‘Homes Sweat Homes’ for Families

The landscaping hasn’t been completed, some fixtures still have to be installed and the families won’t move in for another two weeks, but the three Habitat for Humanity houses on Del Mar Avenue in Costa Mesa are already homes.

The “sweat equity” the three families have invested by helping to build their homes means they know the structures intimately.

At a dedication ceremony Sunday, Dan Samuelson, a single father of four, said he and his children have waited about five years for their house. Working on the four-bedroom home, meeting volunteers and “a lot of people who are involved that you’re not aware of,” has made the experience overwhelming. And the fact that it’s all his family’s, he said, makes it all the more meaningful.

“I get my own room,” said his teenage daughter, Betsi. “I want it blue.”

Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, part of the nationwide nonprofit group working to eliminate substandard housing and homelessness, has built 90 homes in Orange County since 1988.

The Costa Mesa site includes the first Orange County Habitat home built by a volunteer crew composed primarily of women, known by the group as a “Women Build” project. A second “Women Build” home is planned for Santa Ana.

Habitat for Humanity depends on donations of land, professional services, funding, building materials and skilled and unskilled volunteer labor to build the homes.

Costa Mesa’s Redevelopment Agency provided funding for the land, permits and public improvements, said Allan L. Roeder, city manager.

Roeder did more than help the organization as a city official. “I’m also a neighbor. I was here opening day framing walls,” he said.

He said he can see the site from his own home, and critics of affordable housing programs should know that “I’m really proud to have them in my neighborhood. I can see the project right over my fence, and I think it’s great.”

When their homes are complete and the landscaping planted, Nancy Le and Sean Hwin and their two children; the Samuelson family; and Felimon and Elena Coria and their eight children can move in.

Habitat selects applicants after verifying their income and that they are not current homeowners.

The new Costa Mesa residents made a 1% down payment and put in at least 500 hours of labor that each must contribute on either their homes, their neighbors’ or another Habitat project. They will pay with long-term, zero-interest mortgages.

Hwin and his family will move into a 1,181-square-foot house with three bedrooms and two baths. The Samuelsons have a 1,272-square-foot home with four bedrooms and two baths, and the Corias have a 1,332-square-foot home with five bedrooms and two baths. All are two-story homes with two-car attached garages.

The Del Mar Avenue property, where volunteers began working in June, has the makings of a small neighborhood within a neighborhood: three families, 14 children whose dreams have come true.