Hollister
– Two San Benito residents are taking the lead at South County
Housing, a Gilroy-based affordable housing developer.
Hollister – Two San Benito residents are taking the lead at South County Housing, a Gilroy-based affordable housing developer.
Real estate agent Douglas Kuerschner Jr. and builder Joseph Postigo were recently elected by South County’s board of directors to serve two-year terms as board president and vice president, respectively.
According to South County spokesman Jack Foley, the organization’s 11 board members – including two low-income representatives – guide South County’s big-picture policy and goals.
Postigo, owner of JMP Construction and a lifelong Hollister resident, said he hopes to use his new post to draw attention to San Benito’s housing needs.
“We want to educate the board a little more … but we’re not going to put the gavel down,” Postigo said.
According to Foley, South County Housing has built below market-rate homes in San Benito, Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Executive Director Dennis Lalor has said South County plans to build nearly 100 more affordable homes in Hollister in the next few years, but those projects are currently on hold due to the city’s sewer moratorium.
With city staffers hoping to end the moratorium in December 2008, work on affordable units is about to start up again, but Foley warned that they’ve lost some momentum.
“Basically those projects are going to have to start all over,” he said. “It’s been too long and too many things have changed.”
Kuerschner will be the first San Benito resident to lead South County’s board, and like Postigo, he’s a longtime Hollister resident. Kuerschner moved to town in 1980 to raise a family, and he was asked to join the board in 1992. Both men said they were motivated to get involved after seeing locals struggle with San Benito’s housing prices.
“I keep hearing that people born here just can’t afford a home here,” Postigo said. “It’s getting way out there.”
South County has already built several affordable developments in San Benito County, and Kuerschner said the road hasn’t always been smooth.
“We’ve had to deal with NIMBYs – you know, ‘not in my backyard’ people,” he said. “They want affordable housing, just not in their neighborhood.”
Kuerschner recalled seeing South County construction signs vandalized with graffiti declaring the neighborhood a ghetto. But setbacks and challenges become worth it whenever South County opens a new development, he said.
“People will tell you that they never expected to have their own home,” Kuerschner said. “It’s kind of an emotional thing.”
