Housing That Profits All the City : Nonprofits build housing for people in need, with a lot of help from friends

They are housing developers with a small d . They aren’t big builders. They aren’t in it for the money. They--Los Angeles’ growing cadre of nonprofit developers--are building affordable housing, and helping to revitalize poor and working-class neighborhoods.

The Times Real Estate section, in a five-part series that began Sunday, is profiling builders who have responded to the desperate need for decent and low-rent housing.

Necessity forces these activist-developers to fill a void left by the federal government. Armed with only a dream, community organizations persevere with help from more experienced nonprofit builders and groups such as the Local Initiative Support Corp. (LISC).

Finding the money is the major hurdle. Corporate investment--lured with federal low-income housing tax credits--is an increasingly popular source. The California Equity Fund, an affiliate of LISC, raises millions of private dollars and funnels those dollars to nonprofit developers. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency also provides money. In most projects, the funding is cobbled together from many different sources.

In West Hollywood, Paul Zimmerman is building the first apartment complex designed specifically for people with AIDS.

In the Temple/Beaudry district, New Economics for Women is constructing housing with day-care facilities for families, including the growing number of single-parent households.

The Little Tokyo Service Center, in partnership with the nonprofit Los Angeles Community Design Center, saved from the wrecking ball an old building that had been home for elderly men and women. The building, after being renovated, houses low-income as well as elderly tenants.

In Watts, the Westminster Neighborhood Assn. has put up sleek townhouses for poor families. In South-Central Los Angeles, Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church has built new senior citizen housing. In the nearby Mid-City district, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Good Shepherd Center for Independent Living have erected new housing for disabled men and women.

The successes are noteworthy and the community developers deserve kudos. Now ways must be found to launch the many new projects that such developers want to tackle next.