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"We are very excited to be building our home. This has been the best experience in our lives. If it wasn't for CHISPA and other programs, we would continue to be renting without the possibility of ever purchasing our own home."

The Aguilar Family
Mesquite Manor Subdivision, Salinas

"Our dream of home ownership is becoming a reality. We will finally be able to decorate our home how we please. We can plant many flowers and trees, and my children can live comfortably in a home they can call their own."

The Coria-Orozco Family Mesquite Manor Subdivision, Salinas

Before her parents built their home through CHISPA’s Self-Help program, Veronica Tamayo’s family, her parents and nine children lived in a tiny house with two bedrooms and one bathroom. Her parents worked on a farm for 8 hours and then worked 2-4 hours on building their house. Veronica remembers how tired they were after all of their work, but they also had a glare of happiness.

On February 5, 1995, the Tamayo family received the keys to their home in Greenfield and they thought they were luckiest family on earth because they had a new home and it was theirs.

“I am now attending CSUMB and plan to become a bilingual elementary school teacher so that I can help children like my teachers helped me. My family and I thank CHISPA, the staff and board of directors for helping us reach the dream of homeownership.”

Veronica Tamayo

Edmundo Garza is employed at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare Systems. As part of CHISPA’s Employer Housing Program, Edmundo was able to qualify for and purchase a moderate-income home in the Mesquite Manor Subdivision in Salinas.

“I want to build my boys a club house. I have it all planned…everything is ready.”

Edmundo & Cynthia Garza
Mesquite Manor Subdivision, Salinas

We would not have gotten a house without this program. We had no hopes of buying a house. Thanks to CHISPA we now have a home to raise our children in. We are so thankful.

The Ramirez Family
Falcon Ridge Subdivision, Salinas

In 1985, Sheryl Martinelli was a single mother on public assistance. She had lost her housing because the trailer park that she lived in did not allow children. She had nowhere else to turn and applied at CHISPA for rental housing.

Sheryl was later called and told that there was an apartment available at Vista de la Terraza, a housing cooperative managed by CHISPA Housing Management, Inc. (CHMI). She went through the rental application process and was able to move in to her apartment. After living in a small trailer and temporary housing, Sheryl said that the apartment was like the Taj Majal to her and her son.

Sheryl lived at Vista de la Terraza for 10 years and was able to go back to school to get her college degree. Her neighbors at Vista de la Terraza were very friendly and helped her by babysitting her children so that she could go back to school. She ultimately earned a Master’s Degree and went on to a career in teaching.

“I don’t know where I would be now if CHISPA had not been there for me. Because I had a safe place to live and raise my children, I was able to focus on my studies, care for my children and set the groundwork for the rest of our lives. A home is the very foundation by which we raise our families.”

Sheryl has been a teacher since 1990 and says that she sees some of my high school students struggling with the same things that she did as a young single mother – the lack of a safe decent place to live. Some of her students have been homeless, move from home to home of family members or friends, or many live in overcrowded conditions that make it difficult to study.

Sheryl now owns her own home in King City where she lives with her two children.

Sheryl Martinelli
Former Resident of Vista de la Terraza Cooperative