HOME GARDEN - Amid the dilapidated houses, vacant lots and trash-strewn streets of this notoriously impoverished area on Hanford's fringe, the home of Ernest and Pat Cordero is a sight for sore eyes.

The modest three bedroom wouldn't impress in some of Hanford's swankier northside neighborhoods.

But set down smack in the middle of Home Garden, the Cordero residence looks like a gift from heaven.

In a way, it was.

For the Corderos, the American dream of owning a home was destined to remain just that.

Just five years ago, the elderly, disabled couple were living in a leaky, ramshackle house, barely making it on Pat Cordero's disability payments.

The story of how they got into the pristine home they now enjoy provides a glimpse into the choices facing low-income families seeking quality, affordable housing in Kings County.

Rain falling in

In 2001, the Corderos found themselves up an economic creek without a paddle.

Ernest Cordero had just been laid off his decades-old job as a pipe layer for irrigation company Bennett and Bennett.

A myriad of health problems made him unable to do the heavy lifting required, and Cordero had no retirement.

He would go the next three years without any income before finally qualifying for Social Security disability payments in August 2004.

Pat Cordero wasn't in a much better position.

Health problems had forced her to retire from her job at Hacienda House, a local convalescent home.

Their only income at the time was Pat Cordero's $770 monthly Social Security check.

To survive, the couple took to living in a Home Garden home Pat Cordero had owned outright since 1971.

But home might not be the proper term for it.

By the time the Corderos took up residence there, the ancient structure was a ruin. There were seemingly more holes in the roof than shingles.

Ernest Cordero covered huge sections with tarps in an effort to hold back the water, which found its way in anyway.

In one room, water poured in through a huge hole. The floors were loose. Much of the exterior paint had chipped off.

It wasn't their preference, but at least there were no payments to make and no rent to owe.

And since neither one had a prayer when it came to qualifying for a new home loan, it looked like they were stuck, at least for the time being.

Light at the end

of the tunnel

Their luck started to change in 2002, when Ernest Cordero found out about a home rehab program run through Self-Help Enterprises.

The Visalia-based nonprofit contracts with seven Valley counties, including Kings, to administer loan and home construction programs using federal and state loan subsidies.

The Corderos joined a crowded waiting list.

It would be a long wait.

Although the list stretches to nearly 100 families, Self-Help can only finance 12 to 16 home rehabilitations in a good year, said Rudy Quintana, a loan processor with the organization.

It was Quintana who set up the Corderos for the deferred payment loan they qualified for.

A number of factors make it impossible to keep up with the demand, Quintana said.

One is just the sheer number of people applying for both rehab loans and new home buyer programs.

Those numbers have soared in the last couple of years thanks to skyrocketing home prices.

At the same time, wages at the bottom levels have stagnated and available funds have shrunk, said Self-Help Vice President Tom Collishaw.

In fact, the application process for the HOME and CDBG grants that fund many of Self-Help's programs is so competitive and time-consuming, the county can only afford to focus on one neighborhood a year, Collishaw said.

That means an annual rotation between Home Garden, Armona, Stratford and Kettleman City - to name the communities that rank highest on the county's hit list of neighborhoods most in need of housing improvement.

The result? Long waiting lists with an average two-year lag time.

Funds are so coveted, they are already spent before they arrive, according to Quintana.

In the Corderos' case, when construction of their new home finally began in August 2004, it was funded with a HOME grant awarded in 2001.

Resource crunch

And lately, the available money has been drying up.

Cal-Home, a Prop. 46 program primarily designed to get families into their first home, will likely end this year, Collishaw said, putting more pressure on federal programs like HOME and CDBG.

Both CDBG and HOME, another Housing and Urban Development offshoot, are important resources for Self-Help programs, Collishaw said.

Funding for the CDBGs, or Community Development Block Grants, was left hanging this year after a Bush proposal to cut the program and move it from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Commerce Department.

That idea ran into heavy resistance in Congress, Collishaw said.

"There is real support for CDBG in Congress. We're not expecting any major shift," he said.

To permanently fix the funding problem, some California groups are pushing a ballot initiative to establish a state housing trust fund.

Signature gathering will happen this year to qualify the measure for the 2006 ballot, Collishaw said.

"(The Corderos) clearly are fortunate that they were qualified and sought help when funds were available," Collishaw said.

High demand

It's not difficult to see why Self-Help's home rehab program is so highly sought after.

The Corderos won't have to pay off the loan on their house for 30 years. At that point, the county will assess whether they can make payments, and if they can, could start charging them interest, Collishaw said.

If they sell the house within that time frame, the couple will simply owe the county the principal amount of the loan.

"It's a great way for people to fix up properties who don't have the economic means to do so otherwise," Collishaw said.

But a far greater number of people are in line to either build or buy their first home.

Self-Help's build-your-own-home program, in which low-income families construct their own homes in exchange for subsidized mortgages, has a waiting list of some 1,700 families in Kings County alone.

To qualify, each has to fall below 80 percent of the county median income.

That would be approximately $31,440 for a family of four, according to Michael Lane, a Self-Help administrative analyst.

But the average participant makes less. Most families make between $20,000 and $30,000, Lane said.

And soaring home prices are expanding the pool of applicants, Collishaw said.

"Kings and Tulare counties have been known as some of the last frontier of affordable housing in California. And yet, even in our communities, home ownership is getting further and further out of reach of working families. People forget that's what we're talking about," Collishaw said.

But despite the demand, Self-Help can only finance 150 do-it-yourself homes in a good year.

"We're just scratching the surface of the need," he said.

And such families have few other options for home ownership, leading some to succumb to predatory lenders, Collishaw said.

Local factors

But it's not just the double whammy of shrinking funds and spiking home prices driving the problem.

Specific Kings County factors also play a role.

One is the lack of undeveloped land inside the incorporated areas of Kings County cities, Collishaw said.

Big developers have snatched up a lot of it, he said.

Difficulty qualifying families for mortgages has also been a problem, Collishaw said.

He attributed that in part to the aggressive bill collection policies of some "agencies" he mostly elected not to identify.

The only one he specified by name was Hanford Community Medical Center.

Many Self-Help applicants said the Seventh-day Adventist Health-run hospital aggressively referred bills to collection agencies, according to Collishaw.

And that's not all.

Collishaw said the county had successfully brought in HOME and CDBG funds.

And he gave the City of Hanford a thumbs up for supporting Self-Help's efforts to build a 40-unit rental property earlier this year.

But that praise wasn't extended to all Kings County municipalities.

"Not all cities in Kings County have the will to support affordable housing for low-income working families. It can be a tough political issue," Collishaw said.

He declined to specify which ones he was referring to.

A standout

Ernest Cordero knows how fortunate he is.

Standing on his doorstep, he pointed to a house across the street.

He said the owner had been been waiting for a couple of years for his number to come up on a rehab list.

Next door is a run-down house reminiscent of the dilapidated junker the Corderos used to live in before it was demolished to make way for their new home.

Turning and looking at his immaculate new home, he mused about the plight of others.

"There's a lot of people that can't afford houses. If they would help them out too, it would be nice," he said.

(The reporter may be reached by e-mail at: snidever@pulitzer.net)

(April 30, 2004)