Countywide : $100,000 Granted for Low-Income Homes

Habitat for Humanity in Orange County was awarded $100,000 from the James Irvine Foundation this week to build homes for low-income residents in Anaheim and Santa Ana.

The grant is by far the largest ever received by the county affiliate of the international Christian housing ministry whose most famous advocate is former President Jimmy Carter.

“Once a group like the Irvine Foundation decides to back us, it really helps our credibility,” said Ken Karlstad, chairman of the county chapter based in Orange. “It gives us quite a leg up on the fund raising.”

The largest previous donation the Orange County affiliate had received was about $3,000 from an area church, Karlstad said.

The Irvine Foundation grant will be used to help pay for a four-unit condominium project at 2nd and Shelton streets in Santa Ana, where ground-breaking is scheduled Dec. 10. It also will go toward a two-unit condominium project on Patt Street south of Julianna Park in Anaheim, where construction will begin early next year.

The future owners of the condominiums will be first-time buyers who will help build the homes, agreeing to contribute 1,000 hours of labor and a $500 down payment. Monthly payments will be in $300 to $400.

“We feel it is a successful model for home ownership for low-income families,” said Constance Walker, program officer for the Irvine Foundation, a 52-year-old private foundation with offices in Newport Beach and San Francisco.

“It’s really our hope that this grant encourages the replication of these projects in Orange County.”

Habitat for Humanity is also working with the Fieldstone Co. and Santa Margarita Co. to build 48 condominiums for low-income families in the planned community of Rancho Santa Margarita. That project is scheduled for completion in 1991.

The county grant was announced along with another $100,000 award to the San Diego County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity during a reception attended by Carter Tuesday in San Diego.