Experts Forsee a Model Program in City’s SRO : Costa Mesa Village, the County’s 1st Such Project, Is Already Home to 15 Low-Income Tenants

When a former 96-room motel finishes its transformation into the $4.2-million Costa Mesa Village next week, officials and housing experts believe, the county’s first single-room-occupancy project will set an example for housing low-income people.

Already 15 people have moved into the much-touted village on Newport Boulevard, among them a Costa Mesa nurse, a Newport Beach nurse, an Irvine secretary and two night watchmen.

These are the working-class people developer Merrill Butler has been seeking, the ones he has wanted to provide with affordable shelter so they would not have to live far away from their jobs.

“We believe this is an area of the housing market that has been missed,” said Butler, who with partner Brent Odgen Jr. built the project with private and public loans.

One of the first tenants in the county’s experiment with so-called SROs is Bryan Podgorski, 20, who attends Orange Coast College and wants to become a firefighter. He moved into one of the 380-square-foot units Dec. 1.

“It’s perfect for me,” Podgorski said, explaining that the new SRO is close to both his school and his job at a Lucky Food Center. He was not aware that his new home has been trumpeted as a model project by the county Board of Supervisors.

People who make less than $19,500 annually can apply to rent one of the small studio units for $456 a month. Residents get a microwave oven, color television, stove, bed and other furnishings. Utilities, except for long-distance telephone calls, are included in the rent.

Private developers Butler and Odgen bought the property, at one time a Travelodge motel, in August after two years of negotiations, Butler said. A $500,000 city loan, a $1.2-million county loan and private loans helped the partners buy and renovate the building at 2450 Newport Blvd.

The partners are also developing a 66-unit affordable housing project for seniors in Garden Grove and low-rent projects in Monrovia and El Monte in Los Angeles County.

Muriel Berman, the city’s redevelopment project manager, said she is pleased that the SRO is open and accepting tenants.

“It seems to be reaching the population that we wanted it to serve,” Berman said. The city is considering helping to develop an 11-unit, low-income-family housing project in west Costa Mesa, she said.

According to a recent city housing study, almost one-third of city households are low-income, and there are about 400 homeless people.

Berman said the city wants to continue its policy of converting existing buildings for use by low-income people rather than spend more to build new structures.

Rents at the Costa Mesa Village will remain low, set on a formula tied to the cost of living, Butler said.

With a pool and hot tub that were left over from the old motel and plans for new recreation and meeting areas, the SRO offers more than just cheap rooms, Butler said.

“We’re starting to create a real community feeling,” he said.

Veronica Garbella, 36, who became homeless after losing her warehouse job, is applying to live in one of three wheelchair-accessible rooms. She is in a wheelchair and must inhale oxygen from a portable tank.

She said she was poisoned by toxic chemicals while working in 1988 but was unable to get compensation for the injury because the company went bankrupt.

After she spent some time living on the streets, Garbella obtained Supplemental Security Income, a form of government assistance for elderly or disabled people, which pays her $603 per month. She is waiting for one of the wheelchair-accessible rooms to be completed and plans to move into the complex in about a week.

“This is really the only place I can afford,” Garbella said, noting that many of the apartments she has looked at would cost more than $2,000 to move into because of security-deposit requirements.

Here, residents need only pay a $228 deposit and their first month’s rent to move in.

“I have no doubt this will work,” Garbella said.

Butler said all rooms at the SRO are expected to be ready for occupancy next week, but that people began moving into completed rooms last month. So far, more than 60 people have applied to live in the SRO, he said.