BY ALMA VILLEGAS

CV Journalism Collaborative

Adam Conour took a couple of career detours before finding his calling in real estate development in California’s Central Valley. 

Prior to launching Anabasis, a real estate company that houses U.S. armed forces veterans, he tested explosive weapons for the federal government. Before that, the 34-year-old Winton native was enlisted in the U.S. Army. 

Conour’s commitment to housing his fellow veterans runs deep, even though investing in affordable housing in the state’s rural areas is challenging. 

“The Central Valley is hard. Affordable housing is hard for us,” Conour said. 

While the city of Merced has more than 500 new affordable housing units currently in the pipeline – half of which will complete construction this summer – smaller Merced County cities, such as Atwater, Gustine and Dos Palos, have none.

Anabasis’ newest project broke ground on April 17 in south Merced and targets chronically-homeless veterans. It is located adjacent to Merced County’s behavioral health headquarters and aligns with Conour’s mission to provide holistic resources for housing-insecure veterans. 

The 58-unit, shipping-container complex is one of at least 11 projects underway in Merced County designed to meet the housing needs of low-income residents. 

This modular compound will convert 40-foot-long cargo containers into homes, which will serve extremely low-income households, or those earning $28,170 or less, annually, in Merced County. The project design is a cost-effective and environmentally-sustainable solution to meet the city and state’s affordable housing needs, officials said.

“We all know how important homelessness is…as a statewide issue, as a national issue,” Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto said while giving remarks at a groundbreaking ceremony for the project. 

“Last year, nationwide, we had a roughly 20% rise in homelessness,” Serratto said. “Over the last few years, the state is on an upward trend, but our town has been on a downward trend.”

Serratto referenced this year’s Point-In-Time Count report, which has yet to be released. The preliminary number of unsheltered people in Merced County is estimated at 346 this year, down from 428 in 2024, Serratto said. Unsheltered, different from sheltered, specifically describes homeless residents living in public encampments, outside of emergency shelters and transitional housing.

At the ceremony, Serratto thanked Conour and his associate Dean Sparks for “stepping up as local housing developers.” 

Merced County and its six cities are required to submit a periodic housing report, called a multijurisdictional housing element, to the state proving jurisdictions are collaborating to develop housing opportunities for residents at different income levels. These income brackets, which can change every year, are determined using the area’s median income, which for Merced County is $93,900 for a family of four in 2025, according to state numbers.

Small cities face barriers to develop low-income housing

Small cities such as Gustine, with a population of 6,099, face a number of barriers when trying to secure affordable housing developments, compared with larger cities in Merced County and California. One barrier posed by having a smaller population is a smaller general fund in a city’s budget, which interferes with a city’s ability to compete for grants. 

“It’s not for lack of trying,” said Jami Westervelt, Gustine’s economic and community development director. “I wish the state would realize the challenges that we have and come up with some plan to assist us to meet the goals they have set for us.”

Gustine currently operates without a housing department and has no affordable housing projects in the works.

“We haven’t had a new building in decades,” Westervelt explained.

Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Merced, is trying to change that. 

Earlier this month, she announced the progression of two bills in the California State Legislature that, if passed, would expedite affordable housing development in rural areas. 

One of those bills, AB 36, aims to help small cities by reducing the hefty workload required to apply for state affordable housing grants.

“California already has enough red tape from the state when it comes to building additional housing in California. AB 36 and AB 457 will accelerate the development of affordable rural housing,” Soria said in a news release earlier this month.

Per the Statewide Housing Plan, 2.5 million homes, including one million affordable housing homes, must be built by 2030, according to Gustavo Velasquez, director at California Housing and Community Development Department (HCD). 

Every five to eight years, each California jurisdiction is required to submit a Housing Element to HCD, outlining their housing goals across four income categories: very low income, low income, moderate income and above moderate income.

During the previous housing cycle (2016-2024), Merced surpassed construction of the targeted new construction units for above moderate-income housing, and approached the intended number for moderate-income units. 

However, it trailed behind on new construction for low-income and very low-income housing development. 

Conour connects a lack of affordable housing developments to the scant knowledge about these processes in rural areas.

“In our rural communities, oftentimes, [an affordable housing] project may be one of the first projects that that municipality has ever done,” said Conour, the CEO of Anabasis. “So, not only are you trying to get housing developed in that municipality, at the same time, you’re almost educating the municipality on how certain things work.”

Anabasis recently partnered with the city of Los Banos to begin building a permanent housing project for residents experiencing homelessness – its first ever, according to Christy McCammond, Los Banos’ housing program manager. 

Los Banos, the largest city on Merced County’s westside, recently proved how having staff dedicated to housing makes a difference.

The Los Banos housing division was formed in 2023. McCammond and Jennifer Loa, the homeless outreach coordinator, staff the two-person department, which serves a city of 48,553 residents earning an average household income of $70,893. 

In April of 2024, the state awarded the city of Los Banos with an $11.8 million competitive grant intended to transition people out of public encampments and into permanent housing. 

The funding shaped the One Tree project, a 58-unit modular home complex that will break ground this summer off of Gilbert Gonzalez Jr. Drive, McCammond said.

One Tree will exclusively house unsheltered residents living in makeshift encampments. It will also help those experiencing homelessness whose negative rental history is often an obstacle to permanent housing. 

“If we were not here, what our bosses told us is that we would not have gotten the Encampment Resolution Fund grant because there wasn’t the workforce here available to do it,” McCammond said. “These grant applications take weeks, and hours and hours, and it is not easy work.”

“And then once you win the award, well, that’s just the beginning, because there is a lot of compliance, there’s reporting, there’s budget and finance management,” she said.

With more tools, bigger cities navigate different challenges for affordable housing

Currently, Merced is able to accommodate 10,517 new-construction housing units within city limits through 2032, recommended by the state, according to Leah Brown, management analyst for the city of Merced. Of those units, 4,285 must support low, very low and extremely low-income housing. 

Jurisdictions are not required to build the recommended number of new housing units; officials are instead responsible for attracting developers through incentives and funding opportunities. 

In 2022, Merced city officials issued requests for proposals to developers in an effort to build new affordable housing projects. By September of that year, several projects were moving forward. 

City planners specifically looked for skilled affordable housing developers, Brown said.

“What that means is, they don’t just build. They know how to find the funds to support the project,” said Brown, who has been an integral link in the chain of processes in building affordable housing projects in Merced.

The same year Merced city staff announced its search for affordable housing developers, Conour embarked on an intensive affordable housing program at UCLA, where he learned how to develop affordable housing. 

“Right now, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento get most of the housing dollars that the state of California provides,” Conour said. “I feel like we needed someone from here that cared about here to advocate for resources. Now I’m advocating for those resources.”

In south Merced, Anabasis is finishing construction on another modular compound. It is one of two affordable housing projects in the city that will be ready this summer. 

The collaboration between Anabasis and Custom Containers 915 (CC915), a Texas-based affordable housing developer, is a 22-unit container home project that will house homeless veterans. The project is located at 73 S. R St. and is expected to finalize construction in June, according to Conour. 

While Brown expressed excitement about the eight, ongoing affordable housing projects in Merced, she said she was especially enthusiastic about Mercy Village: a 65-unit, mixed-use housing development at 3015 Park Ave., currently in the predevelopment phase. 

“We get a lot of pressure to have affordable housing in various parts of town,” Brown said, explaining that Mercy Village, which will prioritize housing individuals with developmental and mental disabilities, will be built in north Merced. 

Residents in south Merced have vocalized their frustration about what they say is an inequity of resources available throughout Merced. In 2022, some residents opposed Bella Vista, a 108-unit affordable housing project in south Merced that is breaking ground this year. 

“As you can imagine, these are intersectional issues,” said Ashley Marie Suarez, a policy advocate at Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, an environmental justice organization that works alongside underserved communities.

Suarez works closely with south Merced residents and facilitates a monthly, Spanish-English bilingual south Merced advocacy meeting at Golden Valley Health Center. 

“If we’re going to talk about where [affordable] housing is being placed, and it’s being concentrated in south Merced, then increase the resources in south Merced,” Suarez said. “But that’s not likely to happen soon, or it’s not going to happen all at once.” 

“Folks have been saying, ‘Well, if your focus is on housing, then put the affordable housing in north Merced, where the resources already exist,’” Suarez said.

Other affordable housing projects throughout Merced County

Approximately 518 new affordable housing units in Merced are in different stages of development, from predevelopment to under construction. There are at least four new construction projects unfolding in south Merced and four in north Merced.

Another project finalizing construction this summer is the Devonwood Drive Apartments, a 156-unit project in north Merced by The Richman Group and Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing.

In Livingston, a city with under 15,000 residents, city planners are having success with two new low-income housing projects. 

Tierrasanta Villas Apartments at 915 B St. is expected to finish construction this summer. The 80-unit apartment complex features a child care center in one of its six buildings. Meanwhile, the River Glen Apartments, another 80-unit apartment complex, will break ground soon and prioritize senior citizens as well as families at risk of homelessness. 

McCammond said the One Tree project is the first housing project of its kind in Los Banos, but that it won’t be the last.

She, along with Loa, plan to pursue other affordable housing funds, including a state grant aimed to concurrently reduce greenhouse gas emissions while creating new affordable housing units in disadvantaged and low-income residential communities. 

“We’re not done,” McCammond said. “More affordable housing, more for the people.”