Santa Clara University

Making it happen: Jasmine Square

Many of Jasmine Square's 220 residents - half of whom are children - are fighting the subsidized housing stigma, taking spirited action to break the cycle of poverty by empowering themselves and their neighbors.

The 72-unit complex at 16530 Monterey St. opened in 2005 and provides affordable housing to families and individuals who have extremely low and very low income levels, property manager Estela Gonzalez said. Rents are on a sliding scale based on income and can be as low as $551 for a one-bedroom apartment or as high as $1,369 for a four-bedroom apartment.

Affordable housing is a hot topic in Morgan Hill, and it's these income levels that the anti-subsidized housing set resents most. The stigma is that these renters are taking advantage of the system and are a dark mark on the community, bringing down school test scores and driving up crime rates.

But this complex is replete with residents who have goals: from reading at their grade level to owning their own home.

Take 12-year-old Jose Mendoza, for example.

"I was mostly all failing," Mendoza said of his school performance four years ago. That's when he started attending an after school tutoring program in Jasmine Square's community room.

"I was feeling like I wasn't going to make it through school. Like I was too dumb to learn," Mendoza said. The program's director, Dr. Cheryl McElvain, said most of the Jasmine Square children are, like Mendoza, first or second generation Mexican immigrants whose parents don't have the education or the grasp of the English language to help their students with school work. McElvain's program, called The Bridge Project, has helped 30 Jasmine Square children improve their grades. Many of the project's volunteers signed up through the Morgan Hill Volunteer Fair last fall.

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