More Funds OKd for AIDS Housing Project

Showing continued support for a project to provide housing for low-income residents with the AIDS virus, the Laguna Beach City Council agreed this week to spend another $30,000 to complete the conversion of the former GTE building into a 25-unit apartment complex.

The city, which has the highest incidence of AIDS per capita in Orange County, has already appropriated $375,000 for the project in the last three years, mostly from a special housing fund. The apartment building is set to open in August.

Project managers have discovered that they need money for unexpected repairs, including repairing cracks and upgrading the sprinkler system. Those expenses wiped out the group’s contingency fund, said Pauline Walpin, a member of the Affordable Housing Project of Orange County Inc.

The group has asked the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the city of Santa Ana to pitch in $65,000. Laguna Beach’s council, in a unanimous vote Tuesday night, agreed to pay the rest.

“They certainly have given us a major boost so we can go ahead and complete the project,” said Walpin, whose group is directing the project.

Solari Enterprises Inc., the Orange-based company that will manage the complex, is already screening prospective renters whose names were drawn in a lottery Jan. 26. Most applicants are from Orange County but some live outside the area, including one from Texas.