Low-Cost Housing Group Gets $384,000 : Development: The nonprofit organization will use the bank grant to help buy and rehabilitate 19 buildings in Santa Ana.

SANTA ANA —  A nonprofit group’s plan to provide low-cost housing along a section of Myrtle Street received a boost recently when the group received a $384,000 grant for the project.

The Santa Ana-based Civic Center Barrio Housing Corp. will use the grant to help buy and rehabilitate 19 buildings, President Helen Brown said. The grant, which was awarded by First Federal Bank of California, will help pay part of the project’s estimated $8-million cost.

Civic Center Barrio has reached agreements to buy the buildings from their owners and will take possession of them by the end of the year. Rehabilitation should be completed within 18 months, Brown said.

The project will center on buildings along Myrtle Street between Daisy and Shelly streets, an area included within the federal Weed and Seed program boundaries because of its high crime rate.

City Housing Manager Patricia Whitaker said city officials support the project and will provide assistance as needed to help rehabilitate the area.

The project “will be good for tenants. Civic Center Barrio is committed to large, low-income families, so they’re an excellent developer,” Whitaker said.

Whitaker said the project is part of an overall strategy to reduce crime and improve the neighborhood. Since Civic Center Barrio will own the rehabilitated buildings, it should be able to reduce its overhead for management and security. As a result, it could offer reduced rents and better living conditions.

Brown said tenants living in the area now pay as much as $725 a month for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. Civic Center Barrio expects to charge between $635 and $650 for the same unit. The savings for residents is crucial because many live on less than $20,000 a year, compared to the county median income of $52,000 a year, she said.

Civic Center Barrio will begin renovating buildings that become empty as tenants move out on their own. If a building has only a few tenants remaining, they will be moved to another building to permit the rehabilitation to proceed.