Salinas, CA (February 27, 2018)—At the 97th Annual Awards Luncheon on February 22nd, the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce honored HDC President Starla Warren with their Spirit of the Community Award.

As president of Monterey County Housing Authority Development Corporation (HDC), Warren has earned the respect of all who work with her and her team for being fearless, persistent and creative in addressing housing challenges on the Central Coast of California. She embodies the spirit of the community by constantly working to bring more affordable housing to the area.

“The people who benefit from affordable housing are the real spirit of the community,” said Warren during her acceptance speech. “They are the backbone of our economy and I am exceptionally honored to have received this recognition of our support for them.”

In 2017 alone, HDC began construction on two new affordable housing developments which will add a total of over 100 newly-constructed affordable housing units to Monterey County in California. In the rural farming community of Castroville, 50 of those units are earmarked for farm laborers and their families. With the completion of Dai-Ichi Village, an affordable housing development for seniors in Salinas’s Chinatown, HDC was honored in 2017 by the City of Salinas with the David G. Swanson Award recognizing their tremendous contributions to the viability of the community.

At one of HDC’s recent housing development groundbreaking ceremonies, a community partner stated that in his 25 years in the industry he has never met anyone as good as Starla at figuring out the nuances of bureaucracy to turn a “no” into a “yes.” Her spirit, energy and intelligence have benefited Monterey County tremendously in addressing the challenge of affordable housing.