HDC Newsletter - Summer 2005

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In this issue
Youth helping youth – Listos! and Explorador
Donor Profile – Attorney Dick Ginsburg
Farmworker Family Profile
Church members tour HDC housing
HDC Awarded for Quality Services

Youth helping youth – Listos! and Explorador

HDC's Explorador Science Camp held its second season this year with the help of a young volunteer from another of HDC's youth programs - Listos! Youth Workforce Services Program. Through Listos! Cassandra Mendoza and other people between 16 and 21 study for a GED high-school equivalency certificate and gain job skills and work experience.

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Explorador Camp is for HDC residents and young neighbors entering 3rd through 6th grades and is conducted in partnership with The Audubon Society of Portland. Funding comes from Bonneville Power Administration, PGE and St. Juan Diego Parish of Beaverton. Over four one-week sessions campers learn about fish and wildlife biology and the supreme role clean water plays in a healthy eco system.

Ms. Mendoza, 20, spent four weeks this summer as a volunteer counselor with the Explorador camp, gaining supervisory experience which will enhance her resume as she seeks employment. "I grew up around here, so I understand these kids," Ms. Mendoza said. "I enjoy working with them. We've learned about nature and we've had a lot of fun." It was clear the campers felt comfortable with Ms. Mendoza, too, as they sought to be in her group, showing her the bird houses they were building or the bugs they caught.

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Stephanie Vasquez, HDC Youth Services Coordinator, said: "Cassandra is an excellent Listos! candidate. She came into the program with a lot of desire and motivation to make a better life for herself and her kids."

Ms. Mendoza is a mother of a young son and will soon give birth again, so completing her GED and gaining job experience is very important to her. Skilled with people, Ms. Mendoza hopes to go on to PCC and become a realtor after completing her GED.

One young woman, Kristina Byrns, completed the program in just four months and went on to a job in a Forest Grove real estate office where she has already received a 5% pay increase.

Listos! Program Director Stephanie Vasquez is looking for employers in the Portland metro area willing to partner with HDC's Listos! program. Opportunities sought include workplace tours, overviews of entry level jobs, and job shadows. Listos! youth are available for work experiences if employers train and supervise. If you could help, please contact Mrs. Vasquez at 503-359-7963.

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Donor Profile – Attorney Dick Ginsburg

Richard Ginsburg is the kind of man you want to have on your side - capable, respected, loyal and generous.

He's a nationally recognized immigration lawyer; a community leader who was one of the founders of HDC 24 years ago, and an ongoing supporter who helps sustain the organization with his time, talent and money.

When reporters want to know about immigration in Oregon, Mr. Ginsburg is one of the primary sources they turn to. And when coordinators of national conferences seek an expert on immigration, it's Dick Ginsburg whom they often call.

Mr. Ginsburg says he supports HDC because: "HDC was created to address a need: housing for migrant farmworkers. That need persists and HDC continues to address that need."

HDC reserves apartment units specifically for migrant workers, but these days most farmworkers in Oregon live here year round and migrate from job to job depending on the season. A worker may be at a nursery in the spring and early summer, move on to field or cannery work, and then to Christmas trees in the late summer to early winter. Then the cycle repeats.

Mr. Ginsburg is pragmatic. He wants the money he entrusts to HDC to be well spent, and he believes he gets that. "HDC is an agency that continues to do well, and I consider it to offer a good return on my philanthropic investment. I like that its grown over time, that more and more housing has been built, and that the HDC has broadened its scope beyond Washington County."

Mr. Ginsburg came to Oregon nearly 30 years ago from Colorado as the director of farmworker programs for Oregon Legal Services. He had previously been a peace corps volunteer in Paraguay. For the past 23 years, he has been an immigration lawyer in private practice. With an office in Hillsboro, Mr. Ginsburg is one of the few attorneys specializing in immigration in Washington County. He's married to Rosalia Ginsburg and is the father of two grown children.

If Mr. Ginsburg could wave a magic wand and make sweeping changes for Oregon, the ones he'd most like to see are improved employment and education opportunities including more college scholarships.

"I'm not an advocate of handouts," he said. "People need to do it for themselves, yet they also need a chance to succeed, he said. "They need an opportunity to earn a living,"

"I'm also concerned about the economic exploitation that occurs," he said speaking from his experience with many clients over the years. "Most farmworkers have little education, which makes them vulnerable. But economic survival comes before education."

From what Mr. Ginsburg sees, "HDC has a positive image in the community because the housing is well managed and cared for." When HDC started its first project 24 years ago, he remembers negative predictions: "They said it would be an eye sore, that it would attract a criminal element. But none of that is true. Now people can see that the units are well managed, and HDC has steadily continued to add more units in the area."

HDC's board and staff are grateful to Dick Ginsburg for the support he's given over the past 24 years, and looks forward to ongoing community assistance as the agency grows and serves more farmworker and low income families

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Farmworker Family Profile

It's summertime, but the living is far from easy for farmworkers in Northwestern Oregon. When 5:00 a.m. rolls around, lights come on at Javier and Veronica's unit at HDC's Montebello Apartments in Hillsboro. Javier Ferreria, 32, will be on the road by 5:30 heading south to Salem and a job he's grateful for - laying sprinkler pipes 10 hours a day, six days a week. No overtime. No health benefits.

click to see more photos Back home, Veronica Moreno, a charming 31-year-old with intelligent eyes, a warm smile and an air of competence about her, lets Javier Jr., 6, and Karen, 3, sleep in -- unless she's called in early to work. In May Veronica is on the strawberry line at Oregon Berry Packing Co. June and July are blueberry months at Grow Pac, and then she moves on to Oregon Heritage Farms to work the apples from September through November. Veronica knows to report to work when she calls an employee phoneline and hears whether she's needed. It's hard to plan with that kind of schedule, but Veronica adapts, as does the community that supports her. When there's work, and there is most days, Oregon Migrant Headstart takes care of little Karen, while Javier, who is now too old for Headstart, goes to a Montebello neighbor's apartment.

As challenging as their life sounds, it was more difficult before the family moved into HDC's Montebello Apartments. Now with below-market rents and a safe environment, community is encouraged and neighbors help each other. Veronica is Montebello's Girl Scout leader. But she also spends time studying and striving to get ahead. For the past three years Veronica has taken English and GED classes through HDC and the Adelante Mujeres program of Forest Grove. Her husband also studied with HDC, but working such late hours made it especially difficult for him.

Javier and Veronica grew up together. Their families lived next door in Zamora, Michoacán, and her brother traveled with Javier when the two young men first started coming to the U.S. for work. Back home in Mexico, Veronica was the studious one. She's a high school graduate, which is unusual among Mexican farmworkers.

The Ferreria-Moreno family used to live at Sunset Gardens, a Hillsboro apartment complex for which the HDC may become a managing partner if a funding application is approved by the state. At that time, HDC would oversee a multi-million dollar rehabilitation and add a total of 210 family apartments to its management.

Sunset Gardens was famous locally for drugs, fights, and gangs and into that environment moved Javier and his wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time. Fresh in the United States, with no parents or siblings to help with her first baby, Veronica found Sunset Gardens a frightening place. But rather than hide in her apartment, Veronica forced herself to take English classes and learn how to drive so she could get her children to doctor appointments.

"In some ways, it was easier living in Mexico," she says. "I had my parents to run to if I needed something. Living separately makes you independent and strong. But still I call my mom and dad every weekend."

Veronica already knows where she hopes her studying will take her. She'd like to be an elementary school or kindergarten teacher. She's ambitious for her children, too, and expects that some day Karen will be a pediatrician, and Javier, a lawyer. Veronica encourages her husband, Javier, to study English, too. But right now his focus is on supporting his family. Maybe, he hopes, eventually he and Veronica can buy a house.

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Church members tour HDC housing

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The parishioners who came were from St. Juan Diego and St. Pius X in Beaverton and St. Matthew, Hillsboro. They also went to Sierra West apartments, next door to HDC's Montebello Apartments. Visitors saw deteriorated housing conditions at Sierra West as a big contrast to the clean and well managed family housing at Montebello.

HDC puts much emphasis on maintenance and has received several awards for the quality of its housing. The organization is working to become the managing partner for Sierra West and Sunset Gardens in Hillsboro as well as Willow Park apartments in Forest Grove. Should funding be approved, a multi-million dollar rehabilitation project will take place. This initiative, the Adelante Familias Campaign, will raise the eye appeal and stability of the entire neighborhood, making the community stronger for the effort. Volunteer help will be much appreciated. Please call 503-693-2937.

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HDC Awarded for Quality Services

The State of Oregon Housing and Community Services Department has selected HDC to receive the 2005 Oregon Award for Housing Excellence, for integration of services into housing.

In the world of affordable housing, what makes HDC housing unique is that educational opportunities and activities for adults and children are based on site. For poor working families, time is especially tight, and making classes readily available means enrollments are strong. It also helps parents feel safe about allowing their children to participate because they know the HDC staff who organize the programs.

HDC programs for adults include GED in Spanish, First Language Literacy, and adult basic education. Children participate in Explorador Summer Science Camp, Girl Scouts and a Judo Club. HDC is one of only two programs in Oregon to operate a federally funded youth workforce services program. Listos! serves out of school youth aged 16-21 in western Washington County.

This Award is based on nominations from the community and recognizes HDC as a leader in affordable housing and services in Northwest Oregon.

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