$250K grant
Funds to help boost security at public housing/A2
Public housing in Yuma, Somerton and San Luis, Ariz., will have more security, thanks to a fed- eral grant received by the Yuma County Housing Authority.
The $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will go for new outdoor lighting and security cameras at the Valley Vista Apartments in Somerton, the Moctezuma Apartments complex in San Luis and the Pecan Shadows Apartments in north Yuma.
The county housing authority, which manages the three complexes for low-income residents, was one of eight recipients of grant money allocated from HUD’s Safety and Emergency Fund.
The housing authority won the grant the fourth time it applied for it, said Gloria Mallek, the authority’s executive director.
“We are going to use it to reinforce security in our housing complexes,” she said. “This is good news for us, and it’s good for the families that live there, because otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do it, since our funding isn’t enough.”
Mallek said the improvements will help prevent graffiti and vandalism, and provide for better overall security in the three apartment complexes that collectively are home to 159 families.
“The residents have expressed to us their concerns because some areas where they walk are very dark, and because they want their children to be safer when they go out to play,” she said.
In the Valley Vista complex, located along Highway 95 on Somerton’s west side, the county plans to install 10 security cameras on lamp posts purchased with the same grant.
A similar number of lamps are expected to be installed in the Yuma and San Luis complexes, and any remaining money from the land will go toward purchase and installation of solar panels to charge the lamps.
Once the board of supervisors formally votes to accept the grant, the county will seek bids from contractors to install the lamps and cameras, Mallek said.