At Casa Verde, there's
no place like home

Casa Verde is a perfect place to play for Lizeth Velasco, who lives just a few yards from the playground at the complex. Twenty-six farmworker families have made a home at Casa Verde since it opened last year.

By David Howell
Canby Herald

The smiles on the little children's faces tell much of their story. In their short lives, the youngsters have known varying degrees of hardship and upheaval, as their migrant farmworker families struggle to make ends meet while traveling from crop-picking job to nursery production job.

While many continue their nomadic lifestyles, others wanting to settle struggle to find affordable housing in the Willamette Valley communities on whose fertile land they toil each season.

For 26 Hispanic and Latino families, the seemingly perennial struggle eased when they moved into new surroundings in southeast Canby - in many cases, not far from the run-down apartments they used to live in.

For the chosen ones, it represents a rags-to-riches story. However, the riches are not newly-acquired wealth and possessions, but rather that bastion of "The American Dream" - having a place to call home.

The families have moved from sharing rooms in cramped, dingy apartments with multiple other families to living in clean, spacious apartments where children and parents have separate rooms.

As housewives chatter while sweeping dust on to immaculate lawns, children giggle and gallop around a nearby playground.

Carmen Velasco's family were among the families chosen from about 150 applicants for the 26 Casa Verde apartments, paid for by Catholic Charities and overseen by its St. Patrick's Catholic Church-based social services program, El Programa Hispano Centro de Canby.

"We feel better here because where we used to live was not clean, and the kids did not have a place to play," said Velasco, whose daughter, Lizeth, played in the morning sun with friend Chilin on the yellow-and-red playground slide.

"Now, each child has their own room. In the old apartment, we had one room for everybody."

The Velascos, originally from Mexico, moved into the new Township Road apartment complex July 1, 2000, the day it opened.

Just yards from their front door, a community center attracts residents to free twice-weekly English language classes and Spanish literacy classes. About 30 people attend Clackamas Community College's on-site beginner and upper-beginner English classes from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Spanish classes from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

As part of the grant-funded program, classes occasionally utilize Trost Elementary School's computer lab, exposing students to new technology and the Internet.

"The classes are always full," said Raquel Ozequeda, who has been the Velascos' neighbor since August. "People like having classes close to home." Kathleen Fallon and Trista Johnston, teachers in CCC's English as a Second Language department, began the 22-week classes in January. A new term will start in April.

"The classes are for people who live in Casa Verde, or who work for nurseries in the area," Fallon said. "So far, I think it's been a really exciting opportunity for people. Having it on site, where they can deal with childcare issues with the help of friends and neighbors, has really helped."

Bringing services to the people who need them is an important part of serving Casa Verde's tenants, said Francisco Lopez, Centro de Canby's Latino services program manager.

"Having services on site is very important," said Lopez, who fled his homeland of El Salvador in 1985, arriving in Texas as a refugee of the Central American nation's uprising and civil war. "We are happy with the progress that has been made."

Lopez, 37, has overseen the El Programa Hispano offices in Canby and Gresham since January 2000. The non-profit agency provides mental health, housing, health care and legal referral programs, and support groups at its 422 N.W. Ninth Ave. office.

It served between 800 to 1,000 people per year since opening in 1996, but word of mouth about the office's various social services through local churches and schools has swelled attendees in the last 18 months.

From July 1999 to June 2000, about 1,600 people sought advice and information on rental properties, county social services, utility bill relief for low-income families, and legal and immigration issues at Centro de Canby, Lopez said.

Since July 2000, more than 1,000 people have been aided, and Lopez estimates the number will climb to about 2,000 by the end of the current fiscal year. "We are becoming more and more busy," he said. "Seventy-five percent of the people we serve here are Canby residents, and the numbers keep going up . . . Most of the people we help come from Mexico and Central American countries."

The increase can partly be attributed to the need for field and production labor in the many successful nursery and farming operations in Clackamas and Marion counties - the top producing counties in Oregon.

Lopez said there are 300,000 Catholics affiliated with his agency's western Oregon region, of which about 140,000 are Latinos.

He estimates the populations of Willamette Valley farming communities consist of about 18 percent Hispanics or Latinos, a large increase in the last decade.

Lopez said 289 farmworker camps registered in Oregon were home to about 10,000 migrant farmworkers last year, but numerous unregistered camps also dot the landscape. In all, in excess of 150,000 foreign farmworkers are planting and picking crops and potting plants in the state, and the vast majority of them live in unregistered camps, shared apartments, mobile homes and in cars, he added.

"The camps are not supposed to be open all-year round," he said. "Why are they? Because the families have no other place to live. That's why we're providing affordable housing because $6.50 an hour doesn't go very far with medical bills, food, gas and children's needs.

''That's why churches, the state, government, growers and our communities need to take a hand with providing medical and housing assistance, like the Casa Verde project . . . This is a community responsibility."

The provision of housing, medical and social services are crucial if low-income migrant families are to avoid the pitfalls of poverty, Lopez said.

Double-digit high school dropout rates, lack of representation on school boards and city councils, and adhering to driver licensing and insurance rules are also important issues to tackle, he added.

"We have to teach people not just their rights, but their responsibilities," Lopez said. "We have laws to respect, and we have to try to make our system more accessible, even to those who speak English."

Lopez said Centro de Canby will make a March 21 workshop presentation to the City Council in a bid to secure new city grant funding. Last fiscal year, the agency applied for $34,000, and received $17,000. Other local non-profit groups failed to get the amounts they had hoped for, and councilors cited a lack of available funds in the budget.

Centro de Canby hopes to add a second case manager to help lighten the mounting caseload of Connie Constante. She and Irma Llanes are the agency's only full-time employees, but a high school student and a college intern volunteer part time.

"We see the numbers and needs are growing, while the issues are becoming more different," he said. "Many people face many problems."

Nevertheless, Lopez said he was encouraged by the campaign pledge of Canby Mayor Terry Prince and Councilors Teresa Blackwell and Patrick Johnson to support non-profits such as Centro de Canby, Canby Kids Inc., Canby Adult Center, and OCTS Channel 5. He was further buoyed by Prince calling for a Community Service Week in July, and for the greater involvement of minorities on local decision-making boards during his recent State of the City speech.

"I think there is a lot the city and non-profits can do together to make a difference in people's lives," Lopez said. "Last year's Latino Heritage Day at the Canby Public Library was an important step to take, and we want joint efforts to continue."

Lopez points to other agency programs serving the community - Girls Talk and Girls in Action, two programs held twice-weekly at local schools, and the weekly parenting program Padres Adelante (Parents Moving Forward).

"We believe it is very important to know what the mayor is planning to do regarding diversity in our city, to build from the diversity," he said. "It look to me like we need more conversation. Canby is a good place to live, but we need to make sure we don't grow separate from each other. We need to become more integrated as a community, and we hope the new mayor will advocate for that."

Lopez was among 150 attendees of the Oregon Catholic Conference in Salem on Feb. 19.

"We had a very good visit," he said. "We met with 60 to 70 percent of the legislators, and I think most of them were very receptive, especially to issues of need in the Latino community. We were advocating for the poor, and for funding for farmworker housing."

Lopez said the Oregon Catholic Conference also called for the Legislature to authorize $5 million in grants to provide for farmworker housing, and together with J. Frank Schmidt nurseries it will host an April 27 forum for legislators on the issue.

"Global competition has become harder for farmers," Lopez said. "The state needs to provide some support to help meet the social needs of farmworkers in Oregon, so they can help alleviate some of the burden on growers. For instance, the state can help take care of farmworker housing, so it's not just the employers who are under all the pressure. The money the growers make now is not what they used to make, so they need help."

(Some state financial help was recently announced - The Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services reported Feb. 5 that farmers, developers and non-profit groups who want to build housing for farm laborers can apply for the Farmworker Housing Tax Credit Program, which has $3.3 million available to fund projects in 2001.)

Lopez said too much has been done by the state to attract hi-tech companies, and not enough has been done to aid other industries.

"The agriculture industry became neglected as hi-tech came in during the 1990s, and we forgot agriculture was one of the main revenues for the state," he said. "Hi-tech got lots of incentives, many major employers are from out of state, and the money they make doesn't stay in Oregon.

''Farmers are mainly local people pumping money into the local economy, and they should receive aid instead of big computer companies. Our state needs to keep a closer look as to how we can put more resources into farming and how we can better take help of employers and their employees."

Lopez said he is hopeful Republican Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith's farmworker bill will pass both houses of Congress during the current session, and he supports a general amnesty for undocumented workers. The last mass amnesty for illegal aliens was granted by President Ronald Reagan.

A trained electrical engineer, Lopez worked in social services for migrants and displaced peoples in Houston, Texas, before relocating to Oregon with his wife, Brena.

Last Aug. 19, the couple's son, Oscar Patrick, was born.

"He was named Oscar for a bishop from El Salvador, and Patrick for St. Patrick," he said. The Woodburn couple hope to move to Canby in the summer.

Cascade Management Inc. of Wilsonville is contracted to manage Casa Verde, and the company screened applicant families for low-income and immigration requirements, and to ensure a family member worked in local agriculture.

Workers from Seabold Construction Co. of Beaverton built the two-story townhouses featuring two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments.

Heriberto Aguilar of Canby - who formerly worked for St. Patrick's Catholic Church and as a foreman at area nurseries - is Casa Verde's manager, and he and his family live on site. Catholic Charities and Centro de Canby hope to host a first anniversary celebration at Casa Verde on July 1, but residents will be consulted, Lopez said. Last year's grand opening was attended by dozens of people, including the Archbishop of Portland John G. Vlazny, former Canby Mayor Scott Taylor, city councilors, and Clackamas County Commissioner Mike Jordan, among others in involved in bringing the pioneering housing project to fruition.

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