HOUSING IN HATCH
Nonprofit organization sponsors low-cost apartment complex for ag laborers
LAS CRUCES — The town of Hatch is home to a thriving agriculture industry, but until recently it didn’t offer much affordable housing to farm laborers and their families.
That changed with the recent opening of El Camino Real Apartments, a $9.6 million complex that offers affordable housing to farmworkers.
“The logic of this housing project is to stabilize the farming workforce,” said Rose Garcia, the executive director of Tierra Del Sol Housing Corp., a stakeholder in the project.
“Farmworkers work so hard, but they don’t earn a whole lot,” she added. “But the good thing is if they have a home here, an apartment with reasonable rent, then they’re stable — they don’t have to worry about their kids, who can stay in school.”
The nonprofit organization Housing and Economic Rural Opportunity Inc., or HERO, is the sponsor of the housing complex as well as its general partner.
Garcia said rent is based on income but averages $500 to $800 per month during peak work seasons. During off-seasons, rent is reduced, in some cases to as low as $150 per month, she said.
The complex has 40 units, including two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments.
The project was financed through USDA Rural Development and utilizes federal lowincome housing tax credits.
In order to qualify for housing at the complex, at least 51 percent of a renter’s annual income must come from the agriculture industry, Garcia said.