Access to the internet is considered such a vital necessity that affordable housing developer Peoples’ Self-Help Housing has organized funding to provide the connection free at more than 40 of its properties. “Sometimes we forget how much it costs to stay connected,” said Alejandra Mahoney, who manages education programs at the nonprofit. “A parent actually cried when I told her she was going to have free internet at her apartment at Casas de las Flores. She knew her children were going to need it for school, but she had no idea how she was going to pay for it.”
Through a combination of generous donors and Assembly Bill 1299, a 2013 California law that provides grants to publicly supported housing for broadband access, Peoples’ is able to support not only students with internet service but also its residents looking for jobs, wanting to send emails, or doing their banking online.
Cox Cable recently announced that Village at Los Carneros in Goleta, where Peoples’ is building 70 units of affordable housing called Casas de Los Carneros, will be the only place in the county where it will install its fastest service, G1GABLAST. The folks who move into Casas de Los Carneros when it is finished will be able to access that service, too.