Is Nehemiah the City’s Housing Answer?

Because of prices in the Los Angeles housing market, buying a home here is impossible for many people. But now there is hope. The Nehemiah West Housing Corp. is developing housing at a price that allows moderate-income families to become homeowners.

The first 126 townhouses and condominiums were dedicated last week in Bell Gardens. Seventy-two homes have been sold or are in escrow.

The highly touted Nehemiah concept was imported from Brooklyn by the Southern California Organizing Committee and the United Neighborhoods Organization. The perseverance of these church-based groups is paying off.

For $99,000--a bargain here--a couple can buy a new two-bedroom condo in Bell Gardens and for $143,000 a four-bedroom townhouse. The down payment is $3,000, and monthly payments run as low as $524, including taxes and insurance. About half of what is normally required, that puts ownership within reach of a household earning $6 an hour, about $21,000 annually.

The low prices are made possible through a combination of grants, public subsidies, loans and investments. For example, land costs were deferred for 30 years through the Century Freeway Housing Program, which helps replace the housing razed to make way for the freeway.

During the pre-development phase, the California Community Foundation provided $150,000; Wells Fargo Bank, $200,000; the Low Income Housing Fund, $25,000; the Century Freeway Housing Program, $3.55 million, and the Bell Gardens Redevelopment Agency, $1 million.

During construction, the L.A. Roman Catholic Archdiocese contributed nearly $3 million and the L.A. Episcopal Diocese $450,000 in no-interest loans. Bank of America provided a short-term construction loan of $5.42 million. Nehemiah West also received a $7.8-million first-trust loan at below market rates from Great Western Bank; a $4.8-million second-trust loan from the Century Freeway Housing Program and a $1-million third-trust loan from the Bell Gardens Redevelopment Agency. That opened the doors.

Nehemiah will build 1,000 similar homes in Los Angeles. That will make a lot of once impossible dreams come true.