Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) was established in 1982. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building quality homeownership and rental affordable housing for low-income individuals and families. CVHC also offers a pipeline of Resident and Community Services programs that enrich the lives of the people living in its housing. CVHC provides services throughout Riverside and Imperial counties in the Southern California region.
Since 1989, CVHC has been helping families fulfill their dream of homeownership through the Mutual Self-Help Housing model by helping them reach economic stability and improving their quality of life and their livelihoods. The mutual self-help housing model means homes are built in part by their purchasers, with families working together building each other’s homes.
Mutual self-help housing is accomplished through training and supervision provided by CVHC. Working in groups of five to thirteen, families provide 65 percent of the construction labor or the “sweat equity” on their own and each others’ homes. The building process can take between 10 to 12 months to complete, and no one moves in until all the homes are finished.
A combination of cost-reducing program elements such as permanent financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development 502 Housing Loan program and state sources help make mortgages affordable for very low and low-income families.
CVHC is currently recruiting prospective families interested in building their homes in the City of Desert Hot Springs, CA; the City of Imperial, CA; and the community of Thermal, CA.
