By Steve Martarano 

Patrick Kennedy remembers driving past the empty 7-acre lot adjacent to Le Donne Drive near 47th Street and Nicholas Park in South Sacramento about 10 years ago, just about the time he was elected supervisor to Sacramento County District 2.

“I drove down that street, and what did I see?” Kennedy asked on Aug. 6 at a celebration event for the now complete and fully occupied Cornerstone affordable housing development at that location. “I saw blight. I saw drug-dealing, I saw open prostitution. I saw illegal dumping, and I also saw this empty piece of property. Then I found out that this empty piece of property was on our books — public property for 30 years.”

A decade after Kennedy’s initial look at the property, the first-ever partnership between Mutual Housing California and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento resulted in Cornerstone’s unique approach to filling that once formerly empty parcel combining affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities into one project.

Since Cornerstone’s groundbreaking in March 2022, 126 families — a total of 400 people — are living in brand-new homes at the development, spread among 108 rental units and, across the street, 18 single-family owned, all-electric, EV-ready homes.

Additionally, 16 of the affordable multifamily apartments are designated for people coming from previously unhoused situations, including Brenda Smith and her dog, Brandi, who moved in Feb. 15 after she lived out of her car and in a homeless camp in Citrus Heights, she said.

“I love it here,” Smith said, while making her apartment available to tour during the celebration on Aug. 6. “These people are the most awesome people I’ve ever met in my life. I mean, they’re helping me, so I have to help them. I have to pay it forward.”

La Shelle Dozier, executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, said the merging of Mutual Housing California and Habitat for Humanity for this project was a “perfect fit.”

“As Supervisor Kennedy mentioned, we owned this land for decades, and we were so, so excited to get the response to the [request for proposal] from Habitat and Mutual Housing together, because we’d never seen that combination,” Dozier said at the celebration. Officials have indicated more collaborations could be coming.

The Cornerstone project enabled income-qualified buyers of the single-family homes to work with hundreds of Habitat for Humanity volunteers, putting in 500 hours of “sweat equity” to build their own homes, as well as other homes in the neighborhood. Through Habitat for Humanity’s affordable mortgage programs, first-time homebuyers purchased their homes with a 30-year, zero percent interest equivalent mortgage.

Dozier said that completing the project included the “gamut” of affordable housing issues they deal with, adding that SHRA contributed by financing over $13 million to help with the project. 

“You’ve got people who are coming out of homelessness,” Dozier said. “We have people with project-based vouchers. You have units that are affordable from 30-to-60% [median family income] and then you have home ownership. We never get an opportunity to combine all of that together in one. And this is a really outstanding model that we want to see replicated over and over again.”

One woman who grew up nearby and became one of the first residents at Cornerstone in late February, said she was “shocked” to see the transformation of the empty field she knew as a child.

“I used to play at that [Nicholas] park, so I’m able to see the difference in the community and get the reassurance that I’m able to raise my kids somewhere safe and welcoming,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified due to concerns over privacy as a survivor of domestic violence. “The neighbors were wonderful when we first moved in. I’m definitely honored to be here and to be a part of this experience.”

Funding for the project included support from Sacramento County, SHRA, as well as Federal Community Project Funding and a variety of individual and corporate donors. A spokesperson for Mutual Housing earlier this year said the estimated cost to build the apartments was $44.5 million, while the single-family homes cost $5.4 million.

“Walking down the street and being here with all of you today is more than I think I could have ever really dreamed, because it’s so much more than the developments,” said Leah Miller, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento. “It’s a place to call home, and all of you are that community.”

This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Solving Sacramento is supported by funding from the James Irvine Foundation and the James B. McClatchy Foundation. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19.