Shirley Pipkin, mother of 6 and grandmother of 11.

Pleasant Hill Community Development Corporation

"I was raised here in Fifth Ward. After I developed an illness and couldn’t work anymore, I needed a less expensive place to live. I feel like at my age this is all I need and I don’t have the bills over my head like I did before. Also there are so many great things offered to us here like medical screening, which a lot of us enjoy because it’s not always easy to get to the doctor.”

Building Community Through Housing

Pleasant Hill Community Development Corporation was founded in 1995 when members of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church organized to do something about living conditions in the area surrounding the church. Three years later, Pleasant Hill Village, a 165 unit housing facility for low-income seniors, opened its doors. Pleasant Hill is unique in that it combines comfortable, affordable housing with on-site services specific to the needs of the elderly such as a clinic with health counseling and medication monitoring. A one-bedroom apartment costs $454 per month, all bills paid and includes complementary breakfast making Pleasant Hill affordable for many seniors who rely on social security as their only source of income. With its many social programs and strong community focus, Pleasant Hill feels more like a neighborhood than an apartment complex. In the words of one resident “We live like a family, we know each other, it’s like a village really.”

“We live like a family, we know each other, it’s like a village really.”

Photos: Alina Simone

James Matthews, 62 years old, moved to Pleasant Hill Village after retiring from the Post Office where he had worked for 28 years. "I had been living in the downtown area in an old hotel and was looking for a better place; when I found out about Pleasant Hill I jumped at the chance. I was actually born in the Fifth Ward, right here on Oak Street. Now I have no intention of moving, this is where I want to spend the rest of my life ”