Southeast/Long Beach : HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Downey has laid a new foundation for affordable housing with a just-completed Habitat for Humanity home, the first in southeast Los Angeles County.

“We’ve never created new homes before,” said city housing manager Ed Velasco, whose office mostly offers low-cost loans to maintain existing structures.

“We wanted to see how the project worked and it seems to have worked well, so we’ll probably be doing more of them,” he said.

In January, the city used federal funds earmarked for affordable housing to pay $69,000 for a piece of foreclosed residential property owned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Downey gave the 5,000-square-foot lot to Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit group associated with former President Jimmy Carter that helps low-income families around the world build homes.

Habitat solicited contributions, construction materials and volunteer labor from the community and oversaw building of the house, begun in March. The organization also advertised for a family whose income is far below the median for the community.

John and Julie Gomez and their two small children are about to move from a one-bedroom apartment in Downey into their brand-new stucco home with three bedrooms and a two-car garage. They are paying $70,000 in a neighborhood where homes range from $140,000 to $200,000, Velasco said.

Downey and Habitat hope to start a second project within a few months.