NEWPORT BEACH : Sale of Lavish Playhouses Aids Homeless

Adults squealed with childlike delight Friday morning as they got their first glimpses of six miniature homes at Fashion Island installed to attract buyers for an auction to benefit HomeAid, a nonprofit group that builds transitional shelters for the homeless.

Starting prices on the Project Playhouse homes will be equal to a small down payment on the real thing. Last year, playhouses fetched between $2,500 and $18,000 each, HomeAid spokeswoman Yumi Sera said.

The program, Project Playhouse, is in its third year. HomeAid began the annual event to remind visitors that for an estimated 12,000 people in Orange County--half of them children--any home is just a fantasy.

The houses, built by some of the Southland’s best known home builders, are laden with clever details. Electrical fixtures, chandeliers, working plumbing and shingle roofs are standard equipment.

All of the work and materials, from design and construction to interior decoration, are donated.

Those who can’t afford to bid can buy $1 chances to win the Hard Rock Cafe jukebox house. It will be given away before the auction begins at 5 p.m. Nov. 12.

In all, nine playhouses will be on the block. Builders working on Mickey’s Toon Town House, a reverie-inspiring castle and a storybook gingerbread house were unable to deliver by Friday’s setup time, but the homes will be added within two weeks, co-organizer Lee Rogaliner said.

HomeAid builds and renovates shelters to house homeless families while they get off the street and regain self-sufficiency. HomeAid has raised $4.5 million in in-kind donations for 19 county shelters over five years.

For more information about the auction, call HomeAid at (714) 555-9510.