ALANI FLORES CARRILLO
Editor s note: This is the first in a series of articles profiling the future residents of Brenkle Court, who are building their own homes as part of a self-help affordable housing project organized by Our Town St. Helena.
As a born and raised native of St. Helena, Anai Ortiz knew there was no other place like home.
She graduated from Sonoma State in 2010, lived in Atlanta short-term and did her fair share of traveling, but she came back in 2015 to be closer to the family and community she had missed so much.
Ortiz began a part-time job working at Stonebridge Apartments for the nonprofit EAH Housing and taught Spanish grades K-8 part-time at the St. Helena Catholic School, where she also coached girlsâ soccer. When the school closed in 2018, Anai got promoted to Lead Resource Coordinator at EAH, supervising the counties of Sonoma, Napa and Marin.
Eight local families are building their future homes on McCorkle Avenue, and with COVID-19 vaccines now widely available, theyâre asking volunteers for help.
The families are providing most of the labor as part of the Brenkle Court self-help affordable housing project organized by the nonprofit Our Town St. Helena. The walls are up, but the families need help with drywall, siding, painting and insulation.
They were hoping to be done this spring, but the lack of volunteer labor â coupled with the poor air quality associated with the wildfires â has put them about four months behind schedule.
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