Photos: GEPHDC
					Project Vida
						Residents in front of one of Project Vida's apartments
		Housing and Services for an Impoverished Community
		Project Vida provides a range of services (housing, health care, education and gang prevention) for low income families in an inner city El Paso neighborhood. Through community organizational efforts, neighborhood families have become partners and take an active role in the project. Project Vida’s community is poor, with median income under $7,000 per year and 65% of adults having less than a 9th grade education. Over 30% of the housing is substandard, while the area’s old motels have become one room apartments, housing as many as six people in a room. Project Vida expanded its services beyond health care and educational activities into housing, acquiring a vacant lot and building eight three-bedroom, two-bath apartments. Two more new apartment buildings have been added, each containing six three-bedroom, two-bath homes for extremely low-income families. A former laundromat was converted to transitional housing for homeless families. Close proximity to health care, adult education, a food cooperative, and day care services allows the families to maintain support while they struggle to afford permanent housing. Project Vida’s holistic approach provides revitalization for a poor community. It is guided by an annual "Community Congress," neighborhood meetings attended by more than 100 adults in the community. The Congress serves as an evaluation and planning guide for Project Vida’s programs.
		A laundramat was converted to provide transitional housing for homeless families (below).