Housing Activists Planning Ambitious 22-Home Subdivision

Over the years, Habitat for Humanity has often been known for building one home at a time.

But now the group is going full steam ahead on an ambitious 22-home subdivision for low-income families in this rural enclave east of Fillmore, which is still rebuilding from the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Gary Mugridge, executive director for the group in Ventura County, said the organization needs eight more sponsors--corporate or civic groups committed to raising the $70,000 necessary to build each home--to complete the project.

Skilled and unskilled construction volunteers are also needed.

Mugridge hopes that the approaching holiday season stirs interest in the project.

“Holiday seasons are exciting, mystical, magical, because we’re fortunate to live in stable, decent homes,” he said. “We sometimes forget there are other people out there who are not as fortunate as we are. This is a good time to be thinking of that.”

Since its inception in 1984, the local Habitat chapter has built a dozen other homes on lots throughout various Ventura County cities.

The Piru development, known as the Duneden project, is the nonprofit group’s first local subdivision.

After acquiring the 4.5-acre swath of land near the entrance to town, the group has taken four years to build seven homes and get five more under construction.

Now, Habitat wants to pick up the pace and complete construction of the remaining 10 homes by the end of 2001.

The group’s homes--generally three-bedroom, two-bath wood frame structures of about 1,100 square feet--are sold without profit and are free of interest to low-income buyers.

Future owners must put 500 hours each into the construction of their houses. To qualify, Mugridge said, a family of four in Ventura County must earn no more than $31,500 a year.

Any low-income resident may apply for a Duneden home, but priority goes to people who live or work in Piru or who were displaced as a result of the earthquake. A Habitat committee selects prospective owners from the applicant pool.

Piru, which began as a railroad town in the late 1800s and later became a popular spot for movie filming, has experienced hard times in recent decades.

Unemployment among its 1,800 residents hovers at about twice the countywide rate. An economy driven by agriculture means that much of the work among the population, 75% of which is Latino, is seasonal. Median household income is $25,000 a year, compared with $46,000 countywide.

When the quake struck in 1994, it devastated several commercial properties and homes, leaving some residents without places to live.

Soon after the quake, county officials received federal grants to help restore housing for those displaced by the disaster, said Mary Ann Krause, a field deputy for county Supervisor Kathy Long, whose district includes the area.

“One of the Habitat volunteers was a broker, and he ran across a [land] subdivision that was created in 1909 but had never been built,” she said. “The county looked at it and decided, yes, this would work, and the Board of Supervisors awarded Habitat the money to purchase the property.”

But the land was in a flood plain, and needed to be raised six feet before being built on, Mugridge said.

The elements again stepped in, but this time to help.

As El Nino conditions barreled through the county in the winter of 1997, rains shifted tons of dirt to unwanted spots. Habitat officials said they would be happy to take the debris off the county’s hands; they needed all the fill they could get to raise the flood plain.

Once the flood threat passed, the building began.

Families already have moved into the houses that have been completed. Irma and Jose Luis Sanchez, who have lived for years in nearby housing for farm workers, will move with their three children into the eighth Duneden home when it is ready. Irma Sanchez works at the citrus packinghouse in Piru.

The couple’s 17-year-old daughter, Maribel, said owning a home has long been a dream for her parents.

“We talk about it a lot,” Maribel said. Her mother already has plans for the backyard. “She would like to plant fruit trees and red roses and grass.”