LAGUNA BEACH : City May Spend $555,000 for Housing

The City Council today will consider spending $555,000 on a project to provide housing for people with AIDS and other disabilities.

The low-income housing plan has had strong support here since the council allocated $50,000 to launch the project in 1991.

Now the city staff is recommending that an additional $325,000 be appropriated toward the effort and that $230,000 be spent to buy parking spaces at the housing site to help generate money for the project.

The major funding will come from a $1.8-million Department of Housing and Urban Development grant. Backers say it is one of only a handful of such projects being financed under a relatively new federal funding program that recognizes that being HIV-positive is a disability.

Affordable Housing Project of Orange County Inc., which is directing the effort, announced recently that it had struck an agreement to buy a two-story building at Mermaid and 3rd streets to convert into a 25-unit apartment complex where one-bedroom apartments will rent for between $150 and $250 per month.

The second floor of the building has 23 parking spaces that exit onto Mermaid Street. According to a memo to the council from City Manager Kenneth C. Frank, that area could provide parking for workers in the downtown area.

Frank is recommending that the city buy the spaces for $10,000 each, an amount less than the city has paid for parking spaces elsewhere in town, the memo says. The city could make money off the spaces by charging monthly parking fees of $75 per space, the memo says.

The $325,000 contribution would come from the city’s housing fund, which has a balance of more than $500,000, the memo says. The city’s Housing Committee has recommended the city contribute $375,000 for the project, more than the amount being suggested by Frank.

The money to buy the parking spaces would be drawn from the city’s parking fund.