A lot that’s been empty for many years in south Fresno is getting a $40 million makeover with 54 affordable apartments and a community center.
Construction began Friday on the Ventura Family Apartments, which will go up on the south side of Ventura Avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets. The future housing is primarily intended to serve the families of farmworkers, but city officials say it is also another step toward making the recently repaved corridor more welcoming to businesses.
“This project will not only bring affordable housing to families, but also help continue our work to bring new life and investment here in southeast Fresno,” said District 5 City Councilmember Brandon Vang.
The Ventura apartment project represents the first time the city government, which is providing the land and $5 million from the Local Housing Trust Fund, has been involved in providing farmworker housing.
It is also one of seven new apartment communities totaling 560 units that Mayor Jerry Dyer says are expected to break ground between now and the end of the year.
Dyer touted the project as an example of how the city is responding to Fresno’s shortage of affordable housing.
“We have challenges with people being faced with homelessness, and we have a lot of challenges with people not being able to provide for their families,” he said. “Today … we are meeting that housing crisis head on.”
A rendering depicts what Fresno’s future Ventura Family Apartments will look like. CITY OF FRESNO Fresno mayor says opportunity for immigrants is ‘what America is about’
During Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Vang and Dyer both recounted picking crops in the local fields during their youths as they discussed the need to help farmworker families, many of whom already live in southeast Fresno.
“These are families whose work is essential to our city and our region,” Vang said. “They deserve quality, affordable house right here in this community.”
Dyer described the project as a “transformation” for families and children that don’t always have stable housing. He said he reflected on the project as he drove Ventura Avenue and saw the United States flags hanging from poles.
Said the mayor: “This is what America is about: providing opportunity for immigrants, providing opportunities for people to bring their families here, to be able to raise their families, to get them educated so that they too can go on and become prosperous.”
A decades-long empty lot stands on Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno where city officials held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction on an affordable housing apartment complex, on Friday, July 24, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Timeline, details of Fresno’s Ventura Family Apartments
The city is leasing the land to development firm Integrated Community Development for $1 annually for 55 years — with the option to extend the agreement to 75 years. The firm has built multiple affordable apartment communities in Fresno and is working on the senior center going up at Blackstone and Ashlan avenues.
“Providing that land at $1 a year,” Dyer said, “is what allows us to be able to preserve the affordability for all of those years for working families.”
He added that the apartments will serve families that earn between 30%-60% of the area median income, which is up to $97,100 in Fresno County, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
The project will include a community center that Dyer says will also be accessible to community members who don’t live in the apartments.
Jake Lingo, vice president at Integrated Community Development, said the firm expects the community to open by the end of 2027.
The apartments are being built on about half of the lot. Dyer said there will be a “phase II” of the project on the other half, which “more than likely” will also be used for housing.
“We’re not going to leave it vacant,” he said.
A tent stands where city officials held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction on an affordable apartment complex on a decades-long empty lot on Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno on Friday, July 24, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com 
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, Councilmember Brandon Vang and other dignitaries and interested parties pose with shovels of dirt during a groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction on an affordable apartment complex on a decades-long empty lot on Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno on Friday, July 24, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com
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Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert.