With its new Paloma Village project, the Coalition for Compassion and Justice continues to enable community members to create forward movement
By Hilary Dartt • Photo by Trisha Shaffer
The Coalition for Compassion and Justice’s (CCJ) latest project, Paloma Village, is “one of a kind,” according to Executive Director Allison Lenocker. And, it’s in perfect alignment with what the organization does: build hope and provide opportunities for forward movement.
The roads and sidewalks are in at Paloma Village, a 25-unit manufactured home community on four acres in Chino Valley, and now, Allison said during a recent interview, “We’re focused on buying our first house.”
This project will feature one-, two-, and three-bedroom options with rent less than market rate and resources to help residents create forward movement in terms of saving and earning potential, qualifying for traditional mortgages, and more. An onsite advocate will help residents problem solve in real time.
“My vision is to have resources right on hand, while all the while promoting self-sufficiency.”
CCJ’s mission is to end and prevent homelessness, and the organization operates on a housing-first model; that is, housing is healthcare.
“You can’t tackle any of the other issues in life if you don’t have a place to live,” Allison said. “We know that if you have a house, your physical health is better, your mental health is better, and if you have a place to go, you’re not on the street possibly breaking laws you don’t know anything about.”
“We really have to get out of this stigma that we’re ‘housing homeless people.’ No, we’re housing our neighbors, people who work in restaurants, who have real lives, who get jobs and make our community better.”
Part of Allison’s mission through CCJ is to combat the stigma around the term, “affordable housing.”
“It’s not the ghettos or the projects, or even communities of only low-income people,” she said. “It’s working families, senior citizens, and people who aren’t struggling with addiction, who are falling into homelessness.”
“It’s a community just like anything else, filled with people who need a second chance,” she said.
The bottom line: “We want to help people who help themselves,” and “We never work harder than people are willing to work for themselves.”
The CCJ model is unique, Allison said, because it doesn’t rely on certain types of funding that stipulates what it can do or who it can serve. Some “affordable housing” projects can breed hopelessness because they serve only low-income or very-low-income folks. If those people create upward movement for themselves by getting a raise or promotion or taking more hours at their job, for example, they lose their benefits, including housing, very quickly—and their new income doesn’t come close to making up for the loss of benefits. So moving up could be detrimental.
“That funding model keeps poor people poor, and keeps people down,” Allison said. “It’s not that people don’t want to work, but if you know that an increase of hours or promotion will cause everything you rely on to go away, you are not set up for success.”
CCJ Board of Directors member Chad Beran is living proof that the CCJ model can work for someone who wants to create forward movement.
Several years ago, he was a functioning alcoholic living out of motel and hotel rooms. When he stopped being able to afford that, he moved into Project Aware and began working for a general contractor.
Through that work, he helped remodel some CCJ buildings—and got to know Allison and some other CCJ team members. Eventually, they approached him and offered him a place to live. First, he got sober.
Then, they helped him find the resources he needed to move forward, including getting his driver’s license back.
“They gave me every tool I needed or asked for,” he said. Thanks in large part to CCJ and his boss, Hank, who recently passed away, he said, “My life has changed dramatically.”
Allison hopes Paloma Village will do the same for many more. While it might be a permanent home for some, for others Allison hopes it will be a stepping stone to building a nest egg.
“A lot of people ask how we develop affordable housing in a market like this, where development is booming,” Allison said. “You have to have the heart and the business brain. CCJ is the heart, and we’re partnering with Jon Rocha, the owner of Southwest Homes and Duane Watkins, owner of The Watkins Company. Combine the three, and it’s a model for affordable housing.”
“I believe in the work that CCJ does for the most underserved and marginalized folks of our communities, so it was a ‘no-brainer’ for me to participate and help with the Paloma Village project,” said Jon, who has owned Southwest Homes for four years. He has also served with CCJ and volunteered on its board’s Second Chance Housing Committee before the project’s conceptualization.
He especially appreciates that CCJ works hard to provide folks housing at different levels, outside of a one-size-fits-all mindset.
“Folks who are struggling with homelessness need different housing options that can meet them where they are in terms of psychological and social needs,” he said, outlining the various options CCJ offers:
- The Cottages are single rooms with limited social interaction for someone who needs that.
- The Lodges are the next step: communal-type living where there is more social interaction.
- Housing units that empower folks to live and rent on their own.
- Paloma Village, which will offer housing to working families who are housing insecure and need stability.
Allison said members of the community have talked a lot about workforce housing, and said that almost every person in CCJ’s shelter has a job.
“It’s not just teachers, firefighters, police, and nurses. It’s everybody. This is a tourist town. When people can’t afford to live here, they can’t afford to work here.”
Paloma Village is duplicatable, Allison said, and her big vision includes building additional projects that serve as community centers by providing housing, resources, and even health services.
Allison’s personal background has given her a blend of compassion and wanting things to be fair. “That’s why CCJ was such a great fit for me.”
Her dad worked for the Phoenix Police Department for 40 years, and her mom was an actress and aerobics instructor.
“Growing up in my family, we were always taught, right is right and wrong is wrong. At a really young age I saw injustices happening, and I’d always be like, ‘This isn’t right.’”
Plus, she comes from a long line of “extremely strong women.”
“All of us want to make a difference somehow,” she said, “and my jobs have really helped me do that.”
Through CCJ and Paloma Village, making a difference means showing people that “No matter what situation you’re in, you have potential.”
And Chad, someone who has worked hard and benefitted from CCJ’s mission, said that message rings true. Changing your life “is possible, even when it feels like an impossibility.”