Fontana city officials, housing developers and community partners turn the first shovels of dirt during the Oct. 27 groundbreaking ceremony for Cypress Grove, a 39-unit affordable housing development at 8425 Cypress Avenue. The project will provide housing opportunities for residents, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Fontana, CA — Fontana officials and housing partners broke ground on Oct. 27 on a 39-unit affordable apartment complex at 8425 Cypress Ave., a project Mayor Acquanetta Warren said was decades in the making.

Formerly known as Slovene Hall, Warren described this housing project as essential to families’ lives.

“A home is where people grow, memories are established, and security is needed for their lives to move forward,” she said.

Warren referred to the project as “Cypress Grove” in her remarks, saying it would provide “39 affordable units for the residents who will one day call this their home.”

The development is expected to serve people with disabilities and veterans, U.S. Rep. Norma Torres said.

Torres said she helped secure more than $2 million in federal funding for the project.

A representative for San Bernardino County Supervisor Jesse Armendarez also credited Torres with securing $2 million.

“These apartments are going to house people with disabilities and veterans,” Torres said. “I can’t imagine something more important and a bigger accomplishment for the city of Fontana than to do just that.”

The groundbreaking brought together Warren, Torres, city staff, project representatives and Angel Ramirez, who attended on behalf of Armendarez.

Through Ramirez, Armendarez stated that housing should be understood through the lives behind the unit counts and funding totals.

“Behind every one of those numbers is a person, and behind every one of those people is a family, and behind every one of those families is a story,” he said.

He said families can face housing insecurity after a missed paycheck, medical bill or layoff, and described housing stability as a way for parents to focus on their children’s future.

“I want you to imagine just for a moment a five-year-old and a single mother,” he stated. “Imagine that instead of that mother having to worry about where she and her child are going to sleep that night, she gets to sit down at the kitchen table and help them with their homework.”

Tim Johnson, a project representative from Slovene Partners, LLC, said the development reflected years of planning between Warren and development partners.

He said Warren and Slovene Partners began discussing housing for residents across income levels about 24 years ago and called this the partnership’s 25th project.

Johnson said the site had previously been a hall where members of the Slovene community gathered.

He compared that history of fellowship with the community the apartments are intended to create.

“It may not be a hall, but it will be homes,” Johnson said. “It will be homes where people create memories and find their next stage in their life as they bring stability to theirs.”

Torres said Fontana’s housing work required city leaders and staff to travel to Washington, D.C., to pursue funding and persuade lawmakers to support local projects.

She said the city’s representatives kept showing up despite canceled flights, weather and other obstacles.

“Projects like this don’t get built by themselves,” Torres said. “They get built because people work for it.”

She urged other communities in her congressional district to build housing, saying that broader participation could reduce pressure on Fontana and its leaders.

Warren recalled that when she joined the City Council about 24 years ago, Fontana had built senior housing but lacked housing for families.

“We were missing family housing,” she said. Warren said a developer approached her with a proposal that initially appeared financially unworkable, but she believed the city could make it happen.

Warren thanked the project partners and said the city would continue pursuing housing to meet local needs.

She said she hoped to return for a ribbon-cutting ceremony once construction is complete.

“He’s ready to go,” Warren said, referring to the contractor, before inviting attendees to take part in the ceremonial groundbreaking.