CARECEN’s New Multipurpose Facility Creates Affordable Housing Units and Citizenship School for the Metro Area’s Latino Immigrant Community

The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) inaugurates a new complex of buildings, located at the crossroads of Washington’s Latino community in Columbia Heights. The facility includes its offices, a citizenship and learning center, and nine condominiums for low-income homebuyers.

New educational center and emergency help for immigrant hurricane victims

Washington, D.C. October 11, 2005 -- The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) inaugurates a new complex of buildings, located at the crossroads of Washington’s Latino community in Columbia Heights. The facility includes its offices, a citizenship and learning center, and nine condominiums for low-income homebuyers.

The 11:00 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrates CARECEN’s permanence in the community on the eve of its 25th anniversary of providing services to the metro area’s growing Latino immigrant population. The facility provides much-improved conditions for the agency’s clients, constituency and members, including privacy during interviews and room for community meetings and cultural events.

The creation of nine condominiums within the three-building complex (1460–1464 Columbia Road) makes it possible for more low-income families to become first-time homeowners. CARECEN has offered the condos at approximately one-half their market price to local residents who are paying high rents for rundown and neglected apartments.

A new classroom annex also provides dedicated space for CARECEN’s citizenship classes and leadership training, and will allow the agency to contemplate expanding its educational services.

“With this new office complex, CARECEN reaffirms its commitment to affordable housing and the much-needed services that will strengthen the development of the Latino community in the region,” says CARECEN’s executive director, Saul Solorzano.

This complex is the result of an innovative partnership between CARECEN, the District of Columbia, the Bank of America, and the National Council of La Raza, all of whom share the aim of preserving ethnic and economic diversity in the metro region’s neighborhoods.

“This development demonstrates how strategic partnerships at the national level—like that of the National Council of La Raza and Bank of America—can benefit the efforts of strong grassroots organizations like CARECEN to preserve affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying area,” states Brian Tracey, Bank of America’s Community Development executive for the Atlantic Region.

With the experience gained in this project, CARECEN is now turning its attention to new development and rehabilitation projects in apartment buildings that will be bought by their current tenants, who organized themselves into associations with CARECEN’s help.

In addition, CARECEN is launching a new disaster response campaign to link Latino immigrants who have become victims of natural disasters, such as the recent hurricanes, to key services, including the replacement of lost documents. The effort is aimed at those who have not sought services because they fear being apprehended and deported for their lack of documents.

CARECEN, which first opened its doors in 1981, is among those community-based organizations that are playing an increasingly important role in meeting expanding social service needs, often in partnership with local government. The region’s Latino community is multinational, with more than a third coming from Central America.
CARECEN’s special expertise in the issues of Central Americans and recent arrivals from other Latin American countries has made the agency a vital resource for its clients who seek to regularize their immigration and employment status, become citizens of the United States, resolve tenant issues, obtain access to city and non-profit services, learn how to purchase a home, or deal with unfamiliar laws and regulations.

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