Home From Habitat a ‘Dream Come True’ : Housing: The group builds houses for low-income families. The first project in the San Gabriel Valley is under construction.
Almost 10 years after Jorge and Josefina Gonzalez left Mexico for California, they found themselves jobless and homeless.
They sent their three small children to live with relatives in Mexico for a time because they could not afford to keep them. In five years, they moved 13 times, renting small rooms until their savings ran out. They hit bottom in June, 1990, and found refuge in a homeless shelter in Pasadena.
Eventually, they found jobs, saved some money and, after five months at the shelter, moved into an apartment. Now, with the help of Habitat for Humanity, an international Christian organization that helps the working poor, the couple are buying a home in Pasadena.
In August, Habitat began building a duplex north of the Foothill (210) Freeway on Maple Street in Pasadena for the Gonzalezes and another low-income family. It is the group’s first project in the San Gabriel Valley since Habitat opened an affiliate here two years ago.
The nonprofit organization, which counts former President Jimmy Carter as a member, uses volunteer labor and free materials to build affordable houses.
“What they’re doing is wonderful for low-income families,” said Josefina Gonzalez, 35. “We are a family who probably never in our lives could purchase a home. This is like a dream come true.”
Gonzalez, a secretary at World Vision headquarters in Monrovia, said she found out about Habitat last year while living at Door of Hope, a homeless shelter for families in Pasadena.
Habitat for Humanity International, established in 1976 in Americus, Ga., has built more than 10,000 homes worldwide. This summer, the group sent 15 work groups, including carpenters, roofers and painters, to build 1,500 homes in 225 cities in the United States to commemorate Habitat’s 15th anniversary. These projects took 15 weeks to complete.
Habitat has built 53 homes in Orange County this year. Other projects are under way in South-Central Los Angeles and Long Beach. Monrovia’s housing officials are also working with the group to build houses there sometime next year.
In the San Gabriel Valley, Habitat can draw from a pool of 400 volunteers--including contractors, bankers, lawyers, social workers and churches, said Jack Conroy, president of the local affiliate.
Some volunteers go to churches and organizations to solicit needy families who can afford low monthly payments (about $400 a month) on 20-year loans at no interest. There is a catch: The homes can only be resold to Habitat. But this does not seem to bother applicants.
Patricia Myers, chairwoman of Habitat’s 12-member selection committee, said it took more than a year, and several interviews, to go through the list of 100 applicants for the new duplex. The committee was looking for families living in inadequate housing with salaries ranging from $13,600 to $23,500. In April, 1991, after a three-hour meeting, the committee chose the Gonzalezes and Phyllis Higgins, a single mother.
“I jumped,” recalled Jorge Gonzalez, 37, a truck driver for an El Monte firm. “We praised the Lord many times, as many times as we could. We were so loud, maybe our neighbors were wondering what was going on.”
“This is truly a blessing,” Higgins said. “I always wanted to buy my own home. But I would look at single-family homes and say I would never be able to purchase one. Housing is so expensive.”
The two three-bedroom, two-bath homes are expected to be completed early next year, said George Wartenberg, the 69-year-old project manager, who has 38 years of construction experience. He and a few volunteers work on the homes weekday mornings. On weekends, there are 20 to 30 volunteers.
Before the families move in, they must contribute at least 500 hours of “sweat equity” into the project or to Habitat. Each family has already put in more than 100 hours.
“There has to be a down payment, or involvement,” Conroy explained. “It gives them a feeling of being partners and a sense of pride and dignity. This is not a handout. It’s a hand up.”
Habitat used its own funds to buy the Pasadena property from a private party for $52,000. The organization also received donations from various businesses in the region.
World Vision issued a $45,000 grant; the Home Depot chain contributed $17,000 worth of lumber; Sketch, a Pasadena architectural firm, provided $48,600 in services; Pasadena city officials reimbursed Habitat for $12,000 in building fees, and various stores donated 9,000 gallons of paint.
On Sept. 21, Habitat held a fund-raiser at the site to solicit more money and building materials. Depending on donations, construction costs will range from $60,000 to $65,000, Conroy said.
The families’ monthly payments on the homes will be much less than they currently pay for rent.
Higgins, a divorcee with an 11-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, pays $685 for a small, two-bedroom apartment in northwest Pasadena. Higgins, who is a secretary at Johnson & Johnson Merck in Pasadena, said she had done “a lot of praying.”
The Gonzalezes pay $595 monthly for a cramped two-bedroom apartment on Mar Vista Avenue in Pasadena.
“I’m the happiest person in the world,” Josefina Gonzalez said. “I have my children. I have a job. I don’t have to depend on welfare. I can make payments on my own house, and no one can say get out.”
