Full article by Jennifer Junghans at Sacramento News & Review
When Tonia Ochoa, an agricultural worker in Woodland, arrived in the United States from Colima, Mexico with her two children, she took the first apartment she could find.
The building was old, the living conditions were poor, and the gas, water and electricity frequently didn’t function properly. Her home was a constant source of stress. The rent ate up half of her $1,800 monthly income and people hung around outside all hours of the night in her densely populated neighborhood, making her feel unsafe when she had to leave for work in the early morning hours. She endured the stress of her living conditions for three years.
Then in 2019, she saw an advertisement at her local laundromat for Mutual Housing at Spring Lake, a colorful, new year-round permanent apartment complex exclusively for farmworkers. And it was seamlessly integrated into the city of Woodland’s Spring Lake Specific Plan, a residential development of more than 4,000 homes with parks, schools, businesses, community amenities and access to public transportation and municipal services — many within walking distance.