Framework of Hope : Home builders join Habitat for Humanity in building 21 homes this week for low-income L.A. families.

When Bruce Karatz, chairman of Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., was asked to be on the advisory board of Habitat for Humanity Los Angeles more than a year ago, his involvement seemed natural.

As a longtime philanthropist and the head of California’s largest home-building company, Karatz could not resist Habitat’s unique mission of helping the poor by building quality homes for low-income families.

“When they decided to come to Los Angeles, we felt like we ought to help assure that their efforts here were successful,” Karatz said. “Habitat fulfills a tremendous housing need and it is organized privately, not government-driven. That’s part of the spirit we’d like more people to take on.”

Over the past 18 months, K&B;’s involvement with Habitat for Humanity--a nonprofit ecumenical Christian housing ministry founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller--has snowballed. The company recently secured more than $250,000 worth of goods and services for Habitat’s current project--a plan to “blitz-build” 21 houses in South-Central Los Angeles by next Saturday.

Work begins Monday on 20 homes in Willowbrook, on land formerly owned by Los Angeles County, and one home in Watts, on land formerly owned by the city of Los Angeles. Habitat hopes that its low-income families--who put 500 hours of “sweat equity” into the homes--will be virtually able to move in by next week.

Kaufman & Broad assigned its architectural and engineering divisions to help out with advice during the project’s design phase and then brought its national network of suppliers on board by asking them to donate supplies or sell materials to Habitat at special, below-market prices.

“Kaufman & Broad was brave in stepping out of the usual developer mode and into an opportunity to show a real commitment to this project,” said Steve Wright, Habitat’s construction manager and the executive director of this week’s project. “They have been absolute miracle workers.”

Another local builder, Culver City-based Goldrich & Kest, is helping out this week by providing a project manager, Tim Carey, for the house being built in Watts. The house is specially designed to provide handicapped access for its intended owner, Gregory Loveless, who is disabled by severe scoliosis of the back.

Carey, 34, a project superintendent for Prestige Homes, a Goldrich & Kest subsidiary, is glad to have the opportunity to be involved.

“I’ve done the preliminary work, supervised the pouring of the slab, asked some of our subcontractors to volunteer their labor or donate some supplies and lined up volunteers,” Carey said, adding that he is being paid for the 9-to-5 time he puts in on the job but will volunteer his time on the weekend and during what he suspects will be 16-hour days supervising both day and night volunteer crews.

“I’ve heard about Habitat at my church and I’ve always wanted to help them, but it’s pretty hard because I put in long hours and work six days a week,” Carey said. “I’m really glad I’ll be able to work with them in this way.”

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Roslyn, will be in Los Angeles to help starting Monday in keeping with their 12-year-old policy of setting aside one week each year to participate in a Habitat building project. This marks the first time the Carters have been involved in a Habitat for Humanity project in Los Angeles.

Karatz, Kaufman’s CEO, has long involved his firm in charitable causes, including rebuilding a men’s center damaged by the Northridge earthquake, rebuilding a home for abused women in Las Vegas, rebuilding a wing of the Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange County and designing and rebuilding the $1.5 million Camp Hollywoodland after it was burned down in the Los Angeles riots.

“I’m very much in love with our community,” Karatz said. “I’m a native of Minneapolis, a city that is very well-known for civic involvement, but I have definitely adopted Los Angeles emotionally and I feel that I want to do everything I can to bring L.A. the kind of recognition and admiration that it deserves.”

“Each time you work on these kinds of projects, you always get more out of it than what you put into it. We never can spend enough time thinking about or working for people who are less fortunate than we are.”

Employees of both Goldrich & Kest and Kaufman & Broad--most of them office workers--will be involved directly in the construction this week. Ten volunteers per house each day will be swinging hammers, painting, installing flooring and laying sod, all under the supervision of professionals.

One of those unskilled workers will be Karatz, who admitted that although he is the head of a construction company with annual revenues of $1.3 billion, he does not have much experience in the physical job of building a house.

“I may have to apologize to the family that’s going to live in this house, but I’ll be out there working on it,” he said.