GARDEN GROVE : New Homes Rehabilitate Slum Area

Hermalinda Mendez walked through a new three-bedroom apartment similar to one her six-member family will soon occupy. Bright-eyed and smiling, she looked over kitchen cupboards and a patio then motioned to a walk-in closet.

“This looks like another bedroom,” she said. “When my husband and I get mad at each other, he can go in there.”

The apartment is one of eight new units called La Esperanza II. It was built in Buena Clinton, which was once considered the worst slum area in Orange County. The Orange County Community Housing Corp., a private, nonprofit group, built the units to house low-income families living in crowded conditions or substandard housing.

“The beauty of this program is it gives these families a chance at decent modern housing to stabilize their lives,” said Sam Romero of the housing corporation.

Romero interviews potential tenants about their income and needs. Every family must pay 30% of its income for rent.

The new tenants come from the Buena Clinton neighborhood, where several privately owned apartment buildings are undergoing renovation.

The housing corporation plans to build a 20-unit La Esperanza III across the street at Buena and 17th streets at a cost of $1.5 million.

In addition, the Garden Grove Shelter for the Homeless, an eight-unit apartment building at 12602 Keel Ave., and the Grove Park Housing Project, a $1.2-million rehabilitation program for 13 buildings with 104 apartments, were recently completed. An $11-million project to rehabilitate Tudor Grove’s 18 buildings, comprising 144 units, is also under way, and Jardin de los Ninos Park, across the street from the homeless shelter, is nearly completed.

The owners received low-interest loans of up to one-half the total cost of improvements to existing buildings under federal programs which enable them to then receive rents above the market rate. The rents, however, are subsidized by the federal government.

On average, the tenants will be paying $325 a month for a three-bedroom unit, Romero said. Mendez, who has four children ranging in age from 3 to 11, currently pays $600 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. When she moves into the three-bedroom unit, possibly next week, she and her husband will pay $373 for rent.

La Esperanza II stands in stark contrast to nearby apartment buildings. The spacious units each have two separate patios, one off the living room and the other off the master bedroom. To reduce noise between neighbors, two walls with a space between them separate each unit. The units have central heating and air conditioning and ceiling sprinklers--the first apartments required to have sprinklers under a new city code.

Just off the sand-filled play area is a laundry room and parking lot. The entire building is landscaped with grass, trees and shrubs and is closed off with a white iron fence.

“It’s just an outstanding development,” said David Edgar, neighborhood improvement manager for the Garden Grove Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. “The emphasis is on large units that can house large families with the concept of open space.”

The Community Housing Corp. built the units to last, Romero said.

“Most buildings in the last 10 or 15 years are built with the idea of speculation, in other words, they look good for five years. As we go, we’re trying to get that quality that will last, so we don’t have to go back and do the repairs. Like the commercial says, ‘You can pay me now or pay me later,’ ” he said.

It has been five years since the housing corporation first decided to buy an apartment building in the area and refurbish it. And the idea has caught on.