Family Gets New Home After ’94 Quake
The January 1994 Northridge earthquake hit Piru hard.
The home of Trinidad and Rosalba Lopez, who lived at 685 Piru Square, was shaken so badly that it had to be razed when authorities determined that it was damaged beyond repair.
After more than 500 hours of their own sweat and labor, and with help from a handful of Mennonite Christian Public Service Program volunteers, the Lopezes and their three children, ages 17, 8 and 4, moved into a new wood-and-plaster house on Sunday, the first built in Piru by Habitat for Humanity.
“This will be the first of many homes in Piru,” said Ken Pyburn, executive director of the Ventura County branch of Habitat for Humanity in Oxnard.
Directors of the nonprofit organization, dedicated to providing safe, affordable housing for people in need, plan to build seven more new homes in Piru next year. Habitat for Humanity organizers hope to eventually build 20 homes in the town.
The Lopez family’s 1,100-square-foot house is the fourth built in the county this year with the assistance of Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Others have been built in Fillmore, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo, and a fifth home is expected to be completed in Oak View this winter.
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