Community Housing Opportunities Corporation

Community Housing Opportunities Corporation is a non-profit affordable housing organization whose stated mission is to "increase the availability of affordable housing and to improve the quality of life for very low, low and moderate income households." Originally created within Davis in 1984 as Davis Community Housing, CHOC has sponsored the development of more than 1,100 units of affordable rental housing and 74 single-family homes. Its service area has since expanded to include communities in Yolo, Sacramento, Solano, and eastern Contra Costa counties. CHOC finances developments and programs through a blend of private and public funding, and handles both rental housing and home ownership development for low income households.

Rather than simply providing rental housing for low income households, CHOC takes a four-pronged approach to stabilizing low income communities: property development, property management, asset management and resident services. The property management aspect is handled through CHOC affiliate, Sterling Asset Management Company ("SAMC"), a licensed California real estate broker, approved by HCD and HUD, that serves exclusively as a property management agent; SAMC also provides fee-management services to private owners of multi-family affordable housing. CHOC also operates property-specific resident services programs to help ground its low income communities and provide tools for resident success. This program coordinates resident-based on-site professed educational, employment, wellness and recreational programs to promote community and personal growth.

Local properties managed by CHOC include

• Fox Creek Apartments
• Heather Glen Apartments
• Hotel Woodland
• Olive Court
• Olympic Cottages
• Rosa Parks Townhouses
• Rosewood Park Apartments
• Sojourner Truth Garden
• SouthField Park Condos
• Sterling Court
• Terracina Apartments
• Tuscany Villas Apartments
• Villa Calabria
• Walnut Terrace
• Willow Glen Apartments
• Windmere Apartments

For a listing of other property managers handling accounts in the Davis, please visit our Property Management page. Additionally, our Housing Guide can provide more information on low income housing and utilities programs as well as helpful information about your landlord-tenant relationship.

See also: Affordable Housing

"Presently, CHOC has a pipeline of work in excess of $100m. This includes those projects in construction, ready to commence construction, and in design and construction document development. All projects consist of either new construction or acquisition rehabilitation activities or a combination of both. The project lines range from new mixed-use homeownership (both single and multi-family), affordable family housing, new underground utility and street infrastructure for mobile home parks, community and office work centers, HUD 202 senior independent living facilities, and assets requiring recapitalization for long-term sustainability and preservation.

CHOC is presently operating in and serving thirteen (13) counties in Northern California’s Central Valley. In the next year, CHOC is expanding its development and management operations to include the collar counties of the San Francisco East Bay Area. Its product lines are also expanding to include market rate housing and commercial development, market rate management and leasing, and asset sustainability services." - source: http://www.chochousing.net/realestate/product-lines

2008-12-27 09:48:02   CHOC is all about appearances— keeping the outside looking nice for when the investors inspect the properties. Therefore, if you are a tenant, do not expect them to repair things in your apartment that are not cosmetic . Example: I was unable to flush my toilet with the handle (broken off) for approximately one month. My heater was broken in December. Despite repeated calls to get these items repaired, they finally remedied the situation on the day the inspectors came to the property and entered the apartment. Once again, it's about keeping up appearances for the inspections. Twice a year the building lights need to be adjusted to the time. Each time we report a needed adjustment, we end up waiting several months before anything is done. Meanwhile, it is pitch black as we ascend the staircase to our apartments in the indoor stairwell and it is nearly impossible to see the keyhole to open the door. CHOC is liable for any accident that could occur to a tenant in this situation! Yet, they ignore it. These are just examples from a longer list of repairs that rarely or never happen. On the other hand, carpets in these same dark stairwells have been replaced, parking areas have been paved and the outside of apartment buildings painted, while tenants wait forever for INSIDE repairs. In addition, the manager turnover rate is amazing. Since my 8 years of living here, we have gone through at least SIX different managers! —G.L.

2010-01-21 16:43:27   Unbelievable. CHOC holds somewhere around 70 million in other people's money and 20 million in their own, yet sitting beside my computer as I type is a form I "must fill out by January 29, 2010" so they can get a 'Statement of Household Income for Filing of Welfare Exemption (2010-2011)'! Meanwhile, on Federal Social Security Disability only now, having lost my entire SSI check to Governor Schwarzenegger's part in the Big 5 budget for 2009, I have no raise at all for COL expenses. My dental and vision, as paltry as it was on Medi-Cal has also been taken away by either big business, big government, or both. And they want ME to sign this so they can get yet another write off? You want to hear horror stories? I've lived in one of CHOC's "properties" for over 12 years now (13 in June) and have survived 4 floods by way of chemicals sprayed from faulty fire sprinklers (CHOC refused to pay for any of the damage to my furniture, rugs, etc.) and 40 days, literally of no hot water in the middle of the winter one year (after repeated complaints, CHOC coughed up a voucher to take a shower at the homeless shelter nearby...how very white of them) all while I was still expected to pay my full rent. CHOC is nothing but another greedy corporation, lying to investors as well as consumers. The truth is, their supposed "low income housing" is merely the slightest break they can give to low-income people and still get their write-offs. This form next to me proves it beyond any shadow of a doubt. (I tried to contact them at 4:30 p.m. and not suprisingly, the only option I had was to leave a message for "operator". Riiight.) At the Hotel Woodland, for instance, the studio apartments are rented out to those who fill out all the paperwork about every nook and cranny of THEIR income and assets, and must do so every year to qualify, yet for all this what they get is literally a $20.00US break from Fair Market Value. That is NOT low-income; that is greed. They need to be audited. Seriously. —S.

2015-11-05 16:06:00   As a former employee, I have to say that when they brought on the current CEO, that is when things began to change. She couldn't have the small office that the former CEO used, She had to get more office space and spend money making it to her specs. Also, she had to have a fax machine installed in her home in Fairfield so that she could work from home and not be bothered with driving to Davis. She brought on people who were sycophants and bowed to every whim. She wasn't about helping people. She's about how good does this make her look. While she got a nice new office, the current office got the leftovers. Durring my tenure, I saw the departure of several people who had been with CHOC for quite a while, because of her actions. Until CHOC is no longer her ego trip, it will never be in the position to help people. —MommaCat