Affordable Housing Orange County

St. Joseph Health Systems and Catholic Healthcare West said Wednesday they have established a charity devoted to creating more affordable housing throughout Orange County. Mercy Charities Housing California, which has developed more than 2,500 rental units statewide for poor families, senior citizens, the homeless or disabled, opened its first office Wednesday in Orange County.

It means "plaza of gold." Yet the Plaza de Oro strip mall near Anaheim hardly glitters. There is no plaza, just a massage parlor, pawnshops and other run-down storefronts, all surrounded by a sea of cracked blacktop. But Esther Wallace thinks this relic can shine anew--by replacing it with homes. "This place could be retrofitted with nice houses," said Wallace, chairwoman of the West Anaheim Neighborhood Development Council. "There is no place around here for young families to buy a home.

For a homeless man sitting at a picnic table in Garden Grove Park on Saturday, the phrase "affordable housing in Orange County" seemed like a contradiction in terms. "I don't think I could do it (own a home) in Orange County. The average cost of a house is $275,000," he said. Until six months ago, the middle-aged plasterer, who asked not to be named, was renting a house in Huntington Beach.

Orange County is woefully behind on construction of low-income housing, say critics who charge that the county's new state-mandated plan does not require construction of any affordable units and will do little to ease a growing shortage. The plan--to be considered by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday--affects more than 200,000 acres of unincorporated land over which the county still has jurisdiction. Fourteen cities in the county also have not completed their state-required plans.

Downey Savings & Loan Assn. said Monday that it has received three grants totaling about $100,000 to finance construction of affordable housing in Orange County. The thrift, which is based in Newport Beach, said it received the affordable housing grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. The money will be used to help low-income families in Brea and Huntington Beach. "It's a great program and we're very glad to be involved," Downey Savings President Stephen W. Prough said.

A nonprofit developer has come up with one way to provide affordable housing for some of Orange County's service workers. Think small, really small. Aragon Affordable Housing Inc. of Irvine and St. Louis-based builder McCormack Baron and Associates recently completed construction of the Irvine Inn, a 192-unit single-room-occupancy apartment building at Jamboree Road and Warner Avenue in Irvine.

In a controversial vote before a packed audience, the Anaheim City Council authorized housing officials Tuesday night to seek public funds to help buy out landlords and rebuild the blighted Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood. Housing authorities praised the council's 3-2 vote for what is expected to be a $55-million project as one the city's biggest commitments yet to provide quality, affordable apartments to area residents.

Because of an acute shortage of low-cost housing, more than eight out of every 10 poor families in Orange County rental units devote at least half of their income to rent--the second worst record in the country, according to a study released Tuesday by a national research group.

The nation's largest provider of mortgage money is expected today to announce a $6-billion, five-year plan to help up to 60,000 low- and moderate-income families buy homes in Orange County, the most expensive housing market in the Southland. The House Orange County program is backed by the Federal National Mortgage Assn., or Fannie Mae, and is the largest-ever effort to address the county's growing housing-affordability problem.

Orange County and affordable housing seem to be contradictory terms. After all, the median home price here is more than $250,000--far above the national figure. So why would the president of the Government National Mortgage Assn.--better known as Ginnie Mae--come to the Irvine Marriott hotel on Thursday to talk about Federal Housing Administration loans for low-cost homes? To encourage builders and county governments to join hands in creating an affordable-housing market, said Raoul L.

Armed with a $76,000 grant, a Costa Mesa-based nonprofit organization hopes to help the developmentally disabled find affordable housing. The plan by Project Independence calls for starting a member-run cooperative housing facility for senior citizens with developmental disabilities, said Andrea Erickson, the group's executive director. It would also accommodate developmentally disabled people with parents who are seniors, she said.

After months of delaying, Orange County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to consider converting parts of the former El Toro Marine base into affordable housing and housing for the homeless. The idea, which is politically sensitive because of the ongoing debate over making El Toro an airport, was added to the board's agenda by Supervisor Tom Wilson, the board's strongest advocate for converting base housing.

Two vacant lots in Orange and Stanton are closer to becoming apartment complexes meant for low-income and disabled residents, thanks to loans from the county and from one of the cities. The Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed last week to lend $293,092 to a nonprofit developer to help build a small apartment complex in Orange that will offer low rents to working families who generally can't afford to live in the city.

A zoning restriction has stalled plans to build a 46-unit affordable housing development in west Anaheim, but developers say they've far from given up on the project. Nonprofit developer Mercy Charities Housing California says it won't turn away from trying to alleviate a shortage of affordable housing in Anaheim. The restriction may prevent the planned construction of 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom townhomes on a 1.9-acre Lincoln Avenue empty lot because it prohibits building more than 13 units per acre.

The City Council will consider plans tonight for a low-income residential project on Ellis Avenue by Beach Boulevard. Amwest Environmental Group Inc. has proposed building a three-story, 107-unit studio apartment complex for individuals who meet the federal criteria for making low- and very-low incomes. The council meets at 7 p.m. in chambers, 2000 Main St.

A year ago the Southern California Assn. of Governments estimated the county's population would increase so much that 75,000 new housing units would be needed by 2005. The association said more than one-third of those units would have to be affordable to households with incomes of $47,800 or less. The cities are replying, with most claiming an inability to provide anywhere near the apartments needed. They argue the goal should be lowered.

There are two truisms when it comes to building affordable housing in Orange County: The first is that community opposition is likely to be intense; the second is that behind every unit of affordable housing--a room in a residential hotel, an apartment in a duplex or a house hammered together by Habitat for Humanity--is the effort of tightly knit advocates determined to see that all county residents have an affordable place to live. Friday morning, the Orange County Community Housing Corp.

When Phyllis Fleming's marriage ended, she discovered she needed a roommate to help pay the mortgage and keep up her four-bedroom home in Westminster. "I was alone in the house and I didn't have a lot of money," said Fleming, 56. "And I was lonely, so I wanted a roommate." After the first boarder moved on, Fleming had trouble finding another compatible roommate--until a friend told her about "senior shared housing."

Rising home prices and interest rates left a growing number of Californians unable to afford homes in February and turned Orange County into one of the least affordable areas in Southern California, according to an industry survey released Thursday. Only 28% of the county's households could afford to buy the typical home, down from 31% in January and 36% a year earlier, according to the survey by the California Assn. of Realtors.