COSTA MESA : Low-Income Housing Project Gets City OK

The City Council has unanimously approved a $1.2-million renovation project to create low-income housing in west Costa Mesa.

The council agreed Monday to loan $675,000 to buy 11 units in the 700 block of James Street. The Santa Ana-based Civic Center Barrio Housing Corporation will develop the project.

Muriel Berman, redevelopment and housing manager for the city, said the project is a good one. “It’s a way to help get people on their feet and become self-sufficient,” she said.

The Santa Ana developer, a nonprofit organization, will require new residents to join a tenants’ organization and maintain the apartments, she said.

“They’re making them quality places to live,” Berman said. All of the units will be filled by low-income residents. The apartments should be ready in the spring of 1994, Berman said.

Rent for the two-bedroom units will be $583 or $752 a month, depending on the tenant’s income. Berman said comparable two-bedroom apartments in the city rent from $800 to $1,000.

The city will have to spend up to $25,000 to relocate at least one family of seven that now lives in one of the apartments, Berman said.

The city recently spent $58,000 to move people out of a Travelodge motel on Newport Boulevard to create another affordable-housing project, she said. The developer of the project, called Costa Mesa Village, had to spend another $35,000 to move people out, she said.