El Independiente

              El Idepedietc
20 HUD homes completed
South Tucson families move into new housing
by JASON AUSLANDER
After waiting two and a half
years, 20 low-income families in
South Tucson moved into new
houses at the end of last month.
"I think I have a beautiful
dream, said Maria Elena Armenta,
one of the new tenants. "I feel like
Im free.'
Arnienta, her husband and their
two young daughters moved into
one of ten new duplexes on Oct.
29most of them located near
South Ninth Avenue and West 26th
Street.
She said that in the apartment
the family lived in for nine years, she
would not allow her daughters to
play outside.
"Now I say, Don't ask me, just
go,'" Armenta said.
The duplexes were built with a
$1.5 million grant from the federal
by SANDRA VALDEZ
For the first time in their lives,
the Armenta sisters can play in
their own backyard.
Excited about having their own
bedrooms, Josephina, 9, trimmed
hers with Little Mermaid decor,
while Christina, 11, preferred
Barbie.
The girls are enjoying pleasures
they did not realize before moving
into their new home.
They came from the Housing
Authority, South Third Avenue and
West 28th Street, on Oct. 29, also
known by residents as the
"projects".
The duplex, one of 22 new units
scattered around the city, is the
first to be built by South Tucson's
Housing Authority since 1974. lt
is part of the city's goal to
provide a better standard of living
to residents, said Richard Elias,
housing director, (see related
story.)
The Armenta family, who already
qualified for low income housing,
were chosen because they have
children and a good record as
renters.
"I'm very thankful to South
Tucson. lt seems like l've been
waiting all my life for a nice place
to live," said Robert M. Armenta,
49. He is disabled but works part
time as a janitor at VFW Post
10008.
Armenta is a native Tucsonan and
has lived in South Tucson's
Housing Authority for nine years,
government's Department of Hous-ing
and Urban Development, said
Richard Elias, housing director for
the City of South Tucson. Construc-tion
ended late last month with
"I think I have a beau-tiful
dream. I feel like
I'm free."
Maria Elena
Armenta,
new tenant
enough money left over to build
two more duplexes, space to
accomodate four more families,
Elias said.
The funding was approved in
New homes give hope
to (ow-income families
with his wife Maria Elena, 39, a
monitor at Drachman Primary
School, and their daughters,
Armenta said the projects were
very well maintained, but their
new home gives them more luxury
and privacy.
Elias said they decided to build
the units in different areas around
the city to end negative
connotations often associated with
large housing projects.
"These are better because
there's not a concentration of
people stigmatized from living in
low income housing," Elias said,
"The other place felt like an
institution, I wish they would
make more places like this," said
Armenta. "lt feels more like
home."
Spreading the units Out into the
community helps residents to feel
like "a part of the community,"
said Mayor Shirley Villegas.
"This place, they did a heck of a
job building it, the architect must
be real good," Armenta said.
"It looks like they're building
homes for the rich and famous,"
he said.
The three.bedroom duplex units
are 975 square feet, equipped
with modern fixtures, a new
refrigerator, gas stove and a
swing set, tether ball, or sandbox
for the children in the spacious
backyards.
The units do not have carpeting
but ArmenIa said he does not mind.
seo HOUSES, page 4
March 1991 and construction be-gan
two years later, said Pat
Lindquist chief of the HUD housing
program branch in Phoenix.
Construction on the final two
units will be completed within 60
to 90 days, Lindquist said.
Each unit contains 975 square
feet, three bedrooms and a front
and backyard.
Both Lindquist and Elias agreed
that the need for more public hous-ing
in South Tucson is acute.
"A lot of housing in (the low-income)
range is substandard,"
Lindquist said. "So there was a
strong need,"
Elias said there is "absolutely"
a need for even more. He said the
city runs 100 low-income units for
the elderly and disabled,
Now, with the new facilities,
there are 72 units for low-income
families as well.
HUD regulations mandate that
families living in the units spend no
more than 30 percent of their in-come
for rent, Elias said.
If that number falls short of
what is required to run the proper-ties
by the city, funds are available
from HUD to subsidize the rent, he
said,
Rent varies for each family.
Joeann Moreno and Paul Lund
and their three children moved into
a duplex at the same time as the
Armentas, They said their new
house is cheaper, bigger and nicer
than their previous apartment.
"lt's a lot better,' Moreno said.
For Armenta, it was not that her
new house had more space or was
substantially cheaper than her old
apartment. Rather, she was excited
about it for a different reason.
"The difference is I have some-thing
private," she said.
Martin vanishes
photo by blndy Kiulky
San Martin, the stolen patron saint of healing, story page 3
NOVEMBER SOUTH TUCSON'S BILINGUAL NEWSPAPER 1993