STOCKTON, Calif. — Hope is brewing on a city block where there appears to be more doors boarded up than open.
"The Stockton city council voted to approve funding for Parents by Choice to purchase what's called the Ruhl Building," said Parents by Choice CEO Tony Yadon. "This building has been sitting (mostly) empty for a couple of decades or more."
The building on Main Street is one of at least four on the same block mostly vacant and in need of repair.
"It's real exciting for downtown," said Michael Huber, executive director of the Downtown Stockton Alliance. "It'll be a good mix with our low-income housing that we have down here and hopefully bring other amenities."
While seeing a historic, 101-year-old building being reactivated is good for the downtown district, the project is also good news for underserved youth.
"The purpose of the funding is for us to turn those second and third floors into housing, specifically low-income housing that would serve our transition-age youth," said Yadon. "We're really excited about that."
Once open, the building will house 22 people aging out of the foster care system, with the nonprofit dedicated to helping them in charge of setting rent prices.
"We try our best to get them ready for the outside world but then, once they're 21, sometimes they're put on waitlists before they can get into different housing programs," said the nonprofit's Youth Workforce Manager, Andrea Rodriguez. "I do get calls even when they're like 24, 25... 'Hey, I'm sleeping in my car right now. Is there anything you guys can do?' And we're kind of limited."
The nonprofit currently offers services like jobs a block away from the new housing project, but former foster youth Alyssa Castellanos says those services are just a piece of the struggle many foster children face.
"I entered the foster care system in 2011 and I was placed in the Parents by Choice agency," said Castellanos, who got her first job working for a childcare program offered by the agency. "I was in the same situation, facing homelessness at the age of 18 so I think this is a great opportunity for these children and the youth to take advantage of because they won't face homelessness, and they won't worry about where to sleep at night."
By December, nonprofit leaders hope to get a better idea on how long renovations will take and how much it may cost. They hope to be able to open the housing units within two years.
Rodriguez says she is waiting for that day.
"I just thought, 'Thank God, we needed this,'" said Rodriguez. "Having just their own space would mean the world to them."
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