Tenants at Merced Gardens Apartments can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they will retain affordable housing for the foreseeable future, so long as their landlord complies with state and federal housing laws.
The owner of the apartment complex, America Progresso Meadows, issued residents a new notice on Dec. 16 – stating the landlord’s commitment to renewing the property’s Section 8 contract after it expired on Dec 31.
This announcement represents a reversal of circumstances for residents at the 3299 Meadows Ave. property, in the city’s Loughborough area. A little more than a year ago, the owners told tenants they intended to discontinue the affordable housing contract at the 47-unit apartment complex, stirring fear and confusion among residents.
State regulators are now asking the owners to respond by Feb. 14 with a clear plan outlining the next steps they will take to comply with housing law.
Last month, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) issued the owner a letter of technical assistance summarizing the landlord’s obligation and role in preserving the affordability of Merced Gardens Apartments.
Laura Nunn, HCD housing accountability unit chief, indicated in the letter that the Section 8 contract tied to Merced Gardens Apartments will, moving forward, automatically renew every year.
Nunn wrote in the letter that after HCD and owner representatives met, the owners “conveyed a strong interest in pursuing” another HUD contract that could support the owner’s financial investment “while addressing existing habitability concerns.”
A Southern California-based company, America Progresso Meadows represents co-owners Salvador and America Aracely Jaime, who bought the north Merced property in 2018. The Merced FOCUS tried but was unable to reach them for comment on this story.
When the owners bought the property, they inherited the federal Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) contract that has been tied to the apartment complex since 1980. It supplies housing for several dozen of Merced’s low, very low and extremely low-income residents and families. Many tenants at the complex have lived there for more than 10 years.
Ongoing habitability concerns and management turnover
For years, Merced Gardens Apartments tenants said they’ve tolerated neglect and substandard living conditions, including issues with property management.
Property managers assist tenants with maintenance requests and HUD’s income-verification process.
“When I first arrived, the apartment was cool and everything,” Samantha Johnson said.
But as time progressed and Johnson’s unit began to see wear and tear, repair requests fell through the cracks amid a revolving door of property managers.
“People weren’t doing what they were supposed to do,” Johnson said.
“It’s been over five years that people have been neglected,” she said, adding, “Every time they have somebody up in here, it’s a mess.”
“The landlord’s not doing their job,” she said. “They kind of just let everything go.”
For about 12 years, tenant Blanca Abarca has rented a one-bedroom apartment at Merced Gardens Apartments. Throughout that time, her sink has consistently clogged. However, it’s not the biggest concern a HUD inspection has cited.
HUD’s 2024 annual inspection recorded 64 deficiencies on the premises. That triggered HUD to withhold federal funds for the Section 8 contract. According to the state HCD letter to the owners last month, that funding has since resumed.
In addition to working part-time as an in-home supportive services (IHSS) worker, Abarca, 69, is eligible for a monthly retirement income. She is also one of the thousands of county residents who receive assistance from the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Abarca hopes the owners maintain the contract, which keeps rents at the complex at 30% of each household income, in the future.
“They have the whole year…to think about it, to sell it, or keep the contract and keep it like it is – not market place,” Abarca said. “I hope it does stay like that because…I cannot afford to pay more than $258 no more.”
Because of the habitability issues, the Merced Housing Authority is monitoring the situation at Merced Gardens.
“As far as…the Authority knows, everything’s at a standstill,” Maria Alvarado, the director of development for Merced County Housing Authority, said.
It’s important for the agency to monitor the developing situation at Merced Gardens Apartments, just in case it is called in to assist, Alvarado said.
“Obviously we want to make sure that no one’s ever displaced,” she said. “We also want to make sure that we prep our staff, because obviously that’s an influx of units, or it’s 47 cases that we’re going to be adding to the workload here.”
Tenants take action
Abarca said she’s seen high management turnover. Besides notices taped to her door, she reported little to no communication from the owner or its representatives.
The information Abarca does know about the current situation, she said, came from attending tenant meetings with members of different community organizing and advocacy groups.
In October, Abarca and other tenants voted to form the Merced Gardens Tenant Association.
A tenants association is a group of tenants, who generally participate in meetings, canvassing or door-knocking with the goal of holding property owners accountable under housing law and advocating for standard living conditions.
“We will no longer endure the uninhabitable living conditions that you have been forcing upon us while collecting rent and will hold you accountable in the proper manner…,” states the Merced Gardens Tenants Association petition in October addressed to owners.
In the case of Merced Gardens Apartments, tenants’ right to participate in these activities is recognized under HUD federal law.
One year ago, the push tenants needed to advocate for change arrived in the form of a looming deadline.
Property representative Alex Ramirez organized a meeting with tenants notifying them that the contract keeping their rents affordable was set to expire.
The emergency meeting in January 2025 concluded with pizza and the reassurance that tenants, many of them on fixed monthly incomes, would not lose their units, despite the owner’s decision at the time to opt out of their Section 8 contract with HUD.
That’s when Merced Gardens residents decided to form a tenants association.
According to Sharrah Thompson, regional coordinator for Tenants Together, a statewide coalition of tenants associations, an association is the first step toward building larger tenant unions.
In Fresno County, where Thompson lives, she aided a successful campaign to amend Clovis’s code enforcement policy following a child’s hospitalization from mold poisoning.
“At this point, from my understanding is, if they don’t fight, they’re going to be in a situation where they’re going to be forced into fair-market rate rent for the same exact unit,” Thompson said about Merced Gardens Apartments tenants.