Source: KCRA 3

By: Josie Heart

MODESTO, Calif. — After a lifetime of personal, health and financial struggles that left her without a roof even during her pregnancy, Alphreia Patterson will now have a place for her small family to call home.

She recalled years of struggles to find a place to live up to this point in her life.

“I had most nights where I didn’t know where I was going to sleep, what I was going to eat,” Patterson said. “To know that I didn’t have money for a hotel or friends to call on for a place to stay, it was hard.”

Patterson said she had even lived in a car for some time.

On Tuesday, Patterson and others joined city and county officials for the opening of new permanent housing units in Modesto, aimed to house struggling youth just like her.

Patterson’s 1-year-old Samuel ran from room to room, wasting no time exploring the layout of what will soon be his new home.

Patterson, along with her boyfriend Donovan Benjamin, said they are set to live in a one-bedroom unit equipped with a small kitchen, bathroom, washer, dryer and internet, right in the heart of downtown Modesto.

“Coming here today and seeing how nice this place is and how much they thought about the people living here, it feels like they care,” Benjamin said.

Their new unit will be just one of 14 that were converted from a former commercial building at 1208 9^th St.

It was made possible through the city and agencies like the Center for Human Resources, whose advocacy helped the city secure $3.9 million in Project Home Key funding for the new units.

The entire layout consists of 10 studio units and four one-bedroom units that were created to house some of the city’s at-risk and homeless youth from ages 18 to 25.

Cindy Duenas, director of the Center for Human Services, said hundreds of homeless youths are currently struggling with homelessness in the county.

To select those who would move into the new units, Duenas says they went through a list of people in need of services and assessed which individuals had the most immediate need for housing.

“I would say over 40% of the young people on our homeless list that we have in our county are parenting. So there’s a whole other generation of kids — the toddlers, the babies — that are going to benefit from this,” Duenas said.

One of the units is set aside for an on-site manager, according to the city.

Officials said the rent for these units will be no more than a third of the tenants’ income.

“There’s ongoing case management, so case management support helps ensure that the individuals living in these are successful as they move into permanent housing,” said Jessica Hill, the city’s community and economic development director.

As far as a time limit for tenants to be in the units, Duenas said there isn’t one.

“If they choose to make it their forever home, it is their home,” Duenas said.

For Patterson, she said having a place where she and her child could live comes just at the right time.

Seeing as securing a roof over their heads would no longer be a worry, she says her focus is now to begin a better life and raise her son in a happy and safe environment.

“I’m going to be able to provide better for my son now,” Patterson said. “I have stable housing, I’m going to get a stable job and I get to see my son grow up into a fine young man.”

The city says the new tenants should be moving in during the coming weeks.