Nehemiah West Housing Corp

Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday approved a plan to sell the city's abandoned LANCER trash incinerator site in South-Central Los Angeles to a nonprofit group that plans to build 316 townhouses for low-income buyers. Standing at the industrial site where the housing project is planned, Bradley signed documents authorizing the city attorney's office to draw up a contract for the sale.

The search is on in Compton for 37 families with low to moderate incomes who qualify for special financing on new townhomes. Since Saturday's opening of the Givens Way housing development, nearly 400 families have applied for housing packages being offered by Nehemiah West Housing Corp., a nonprofit coalition of more than 300 Southern California church and community groups. Located at 820 W. Compton Blvd., the development consists of 37 three- and four-bedroom townhomes in a gated community.

The search is on in Compton for 37 families with low to moderate incomes who qualify for special financing on new townhomes. Since Saturday's opening of the Givens Way housing development, nearly 400 families have applied for housing packages being offered by Nehemiah West Housing Corp., a nonprofit coalition of more than 300 Southern California church and community groups. Located at 820 W. Compton Blvd., the development consists of 37 three- and four-bedroom townhomes in a gated community.

From the street, there is little to distinguish the upscale Vinas La Campana townhouses from the ubiquitous beige stucco complexes that dot the Southern California landscape. Unless, like Diana Santana, you remember life in a one-room converted garage. Or fighting with your sisters in a single cramped bedroom, like Rosa, Christina and Claudia Flores. To the keepers of those memories, the 104-unit complex next to the high-voltage wires on Gage Avenue in Bell Gardens shines like the Emerald City.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved in concept the sale of the city's abandoned LANCER trash incinerator site in South-Central Los Angeles to a nonprofit group that plans to build 316 townhouses for low-income buyers. Under the plan, the Nehemiah West Housing Corp. would buy the 12-acre industrial site for $6.6 million, below the city's investment of $8 million. The project would mark the first major homeownership development in the South-Central area in a generation.

From the street, there is little to distinguish the upscale Vinas La Campana townhouses from the ubiquitous beige stucco complexes that dot the Southern California landscape. Unless, like Diana Santana, you remember life in a one-room converted garage. Or fighting with your sisters in a single cramped bedroom, like Rosa, Christina and Claudia Flores. To the keepers of those memories, the 104-unit complex next to the high-voltage wires on Gage Avenue in Bell Gardens shines like the Emerald City.

From the street, there is little to distinguish the upscale Vinas La Campana townhouses from the ubiquitous beige stucco complexes that dot the Southern California landscape. Unless, like Diana Santana, you remember life in a one-room converted garage. Or fighting with your sisters in a single cramped bedroom, like Rosa, Christina and Claudia Flores. To the keepers of those memories, the 104-unit complex next to the high-voltage wires on Gage Avenue in Bell Gardens shines like the Emerald City.

Which idiots at City Hall are responsible for giving my tax dollars to a church spouting a theology I do not support, led by a man who calls whites "the enemy" and says that "if (the door) doesn't open, I want the right to kick it in"? The most effective anti-poverty program would be a five-year moratorium on money collections by the churches, but that would put their real estate and comfy lifestyles at risk, wouldn't it? STEVEN MORRIS Torrance

City Councilwoman Gloria Molina on Monday supported and forwarded to the City Council a nonprofit developer's plan to buy the city's abandoned LANCER trash incinerator site in South Los Angeles to build Nehemiah West, a development of 316 townhouse-style homes selling for just $62,000. Molina, chairwoman of the Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee, said the project, which relies on the purchase of city-owned land at a below-market price, "is a great idea . . .

About 900 prospective homeowners have expressed interest in a 126-unit housing complex of townhomes and condominiums that will sell for as little as $44,000 each. Thirty-one of the two-, three- and four-bedroom units will be reserved exclusively for Bell Gardens residents, with the remainder open to all qualified applicants, said John Carmona, director of the city's Community Development Department. The nonprofit Nehemiah West Housing Corp.

From the street, there is little to distinguish the upscale Vinas La Campana townhouses from the ubiquitous beige stucco complexes that dot the Southern California landscape. Unless, like Diana Santana, you remember life in a one-room converted garage. Or fighting with your sisters in a single cramped bedroom, like Rosa, Christina and Claudia Flores. To the keepers of those memories, the 104-unit complex next to the high-voltage wires on Gage Avenue in Bell Gardens shines like the Emerald City.

Which idiots at City Hall are responsible for giving my tax dollars to a church spouting a theology I do not support, led by a man who calls whites "the enemy" and says that "if (the door) doesn't open, I want the right to kick it in"? The most effective anti-poverty program would be a five-year moratorium on money collections by the churches, but that would put their real estate and comfy lifestyles at risk, wouldn't it? STEVEN MORRIS Torrance

Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday approved a plan to sell the city's abandoned LANCER trash incinerator site in South-Central Los Angeles to a nonprofit group that plans to build 316 townhouses for low-income buyers. Standing at the industrial site where the housing project is planned, Bradley signed documents authorizing the city attorney's office to draw up a contract for the sale.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved in concept the sale of the city's abandoned LANCER trash incinerator site in South-Central Los Angeles to a nonprofit group that plans to build 316 townhouses for low-income buyers. Under the plan, the Nehemiah West Housing Corp. would buy the 12-acre industrial site for $6.6 million, below the city's investment of $8 million. The project would mark the first major homeownership development in the South-Central area in a generation.

Thank you for your hopeful editorial on Nehemiah West Housing Corp. (April 10). It would be wonderful if HUD could be replaced by similar ventures all over this land. That, however, is probably the stuff of dreams. How many times in how many places could or would churches and banks come up with so much money for 1,100 houses? How far do 1,100 houses go toward relieving the scandal of substandard housing and homelessness? Your arithmetic suggests that a household earning $6 an hour would earn about $21,000 a year.

Construction has started on 126 townhomes that will be owned by low- and moderate-income residents. The $12.5-million complex is partially financed by the Century Freeway Housing Program, which will lend $4.8 million to the developer, Nehemiah West Housing Corp. of Los Angeles. "What we really like about this project is the home ownership aspect," said G. Allan Kingston, executive director of the Century Freeway Housing Program.