Orange County Community Housing Corp

The Orange County Community Housing Corporation's mission is to transition extremely low-income families toward greater self-sufficiency through housing and education.  

The Orange County Community Housing Corporation (OCCHC) was founded in 1977 when members of the League of Women Voters, Orange County Fair Housing Council and County of Orange housing committee came together with a vision to meet the housing needs for the working poor. Today, we celebrate 45+ years of service and thousands of families that have been housed from homelessness by OCCHC and those continuing to break their very own cycle of poverty through affordable housing and education.

As we mark our 48th year of service, we remain committed to the vision and values created by our founding members that continue to guide our work today. OCCHC/SteppingUP pursues its mission around the vision of a community in which every working family has decent, affordable housing with the educational opportunities that will assist in bridging the gap of the racial, economic and educational inequities that continue to exist to today.

The values and principles guide OCCHC/SteppingUP’s work include:

*those who are most vulnerable in society have voices and should be heard;
*diversity and inclusivity are essential for creativity and innovation;
*the nurturance of individuals and families fosters the growth of healthy communities;
*partnerships, collaboration, civic participation are fundamental to improving organizations and institutions, and to assuring sustainable
social change; and
*the fostering of healthy human development emphasizes prevention over treatment.

In 2014, founding Executive Director, Allen Baldwin, congratulated Nora Mendez as OCCHC’s second Executive Director who marked her 25th year with OCCHC in 2023. A former resident of OCCHC, Nora’s family was introduced to our mission when she was 10 and now is a Spark of Hope for our families as she became the first in her family to graduate from college and become a homeowner. Nora shares:

“As a former resident of OCCHC who has benefited from its housing, mentoring and educational services, I can truly relate to our families. Our focus in providing housing with education is the tool that assists families in obtaining self-sufficiency. It is with great pride and considerable pleasure that I look forward to OCCHC’s future productivity and service for our extremely low-income families in Orange County.”

Over the past year, your support assisting in providing affordable housing and education extremely low-income families throughout Orange County. During our 47th year of service, OCCHC provided permanent, affordable housing to over 300 families living below the poverty level in Orange County and remained committed to providing a safe, stable and affordable home for families facing homelessness while also providing FREE program services through its signature program, SteppingUP.

In 2024, OCCHC/SteppingUP marked its 47th year in service providing safe and affordable housing to 334 families (3,412 adults & children) such as, Maria, a single mom who was unable to keep up with the bills that surmounted from medical health challenges her daughter faced. Her employment suffered as a result which led to the loss of her job, an inability to pay her bills including the high rent in today’s market that led to homelessness where her daughter was placed in foster care. Our community of amazing non-profits rallied to provide the wrap around services needed to assist in Maria’s time of need and OCCHC welcomed Maria with a safe place to call home where she was reunited with her daughter and can now focus on her health and their future.

OCCHC’s SteppingUP Program continued to assist families transitioning from motels, shelters and substandard living to our affordable housing beginning their path to self-sufficiency. SteppingUP’s Homeownership component educated 982 at-risk individuals, also providing 526 one-on-one counseling appointments focused on budgeting, credit counseling, and financial literacy. Over 49 free bilingual, workshops focused on economic security and homeownership with 8 families becoming first-time homeowners celebrating 109 homeowners to date marking our 6th year as a HUD approved agency.

OCCHC Celebrates its 100th Homeowner (Name has been changed to protect anonymity)
The Antonio Family moved to OCCHC with 5 young daughters in need of a safe place to call home. Over their time living at OCCHC, the family was provided with the affordable housing and educational resources needed to break their very own cycle of poverty. Mr. Antonio went from working in a bakery to owning his very own bakery, while their daughters were educated through SteppingUP where 2 recently graduated from college, 2 stepped up to homeownership and in 2023 Mr. & Mrs. Antonio purchased their very own home.
Living at OCCHC allowed the Antonio family to transition from homelessness to homeownership and your support continues to provide a wholistic approach to breaking the cycle of poverty for generations to come. Your support is improving the lives of our families and our future.

In 2024, SteppingUP’s College Awareness Program (CAP) marked 18 years in service committed to encouraging higher education for first generation youth of extremely low-income families. The program maintained its commitment to reducing the high school dropout rate in Orange County for 18 years; encouraging higher education for at-risk youth since 2006. The program grew from serving 26 students to serving 657 with 217 parents joining CAP's PADRE component. 30 high school seniors graduated with 100% stepping up to higher education. CAP celebrates 141 alumni who have graduated college & entered the workforce.

Meet Amayrani
Your continued support has allowed our program to guide and encourage disadvantaged youths, like Amayrani, on a path towards college completion.
During her first year at UCLA, Amayrani, a first-generation student, felt lost and had trouble finding a connection to the campus. She felt that it wasn’t for her and wanted to give up. During a check-in, SteppingUP advisors connected Amayrani to another SteppingUP alumni from UCLA, Lucia, who shared her experiences and introduced Amayrani to the groups that she was engaged with when she was at UCLA. Amayrani was also connected with a counselor on campus who helped her manage her class schedule. Our SteppingUP staff continued to provide Amayrani with guidance and resources, and in 2022, Amayrani was selected as a “B” Bolder Intern with Clearinghouse CDFI where she learned how to work in a professional setting and received real life job skills that helped build a solid foundation for her future success.

We’re excited to share that Amayrani joined our team as an intern in 2023! During her time with us, she focused on researching and implementing strategies to increase our alumni college completion rate. This included looking at what can be done on both the preventative and intervention sides. One of the projects that Amayrani created was a College Guide for our senior graduates. We believe that Amayrani’s struggles, experiences and intellect gave her insight into what our SteppingUP students need to succeed and achieve their post-secondary goals.

UPDATE: In 2024, Amayrani graduated from UCLA within 3 years with a double major in Education & Social Transformation! Congratulations Amayrani!

From a SteppingUP parent:
"My name is Osiris Sosa and I’m very thankful to SteppingUP for helping my son Isaac during his high school years at Garden Grove HS. As a parent who didn’t study in the the US you want to make sure your children know what to do. He always listened to his counselors and I’m very thankful to them. Personally I enjoyed and learned from the workshops. A thousand thank yous."

Join us in helping to remove barriers in access to education and assist in empowering students, like Justin, through equitable academic programming and immersive experiences. Justin shares:

“My name is Justin Phan, a graduate from Bolsa Grande High School and a current student at Cal State Long Beach. I have had similar experiences with other preparation programs and I would like to say that this is by far the best program I have taken. Compared to its contemporaries, SteppingUP delivers the information in a more efficient and engaging manner. And while the clubs I have been to would have explained this through a dull lecture, SteppingUP sets up events like fieldtrips, in person interviews, and meetings with professionals to further ingrain the lesson. I especially like the one-on-one meeting with advisors which has really helped me through the college admissions process and without them, I probably would have procrastinated and missed numerous deadlines and scholarship opportunities. The fact is, if you are looking for a program to help you through the transition from student to adult and need an entity to keep you in line, this is by far the best program you could take.”

Justin’s Mom also shares:
"I never went to college and can't help my sons much but I am so thankful for all of the help Mayra and the SteppingUP team provided. Mayra worked with my sons over the weekends, throughout the nights and during holidays to make sure that all deadlines were met. My only regret is not finding about SteppingUP sooner."

With Orange County being the eighth most expensive urban area in the United States according to the 2023 Cost of Living Index, creating accessible and affordable housing is vital to ensure that Orange County’s underserved families have a safe place to call home and the education needed to step up to self-sufficiency. Affordability remains the nation’s largest housing challenge, with our extremely low-income families usually coming to our apartments from tremendously substandard apartments, which have left the family with the need for substantial rehabilitation, socially, financially and educationally. Join OCCHC in making a difference today!

(1) Donate financial contributions for operating support and program services

(2) Sponsor an event

(3) Sponsor a Senior Graduate at CAP's College Kit Drive held March through May

(4) Donate to our Toy Drive to make the holidays a little brighter for underserved youth (November 1 - December 5th)

(5) Sponsor a student in the summer for CAP's Northern California College Tour.

Families served live in OCCHC apartments and surrounding communities scattered throughout Orange County including, but not limited to, Dana Point, Fullerton, Irvine, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Buena Park, Anaheim, Placentia, Huntington Beach and Cypress.

As a former resident of OCCHC who has benefited from housing, mentoring and educational services, I can really relate to what our families go through. Our focus is making our housing a transition, not a permanent stop and education is the tool that will help our families get to that next level. It is with great pride and considerable pleasure that I look forward to OCCHC’s future productivity and service for extremely low-income families.

“The combination of secure and safe housing along with targeted educational programs at OCCHC provides an incredible foundation that helps entire families transition toward self-sufficiency. Not only is this organization addressing the root causes of generational poverty, they are also giving their
residents the tools to create their own futures.” - Yesenia Ochoa, Board Chair