Housing Fair Draws Those Pursuing a Dream of Home

In front of a booth decorated with photos of bright, cozy-looking homes, loan processor Crystal Bullard was in perpetual motion--handing out information packets and gesturing as she answered questions.

Shaking his head just thinking about the rent he has been paying all these years, Richard Hinojosa, a teacher’s aide from Azusa, ambled toward her.

“I’m ready to buy a house,” Hinojosa said.

“And we’re ready to put you in one,” Bullard replied, smiling as she invited him to apply for a loan with Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit organization.

Bringing together prospective first-time home buyers like Hinojosa and representatives from housing agencies and lenders like Bullard was what Saturday’s Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Fair was all about.

“It’s important to have them all in one place for people who don’t know where to start,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke at the county-sponsored event inside Shrine Exposition Center at Exposition Park. “We hope that more people buy a house. That’s the bottom line.”

Homeownership is one of the keys to improving the quality of life for everyone, said Sheila Frye, coordinator of the fair, an annual event now in its third year. Not only could there be tax advantages and savings for the buyer, but neighborhoods benefit because homeowners have more at stake in the community than renters, organizers said.

Of the several thousand participants at this year’s fair, many arrived with children in tow. Some said they simply wanted to achieve the American dream, but others cited the county’s soaring rental prices as the reason why they wanted to own.

Tom Jones, a singer and dancer who lives in Carson, has wanted to buy a home for many years but didn’t think he and his wife could afford it. But now that the monthly rent for their two-bedroom house has risen above $1,000, a purchase might be more sensible, he said. “You’re paying just as much in rent as you would for a house.”

Last year the average residential rent in the county jumped 7.8%, to $982 a month, or about 19% higher than the national average.

But housing prices are even worse, some say. Last month, the average cost of a Southern California home hit an all-time high of $204,000.

Some at the fair said they felt daunted as they tried to learn more about affordable-housing programs designed to help low- and moderate-income people like themselves.

“We’re trying to buy a house, but we don’t have a lot of money,” said Andres Contreras, a bartender. He and his homemaker wife, Martha, have been supporting their three small children on his income, which totaled about $24,000 last year.

They are paying $695 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in Gardena. So far, the houses they’ve looked at are smaller and more expensive than what they have.

But they’re still hopeful. “I try to find a house for my kids. It’s for their future,” Contreras said.

Participants were told to become savvier consumers. Before coming to the fair, Yvonne Goodwin, a secretary who lives in West Los Angeles, mistakenly believed that she qualified only for the city’s affordable housing programs because of where she lives and could not apply for programs offered by Hawthorne, Del Aire or Torrance--areas she said she preferred.