SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. – National CORE, the builder, owner and manager of Avenida Serra, is one of the leading innovators in workforce housing and a nationally honored developer of quality affordable housing.
“CORE’s track record is an ideal fit for this project,” said Lucy Dunn, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Orange County Business Council. “Workforce housing is a critical issue, not only here in Orange County but nationwide, and we need strong partners — and partnerships — to provide quality housing for working families who fall below the poverty line.”
In 2013, CORE’s Alta Vista development in East Los Angeles was honored as the “Best Workforce Housing” project in the country by the National Association of Home Builders. That project combined access to mass transit, live-work units and CORE’s Family Opportunity Center concept, which teaches residents financial literacy and career upward mobility skills.
Avenida Serra features 19 units of much-needed workforce housing for very low-income families in south Orange County – filling a critical, and growing, need. According to a new report by the California Housing Partnership Corp., Orange County ranks among the most difficult markets for low-income renters, with only 18 affordable units for every 100 extremely low-income renters.
“The housing shortage is a very real problem – across the country, throughout California and particularly here in Orange County,” said Steve PonTell, CORE’s President and CEO. “If we’re going to be serious about transforming lives and communities. One of the key starting points in that process is quality affordable housing.”
The 19 one-bedroom units at Avenida Serra are all designed for residents who fall well below Area Median Income (AMI). The project will feature a Community Resource Center, which will include programs designed to promote economic mobility.
“Creating opportunity – moving people from dependency to self-sufficiency – is more than putting roofs over people’s heads,” PonTell said. “We need to help them develop the skills they need to move themselves and their families forward.”
CORE’s history of combining quality housing with sustainable social services, through its Hope through Housing Foundation, sets it apart as a nationally renown non-profit developer of affordable housing. The company has won multiple awards from the National Association of Home Builders, Multi-Housing News, the Urban Land Institute and the National League of Cities.
CORE projects create larger community benefits as well. Recently, CORE was awarded the contract to redevelop the 70-year-old Waterman Gardens public housing project in San Bernardino, which according to economist Bill Watkins from the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting will support more than 1,000 jobs increase economic output by $81 million during the construction period alone.
“We’re committed to projects that will be catalytic to the community as a whole,” PonTell said. “Our partnership with San Clemente is one we strongly believe will benefit not just the residents of Avenida Serra, but the entire city.”

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About National CORE, Hope through Housing
National CORE, based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit developers of affordable housing. CORE manages nearly 9,000 affordable, senior and market-rate units in California, Arkansas, Texas and Florida. Over the past two decades, its Hope through Housing subsidiary has provided more than 2 million hours in supportive services to enhance quality of life, including preschool, afterschool, senior wellness and upward mobility programs. For more information on both organizations, please visit www.nationalcore.org.
Contact:
Steve Lambert, The 20/20 Network
(909) 841-7527/ steve@the2020network.com