
families new
kitchen.
Right: One o f the
fam ily’s daughters
gets a drink o f
water from the
dispenser the family
brought with them
from their previous
living quarters. A
view o f the
apartment
complex’s commons
can be seen through
the sliding glass
door.
-
n I
/
' \ T ''
P H O T O BY A L A N B O R R U D
JIMENEZ, from page 8
change. They’are not informed about the
kind of support services you and I would
attempt to access because we know they
exist. They don’t exist in Mexico or where
they come from. Especially indigenous folks
from a rural area. There’s a high likelihood
that they don’t speak Spanish, and so it’s
not just accessing the English speaking
culture, there’s a barrier with the Spanish
speaking population as well.
J.Z.: That sounds like a very scary
existence.
R.J.: I guess it’s a real testament to the
perseverance of the culture and the
individuals.
J.Z.: What support services do you offer?
R.J.: We offer two educational services.
Like most other nonprofits, we’ve been
subjected to funding cuts and so we went
back to folks living in our housing and asked
them to help us prioritize the services for
funding. What they said was early childhood
literacy program was the most important
program for them. The others said an
afterschool program: for parents who don’t
speak or write English, and for a place for
the children to go after school. A lot of it is
just keeping kids occupied and active and
engaged in a positive way. It’s a very
supportive environment among the different
families.
Ninety percent of the families who came
to live in our housing were technically
homeless before they came to live there. So
we’re stabilizing families, and it’s all
graduated from there on up. The point is,
once they’re stabilized in housing, chances
are they’re eating better. Chances are their
children are attending and learning in
school, not just sitting there. About 20
percent of our families move beyond our
housing annually. What happens is: Schools
are in close proximity, groceries are in close
proximity. Somebody doesn’t have to spend
all day trying to figure out how to get a meal
to the family, and that person is freed up to
work part time or full time. Family income
increases, and they can move on. We want
them to move on because there’s such a
large percentage of really needy families
behind them wanting to come in.
J.Z.: How big is your waiting list?
R.J.: For one 50-unit property in
See JIMENEZ, page 10
Little sister giggles as big sister carries family possessions upstairs for unpacking.
See more shots from Alan Borrud’s photodocumentary of
farmworkers at news.streetroots.org
Look for the second half of this two-part photo series, focusing on
the next generation, in the June 7 edition of Street Roots.