Low-income residents get help paying for new homes

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- As a single mother with three children, Alexandra

Patino couldn’t afford a home when she moved here in 1982.

She struggled to pay the $750 rent on her three-bedroom apartment,

often bargaining with the manager for a discount.

Striving to make ends meet, Patino cleaned the houses of the wealthy

in Huntington Harbour.

She envied their good fortune until a year ago. Last March, she moved

into her own castle with the help of a city program and the nonprofit

Habitat for Humanity.

“It’s a tiny little place, but it’s so beautiful and so well built,”

said the 52-year-old.

The city is working to help low income families, such as Patino’s,

find affordable housing at a time when a typical lease for an apartment

runs $1,000 per month and a typical home goes for $287,000, the city’s

economic development director David Biggs said.

The City Council this month approved a deal with Habitat to build two

homes in the 2400 blocks of Florida and England streets, with a third in

the 2500 block of England Street. It also agreed to loan money to another

nonprofit group, Shelter for the Homeless, for the purchase and

restoration of a four-unit apartment complex at the 7800 block of Barton

Drive.

But the city couldn’t swallow a recent proposal to build a much larger

project of 107-units, which was rejected by the Planning Commission as

being “too intense” for the surrounding neighborhood.

Only families that meet the federal criteria for making very-low

incomes can qualify for the new housing that is becoming available. For a

family of four, that’s an annual income of no more than $34,800.

Habitat could begin construction on the vacant city lots in late May,

Biggs said. The Habitat arrangement provides that the city turn over the

land, waive development fees and pay escrow costs for one two-bedroom and

two four-bedroom houses, he said.

Habitat builds the homes using volunteer labor and donated materials,

said Mark Korando, the organization’s director of site acquisition.

Families eligible for the homes usually pay between $500 and $900 per

month, which includes the cost of a small down payment, the mortgage,

insurance, taxes and utilities, he said. Patino pays $440 per month for

her two-bedroom home, but that’s $100 less than the other two in the

development because hers is the smallest, she said.

“Our philosophy is that this is not a hand out, it’s a hand up,”

Korando said.

As part of the price paid for living the American Dream, future

homeowners have to contribute 600 hours of sweat equity, which can

include pounding nails, pouring concrete or installing cabinetry for

future homes, he said. Participating in the construction instills pride

of ownership, which is why City Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff said she

favors this type of affordable housing above all others.

But at an average cost to the city of $95,000 a home, City Councilman

Dave Sullivan said there are better ways to meet the needs of the poor.

“This is a program where the special lucky few get a considerable gift

of public funds,” he said. “It does not make sense economically.”

The city will get a bigger bang for its buck by helping to provide

apartments where more low income families can live, he said.

Sullivan supported a special $350,000 loan to Shelter for the

Homeless, which will take over and fix up a four-unit apartment building.

The two-bedroom apartments will rent for $550 per month, Biggs said.

The Shelter loan will only have to be repaid if the apartments are run

at a profit, which Biggs admits will be difficult because the tenants are

charged so little.

“We will probably not get all of [the loan] back,” he said.

Those who would qualify for the apartments are not only poor but

at-risk of becoming homeless for a variety of reasons that could include

a divorce, a death in the family or simply living paycheck to paycheck in

a minimum wage job, Biggs said.

While the majority of affordable housing in the city comes in the form

of apartments, a well-balanced approach should include homes because they

are considered vital to the fabric of a community, he said.

Some worry that low-income housing jeopardizes surrounding property

values, but the two projects approved by the city target economically

depressed areas that can benefit from redevelopment, Biggs said.

Although she feels safe since moving in, Patino initially wasn’t

thrilled at the prospect of living on Ronald Road, which had a history of

crime.

“I went, ‘Oh my God no, I don’t want to go there’,” she said.

Dan Mahaffey owns property a few houses away from where Habitat plans

to build its new homes. Judging by the workmanship of the three homes

Habitat has already built in the city, Mahaffey said he expects the

neighborhood to improve.

But not all low-income housing is met with approval by the community.

Nearby residents complained that a three-story, 107-unit apartment

complex proposed for Ellis Avenue by Beach Boulevard would attract drug

addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes. The Planning Commission denied the

plan, but the developer has appealed to the City Council.

Biggs said that rather than taking such big strides, the city should

be satisfied with “important small steps,” the kind that have made Patino

so grateful.

“Somehow,” she said, “I’m blessed.”