Santa Monica will become one of the first cities on the westside of Los Angeles County to host a Habitat for Humanity program.
The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved allowing a one-time exemption from ordinances that forbid Santa Monica from using redevelopment funds to build any type of low-income housing that is not strictly rental.
Habitat for Humanity is proposing between six and eight units on an 8,000-square-foot vacant parcel on 19th Street between Pico Boulevard and Delaware Avenue.
For each condominium Habitat builds, city officials said Santa Monica will chip in between $100,000-$130,000 per unit.
Habitat for Humanity works in partnership with local communities to make affordable home ownership more accessible. Through volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations of money and materials, the organization builds and rehabilitates affordable homes with the help of future homeowners. The homes are sold to families at no profit and financed with affordable, no-interest loans. Future homeowners are required to contribute 500 hours of their own labor into the building of their home.
The project is an experiment for habitat for humanity, which typically builds freestanding single-family homes, and Santa Monica, which by law does not allow itself to build low-income housing for residents to purchase.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 15, 2002. Read the original PDF.