Guajardos` Dreams Begin with Homeownership

www.mercedhousingtexas.org
Summer 2003
Guajardos’ Dreams Begin with Homeownership
Nayeli Lizeth Guajardo has room to “imaginate.” Lizeth, age
10, and her next-door neighbor play freeze tag, hide-and-seek,
and pretend. That’s just one of the benefits of living in their
own home. Lizeth and her parents Julia and Tony live in the
Nevada Street neighborhood in a home they bought from
Merced. Merced acquired the dilapidated turn-of-the-century
home, completely rehabilitated it, and sold it to the Guajardos in
June.
“We adopted a dog from the Bexar County animal shelter as
soon as we moved in,” Tony says. “His name is Hawkeye,” Lizeth
says. The Guajardos’ dreams reach far beyond pet ownership,
though. Julia grew up in Mexico and worked her way through
nursing school there. She hopes to become certified as a nurse
in the United States after she masters the English language. Tony, Lizeth, and Julia Guajardo
Medical aspirations run in the family. Lizeth already has decided
that she wants to be an obstetrician/gynecologist when she grows up.
The Guajardo family learned about Merced’s single-family rehabilitation and acquisition program through Our Lady
of the Lake Convent, where Julia works. Julia found a Merced newsletter while she was studying English with Sister
Margarita Sanchez, CDP, and saw the historic home in the newsletter. The Guajardos contacted Merced Vice President Edgar T. Sandoval. The Guajardos had already qualified for a home loan, so they quickly negotiated with their
(continued on page 2)
SOS Recipient Susie Simmons Aids Her
Susie Simmons
Mrs. Susie Simmons, age 85, takes care of her neighbors in the Nevada
Street neighborhood of San Antonio. “I’m the chauffeur. I take the old ladies
to the store,” she says. She lost her husband in 1967, but “Thank the Lord,”
she supported herself by operating the Simmons Café, serving soul food to patrons on the east side of San Antonio. She now sings in the choir at the White
Robe Missionary Baptist Church, cooks food from the soul for church functions
and delivers canned goods to those in greater need than herself. “I’m the
mother of the church,” she says.
When Mrs. Simmons’ gas line was leaking dangerously, she went to City
Councilman Joel Williams for assistance. Williams and his aides spent days looking for a resource to help Mrs. Simmons. “We must have called 50 different
organizations. The last one was Merced,” said Williams staffer Ron Wright.
Through the Serve Our Seniors (SOS) Emergency Repair Program, Merced
re-routed Mrs. Simmons’ gas line and moved her water heater to a safe enclosure outside of her home. Since the SOS Program began in August 2002,
Merced has made health and safety repairs to more than 20 very-low-income
seniors’ homes, primarily in the Denver Heights/Nevada Street neighborhoods.
The SOS Program continues through support from corporations, foundations,
and individuals like you. Merced has qualified more than 50 applicants for SOS
assistance, and we receive new requests nearly every day.
Summer 2003
www.mercedhousingtexas.org
Bellshire Painter Turns Hero
Maurilio Soto, a painter at Bellshire Apartments in
Conroe, Texas, recently received a commendation
for heroism from the mayor of Conroe. When a vicious Rottweiler was attacking City of Conroe meter
reader Doris Pickering while she was reading meters
at Bellshire, Maurilio held the dog at bay until animal control officers could reach the scene. Also a
Bellshire resident, Maurilio (affectionately known by
the Bellshire staff as “Shorty”) has been a Bellshire
employee for 25 years. Maurilio is a Domicile Property Management employee.
Guajardos (continued from page 1)
bank and Merced to buy their new home. “Closing
time was very exciting,” Tony says. “I don’t mind
writing the mortgage check each month, because I
know it’s going into our own equity,” he says.
Julia’s favorite part of the home is the kitchen. “I
like the cabinets and the stove,” she says. Julia already has entertained three of her friends from work
at the new home.
“I would like for my friends also to have their
own homes,” she says. “I told them to call Merced
and talk to Edgar like we did.”
Page 2
President’s Message
Did you notice our masthead when you
picked up the newsletter? It’s easy to
miss the masthead when we read a publication. But Merced’s is worth reading and
remembering. “Our residents are at the
heart of everything we do.”
We’re having fun sharing some of the
stories of our residents with you in this issue of the
newsletter. We are proud of our residents. Each person has a story to tell.
Amid all of the concern about the economic downturn and all of the statistics about the affordable housing crisis, we need to keep in mind that those statistics
represent individuals and families. Each has joys, concerns, challenges, and triumphs. Each has a reason to
need affordable housing.
When you support Merced, instead of thinking in
terms of houses and apartment buildings, think in terms
of individual lives. Yes, your contribution to Merced affects bricks and mortar. But more importantly, you and
Merced are reaching out to more than 1,130 separate
families and individuals, making their lives safer, more
comfortable, and more economically stable.
Merced’s newly constructed apartment community
Managed by Encore Management Company
1, 2, & 3 bedrooms available
Starting at $433
Enjoy our great amenities including indoor
basketball court, lake/park access & daycare
8301 Lake Vista Drive
Southwest Hwy. 90W at Loop 410
Call Veronica Martinez at (210) 645-9100
Summer 2003
www.mercedhousingtexas.org
Page 3
American Dream is Alive and Well at Stablewood Farms
Visitors to Stablewood Farms Apartment Homes residents Mary and Raymond
Tholen might notice the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting from the kitchen. Ages
89 and 93, Mary and Raymond are the embodiment of the good, old-fashioned American family. The Tholens have been married for 65 years.
A three-story, Victorian, gingerbread house in Pleasant Plains, Illinois (population
500), holds 50 years of fond memories for the Tholens. Outside that home was a
vegetable garden and a profusion of flowers, according to daughter Judy Ganoza.
Inside, the home often was brimming with friends and family. “Everyone was so
friendly and close; you always had your friends,” Judy says. Mary and Raymond
Tholen also have two daughters, four grandchildren and four great-granchildren.
The Tholens are plain spoken, but their life is an eloquent lesson. Mary made a
career of raising her daughters and caring for a son who passed away at age 13.
“When they were growing up, one of our daughters always wanted to be a teacher
and the other always wanted to be a nurse. And that’s what they grew up to be,”
Mary says. Raymond worked throughout his life at the Pillsbury plant near Pleasant Mary and Raymond Tholen
Plains. “I didn’t have much time for hobbies,” he says. “Sometimes I worked two
jobs. I had two girls to put through college.” Church was a source of enjoyment as well as inspiration. “We did
everything there was to do in that church in all those 60 years,” Raymond says. He started the 50-Plus Club in Pleasant Plains and served as its president until the Tholens moved to San Antonio.
They came to San Antonio to be near their daughter and for the warm climate. On her way to work at the Air
Force Village, Judy saw Merced’s Stablewood Farms under construction and thought it was a good place for her parents to live, she says. Her parents took the move in stride, she says. Raymond takes a walk to the mailbox every
morning, and the neighbors wave. “When they get the park finished, we’ll walk there,” Mary says.
Denver Heights Community Center Offers
Programs for Children and Teens
Merced Housing Texas Founders
The Denver Heights Community Center hosted the Denver
Heights Neighborhood Association’s National Night Out celebration on August 5. Merced is involved in the Denver Heights
neighborhood through our single-family acquisition and rehabilitation and Serve Our Seniors programs. Community Center
staff and volunteers were gracious and energetic hosts.
Besides being available for events like National Night Out,
the Community Center offers a variety of programs to area
children and teens. During the summer, children ages six to
14 attended the youth summer program. “They did a variety
of activities,” Senior Community Center Leader Mary Jane “MJ”
Martinez says. They played sports, made arts and crafts projects, learned jazz dance and ballet, and were treated to presentations by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The Boy Scouts
even took the boys on a camping trip. All of these activities
were provided to the neighborhood children free of charge.
“We also have a computer lab at the Center,” MJ says.
“The kids have Internet access, and we have Math and English
interactive software,” she says.
During the school year, the after-school programs kick in.
Besides the computer lab, children can play a variety of sports,
according to MJ. “They can participate in any and all sports
for a one-time registration fee of $5,” she says.
For more information about Denver Heights Community
Center programs, call 210/533-5242.
www.boernebenedictines.com
Congregation of Benedictine Sisters
Congregation of Divine Providence
www.cdptexas.org
Congregation of the Sisters of Charity
of the Incarnate Word
www.ccvisanantonio.org
Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
www.daughters-of-charity.org
Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence
www.mcdp.org
Sisters of the Holy Spirit
www.shsp.org
Associate Congregations
Congregation of St. Brigid
Daughters of Mary Immaculate
www.archdiosa.org/vocation/fmi.html
Ursuline Nuns of San Antonio
Summer 2003
www.mercedhousingtexas.org
Page 4
Author Lawrence Patrick Calls Casitas Home
Casitas de Merced resident Lawrence Patrick initially wrote “Inner Journey,”
simply for his own edification. Friends who read the book persuaded him to seek a
publisher, and the novel will soon be available from the Trafford Publishing Company. The book follows three people of different ages and cultures who meet in
the South Pacific, embarking on journeys of self discovery. Lawrence infused the
book with his personal philosophy. “The book is for people struggling along their
spiritual journey,” he says.
Recently retired from the Air Force, Lawrence served as an airplane mechanic
during the Vietnam War. Juxtaposed with his military career is a second career in
alternative medicine, and he remains passionate about holistic healing.
Fifty-eight years young, Lawrence is ready and eager to share his ideas and
lifetime of experience. “People are directed to what’s inside them. It’s the spirit
that moves them, and the essence of that spirit is love and peace,” he says.
Lawrence recently moved to Casitas from Merced’s Suncrest Hills. He is already
getting to know the other Casitas residents. “People contact is important to me.
When you get people together and sharing, good things start to happen,” he says.
Casitas de Merced is an affordable, 28-unit senior community in Somerset, Texas,
developed by Merced in 1998.
Lawrence Patrick
Mission Statement
Merced Housing Texas’ mission is to create and strengthen
healthy communities by providing quality, affordable,
service-enriched housing for individuals and families
who are economically poor.
Merced Housing Texas Multifamily Properties
Bellshire Apartments
800 Bellshire Dr., Conroe, Texas
312 units
Manager Linda Belk
936/756-8849
Stablewood Farms Apartments
8301 Lake Vista Dr., San Antonio
252 units
Manager Veronica Martinez
210/645-9100
Elmhurst Place Apartments
130 Elmhurst Ave., San Antonio
23 units
Manager Michelle Worthey
210/930-6466
Suncrest Hills Apartments
5470 SW Military Dr. in San Antonio
477 units
Manager Laura Patterson
210/673-9225
Summer 2003
www.mercedhousingtexas.org
Thank You for Your Support
Corporations, Foundations
and Other Groups
Frost Bank Small Business Advisory Committee
Frost Bank — Myra Stafford Pryor Charitable Trust
Young Neighbors in Action
Sisters of the Holy Family
Congregation of Benedictine Sisters
San Antonio Area Foundation through the Valley View
Trust and the Liston and Mary Zander Fund
Individuals
Sister Imelda González, CDP
Sister Jane Ann Slater, CDP
Larry and Patti Semander
Mia Ford and Liz Moore
Sister Janez Schonfeld, CDP
Lucy and Jim Lane
Most Reverend John W. Yanta, DD
Sister Miriam Fideles Mellein, CDP
Patricia M. O’Roark and Frank Wall Jr.
Sister Charlene Wedelich, CDP
Rev. Emmet Carolan — St. James the Apostle Church
Anna Huth
William B. Montez
Serve Our Seniors
Sister Rita Rose Bily, CDP
In Memory
Vernon D. Howey
Woodrow (Woody) Earl Tucker
Susan R. Sheeran
Honors
Marcie La Porte, Happy 50th Birthday
Women In Housing
1441 Montana
Historic home, approximately 1,097 square feet, central air and
heat, all electric, large lot, $53,000. For information, call Edgar
T. Sandoval at 210/281-0234.
Page 5
Larry Hufford Speaks from
a Global Perspective
Merced Board Member Profile
If you want a new vision of your relationship to the world around you, spend a
few minutes talking to Professor Larry
Hufford. As the director of the graduate
program on International Relations at St.
Mary’s University, his own life is a story of
an ever widening view of the global family. “I grew up in rural Ohio and went to a
one-room school for eight years with the
same teacher — there was zero diverLarry Hufford
sity,” he says.
Later, as a student exposed to the
environment at Ohio State University, he became aware of
poverty, racism, and the emerging war in Vietnam. Larry
has a Master of Arts in Political Science from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a Masters in Social Work from Our
Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. As a VISTA volunteer after earning his first masters degree, he organized
a Boys Club and encouraged voter registration in Robstown,
Texas. “There was an incident in Robstown when I was run
off the road at gunpoint and told to leave town. It made
me want to register every person to vote,” he says.
A significant point in Larry’s life came after he earned a
Ph.D. in Political Science from the London School of Economics in England. He and his wife Linda spent two
months in Dade County, Florida, working with the United
Farm Workers in their efforts to organize poor Cuban immigrants. “Linda and I got to meet Cesar Chavez on three
occasions,” he says. “That strengthened my resolve to
have nonviolence as a philosophy of life.”
Larry passes on that philosophy to his students at St.
Mary’s University by taking them on yearly trips to developing countries. “As citizens of the wealthiest country on
Earth, we have the greatest responsibility to find ways for
our country to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” he says. He has practiced what he preaches by serving as chairman for the local chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, serving on task forces to develop the south
side of San Antonio, and serving as co-founder of the first
cooperative pharmacy in San Antonio.
He says he enjoys being involved in Merced because
Merced’s philosophy of alternative housing emphasizes a
concern for poor senior citizens and physically and mentally
challenged persons. Merced also infuses its large-scale
housing properties with what he calls a Merced culture.
“That Merced culture comes from prophetic voices of the
women religious order who founded Merced,” he says. Besides, according to Larry’s wife, “Larry’s unable to say ‘no’
to the nuns.”
Summer 2003
Read all about one of Merced’s favorite subjects — our residents!
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212 West Laurel
San Antonio, Texas 78212
210/281-0234
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Merced Housing Texas
Board of Directors
Sister Jane Ann Slater, CDP, Chair
Sister Rose Ann Aguilar, DC, Vice Chair
Amber E. Alonso, Esq.
Sister Mary Louise Barba, MCDP
Sister Veronica S. Cahill, SHSp
Paul G. Cuellar
Dr. Larry Hufford
Sister Carol Ann Jokerst, CCVI
Sister Susan Mika, OSB
Lisa A. Rodriguez
Staff
Sister Jo Marie Arredondo, SHF
Bookkeeper
Lou Walters Caldwell
Secretary
Sister Imelda González, CDP
Treasurer
Letty Martinez
Single-Family
For Sale
1122 South Walters
123 Fargo
Former Coliseum Oaks Parade of Homes
selection. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, central
air and heat, one-car garage, approx.
1,066 square feet.
$64,950. Downpayment assistance available.
2 bedrooms, 1 bath, approx. 966 square
feet. Large family room, fenced yard,
detached 1-car garage, window AC
units. $48,500. Rehabilitated and marketed through the Rehabilitation Initiative
of San Antonio with Fannie Mae.
Resident Services Coordinator
Edgar T. Sandoval
Vice President
Susan R. Sheeran
President
Sue Flynt Yip
Communications/Development Manager
Merced’s Property Acquisition and Rehabilitation Programs are funded in
part by the San Antonio Housing Trust, the San Antonio Area Foundation
through the Gilbert and Ruth Lang Charitable Trust and Fannie Mae.
For further information, call Edgar T. Sandoval at 281-0234.