Volunteers Start Work in Tijuana : Housing: Former President Carter is among the hundreds of Habitat for Humanity workers who will build 100 homes in one of Tijuana’s poorest neighborhoods.

Hundreds of volunteers from throughout North America and from as far away as Europe pitched their tents Sunday on a bare clearing on the edge of an impoverished but dynamic neighborhood here and prepared for an intensive week of building modern homes for needy area residents.

Among the multitudes arriving were former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, who unceremoniously set up their regulation, two-person domed tent on lot 10C, unpacked their luggage and rolled out their sleeping bags.

The tent city is an integral part of the massive Milagro en la Frontera-- “Miracle on the Border”--project being undertaken by Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based nonprofit group that has spearheaded low-income home-building efforts in more than two dozen nations.

The Carters are the organization’s best known boosters.

By Friday, the 1,000 volunteers who are expected to set up stakes here hope to have largely completed construction of 100 homes in the sprawling Tijuana community known as El Florido and seven more dwellings in the southeast San Diego community of Encanto.

Actual construction is slated to begin today, but, throughout the building site on Sunday, nails were being struck, cement was being poured and plaster was being applied by volunteers and future homeowners. In fact, work has been under way at the site since at least January, although the coming week will include the most intensive labor.

While Habitat has completed larger building projects elsewhere, officials say that the 14-year-old organization has never before attempted to construct so many houses quickly.

“This is the largest blitz-building project that Habitat has ever undertaken,” said Ken Sauder, who is executive director of the Tijuana-San Diego effort and previously headed the group’s entire Latin American building program.

The project, including the transportation and housing of the volunteers, is a vast logistical undertaking. Organizers are providing 850 tents, 100 portable bathrooms, dozens of shower stalls and a massive supply of food, water and other drinks, including 28,000 cans of soda. The total cost of the project is about $1.6 million, officials say. Donations and bulk buying helped defray expenses. Habitat receives no government money and exists solely on private donations, officials said.

Amplifying the project’s symbolic importance is the bridging of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is Habitat’s first border undertaking, and the setting was much in the minds of volunteers.

“It’s very important for us to work with the Mexican people, to help build bridges between both nations,” said former president Carter, who, like his wife, donned jeans and a cotton shirt. “So far, we’ve seen nothing but welcome and friendship.”

The tent city sprouted hundreds of domes, like giant anthills, aligned in orderly fashion along the barren clearing. The rows of tents sit at the foot of hillsides decked with ramshackle homes built of an eclectic mixture of wood, cement, cardboard and other materials.

The community of El Florido, about 10 miles east of downtown, is a neighborhood like hundreds of others on the peripheries of Latin American cities from Mexico to Chile, as fast-moving urbanization eclipses the entire region’s once-rural character.

Here, housing is on everyone’s mind. Settlers originally chose the area because land was available. Most came initially as squatters--a pattern that has been repeated throughout Latin America and elsewhere in the Third World. Many, including the 100 families to be housed in the Habitat dwellings, are in the process of receiving titles to their land. A boom-town atmosphere prevails throughout the neighborhood, despite its poverty. It is largely populated with migrants from the Mexican interior, who have seen worse times to the south.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” said Guadalupe Zatarain Torres, a 64-year-old grandmother who was among those working Sunday on her future Habitat home. “I couldn’t afford a home anywhere else,” she said as she stood on the concrete foundation, positioning wooden planks.

Future homeowners are selected based on a series of criteria, which include financial need, ability to meet minimal payments (about $45 a month for 10 years), and a desire to contribute “sweat equity,” which often strengthens a residents’ commitment to their homes. Community leaders worked with Habitat officials to select recipients.

Among the volunteers, there was an esprit de corps and sense of a community working together for the common good--themes that are stressed by Habitat organizers. As they set up tents and readied for the week ahead, many volunteers spoke of being part of a communal endeavor that provided a refreshing change of pace in a fast-paced society featuring few such opportunities.

“The spirit of the volunteers and interaction of people has been incredible,” said Steve Pascall, a La Jolla architect who is one of the volunteer crew leaders. “I feel more like I’m in the process of building relationships than building houses.”

Syd Grant, a 50-year-old physician from New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, saw a throwback to an earlier era, when helping others build homes was the norm.

“It’s like an old-fashioned barn-raising, but we don’t do that kind of thing anymore,” said Grant, referring to a rural custom in which neighbors helped build each others’ barns. “There is a great sense of Christian community that we feel here, but we don’t feel it a whole lot elsewhere anymore.”

Many of the volunteers were members of church groups. Habitat describes itself as an “ecumenical Christian housing organization,” and members of all religions and races are welcome, officials say. Neither race nor religion is a factor in choosing families to receive houses, organizers say. Each new resident is given a Bible, but group leaders said there is a strict avoidance of religious proselytizing.

Volunteers interviewed talked about the value of sharing.

“I made a lot of money in real estate, and I feel it’s important that I give something back,” said Ruth Pierce, a 70-year-old semi-retired real estate broker from Milwaukee.

A London-based charity, Drive for Youth, brought a contingent from England in an effort to also educate the group about the developing world. All seemed shocked by the conditions prevalent in Tijuana’s makeshift shantytown neighborhoods.

“Things are bad in Liverpool,” said Stephen Craven, 24, a native of that British port city, “but not this bad. Some of these houses around here are just cardboard boxes stuck together. No one should have to live like that.”