Politician and Church Leader Team Up to Help AIDS Victims

Karcher is a name known countywide. Carl Karcher created the successful Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain. Also, Carl and Margaret Karcher are well known for giving to educational, social and religious causes.

But in some circles, when you mention the name Karcher, people think of Father Jerome. Jerome T. Karcher, 45, is the pastor at St. Vincent de Paul church in Huntington Beach. But he’s taken his work well beyond the walls of a Sunday service.

In 1988, with a little help from some friends and the enthusiastic support of the Catholic diocese, Karcher set up Mercy House Transitional Living Centers, which provide separate temporary housing in Santa Ana for homeless men and homeless mothers with children.

Now Karcher has taken on his most ambitious project yet: a 25-bed facility for homeless AIDS victims--mostly men, but also women--called Emmanuel House (Emmanuel is known by the church as the angel of mercy). It will break ground in January on Garfield Avenue in the Historic French Park section of Santa Ana, and is expected to be ready to open in the late fall of 1997.

“It’s going to be for those living with AIDS who really have nowhere else to turn,” Karcher told me.

The $1.5-million project includes about $400,000 in federal funding. But much of the cost is being absorbed by the collaborative efforts of members of the Orange County Building Industry Assn. For example, Dana Eggers, president of Creative Design Consultants, is doing the interior work. Home builder Larry Webb and architect Phil Hove are also doing much of the work.

But Eggers told me: “The credit should go to Father Jerome Karcher.”

“What a guy,” she said. “The man is so inspirational, you just want to get involved in whatever he wants you to do.” Eggers became so involved, she’s now even on the Mercy House board of directors.

Who does Karcher credit? A politician: Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr.

“He came to us,” Karcher said. “He wanted to see the city get behind this, and thought we would do a good job with it. We’ve worked well with the city on our other projects. It’s a pretty good marriage for us.”

I asked Karcher if this is the kind of work he envisioned when, as a real estate salesman and school teacher, he decided to study for the priesthood. “I’ve never thought of working for the church and for the community as incompatible,” he said. “Reaching out through ministry and prayer is compatible with reaching out to people in need.”

More Helping Hands: On Thursday night, the people involved in the Emmanuel House project will get even more help. They’re holding a fund-raiser at the Juarez Fine Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, with several hundred already expected. Restaurateur David Wilhelm of Chimayo Grill and Sorrento Grill is creating the hors d’oeuvres, and the gallery will donate a portion of the proceeds from art sold that night to the project. Tickets ($75) are available at the door, but organizers are hoping for RSVPs, at (714) 641-4868.

Neighbor Friendly: Any time a group home is being planned, the first question to arise is: What will the neighbors think? But the Historic French Park Neighborhood Assn. got strongly behind this one.

“We’ve got a lot of progressive-thinking people in our neighborhood,” its president, Debbie McEwen, told me with pride.

There were a lot of questions raised by some of the neighbors. “There were legitimate questions too,” McEwen said. “But we convinced them that this was a project that would actually be good for our neighborhood. We’ve seen the other places run by Mercy House, and they are first class.”

Wrap-Up: When you ask the Santa Ana mayor how the idea for Emmanuel House got going and he tells you, “It all started at the U.S. Open tennis tournament,” you know you’re in for a good story.

Here’s the nutshell version:

Pulido, then a city councilman, was attending the tennis tournament in New York in 1993 and ran into a small group of French nuns from the independent Fraternity of Notre Dame Catholic order. Pulido is fluent in French and enjoyed talking with them. He learned they were there in hopes of getting a grant from the Arthur Ashe Foundation to set up an AIDS hospice.

Not understanding American politics, they figured that since Pulido was an elected official, maybe he could help them meet New York City’s mayor at the time, David Dinkins. With a little luck, Pulido managed to pull that one off, with dozens of photographers taking pictures as they shook hands with Dinkins.

“After that, these nuns thought I could do anything. Next thing I know, I’m back home, and they call me and say their mother superior wants to come see me. She thinks I’m the one who can get her AIDS hospice built.”

Pulido started looking into available money, and several of the nuns flew to Orange County. Pulido showed them around available properties, and they actually picked a site in the French Park area. Four of the French nuns moved to Orange County, living for months with McEwen in 1994. They also lived with Pulido’s family briefly.

But suddenly, the project fell through: Haiti became a hot international topic because of its democratic election, and the French nuns were abruptly ordered to fly there to set up an AIDS hospice. That worked out for the best: The nuns were already discouraged about the staggering amount of red tape needed to accredit a hospice in Orange County. But with their departure, Pulido was left wondering what to do with his half-planned AIDS house.

Enter Larry Haynes, executive director of Mercy House. He heard about the project from Pulido’s wife, Laura. Haynes and Karcher got the Building Industry Assn. involved, and its leaders convinced Pulido to start from scratch on city-owned property on Garfield Avenue.

McEwen couldn’t stop laughing as she was telling me her end of this story: “I don’t speak French and the nuns didn’t speak English. There we were in my mammoth old house. I even tried to teach one of them to drive. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had, and so totally out of character for me.”

You wish the nuns could be at the fund-raiser, to see what’s become of their dream.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail tojerry.hicks@latimes.com