Clean, Safe and Affordable : Successful Costa Mesa Project Offers Housing That Works for the Working Poor

Sharon Thadeus was in a bind that many low-paid workers face.

Forced to leave her Garden Grove apartment when her rent doubled, the part-time telemarketer couldn’t find affordable housing in a safe neighborhood--until she came across Costa Mesa Village, Orange County’s first single-room-occupancy hotel.

“This place is just great,” Thadeus said. “It’s clean and really, really safe.”

She was one of the first tenants to move into the renovated motel when it opened two years ago for single wage earners making less than $20,000 a year--the so-called working poor.

It has proved so successful that Costa Mesa officials gave their blessing to a second single-room-occupancy (SRO) building, called Park Place Village, which will open later this month a few miles down from the first Village on Newport Boulevard.

With 96 studio apartments, Costa Mesa Village has been fully occupied since its opening, with a long waiting list for those who want to move in, said Merrill Butler, the developer of both projects.

“I think everyone recognizes there is a shortage of affordable housing in Orange County, and this supports that fact,” said Butler, a friend and onetime business partner of former county chief executive William J. Popejoy.

Costa Mesa Village opened over the objections of some residents who feared that it would draw an undesirable clientele, Costa Mesa Mayor Joe Erickson recalled.

Heather Somers, president of Costa Mesa’s Eastside Homeowners Assn., said she and other residents are still likely to oppose the construction of low-cost housing in Costa Mesa.

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“The problem is that Costa Mesa always has it dumped on them,” Somers said, noting that many residents would like to see other cities establish similar projects for low-income workers.

Long part of the urban landscapes of New York and Los Angeles, SROs have had a cool reception in Orange County.

In Fullerton and Irvine, SRO projects have stalled because developers have fallen short of funds. But the voices of homeowners in other cities are strongly stating: Not in my back yard.

“We still have a big problem with NIMBY-ism,” said Greg Brown, housing analyst for the City of Huntington Beach.

Huntington Beach was the first city in the county to adopt an SRO ordinance, but homeowners have blocked all projects so far. SROs “are targeted for low-income people, and a lot of residents still have the perception that we should not be catering to those people,” Brown said.

“Cities want things like huge resorts that need maids and janitors to work in them, but they don’t want to put anything toward building homes [the workers] can afford,” said Tim Shaw, executive director of the Orange County Housing Authority.

Affordable housing advocates contend that more problems are created by denying the poor affordable housing units than by building it for them.

“This is why you have people doubling up in apartments, or driving in from other counties to work here,” said Shaw. “They can’t afford to live here.”

Costa Mesa Village was designed as a safe haven for whomever lives there.

Security gates, under 24-hour camera surveillance, admit only residents. Only one violent act--a stabbing--has occurred, and both owner Butler and city officials said it was an isolated incident.

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Since the spotlight on the project has faded, Erickson said he has received only a few calls from other residents complaining about the city’s stand on affordable housing projects.

Census data shows that the high cost of housing puts a strain on Orange County residents. Orange County’s median rent, $790 a month, is higher than the rent in any other major metropolitan area in the nation, according to a census study released last year.

Residents at Costa Mesa Village pay between $476 and $496, including utilities and phone, for a furnished room with a kitchenette and bathroom.

“I really think we are on to something,” said Butler, president of the Butler-Ogden Group. He said that it has been simple to fill Costa Mesa Village with students, senior citizens and minimum-wage earners because so few options exist for them.

“This is a good business,” he said, referring to his development of SRO projects, “and it is good for the working-class people who need homes.”