The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has reorganized its offices in Orange County and next month will open a storefront office in Santa Ana to make its programs more available to the public.
The department funds many projects in Orange County: everything from a Buena Park affordable housing program for professors teaching at California State University, Fullerton to backing bonds for companies working in economically depressed areas of Santa Ana to running a computer training program in that city.
“There’s a lot of private industry touched by our department but it’s difficult to tell that it’s our money to begin with” because it’s funneled through cities and other government entities, said Theresa Camiling, acting senior community builder for HUD at its Santa Ana office.
The department used to have three or four offices spread throughout the county. In the past two years, these offices have been re-organized to various parts of California. In Orange County, the Department’s presence is in one facility, the five-story World Trade Tower in Santa Ana.
The two key entities at the Santa Ana office are the Homeownership Center and the Community Builders Office, a new program that began last year.
The bigger program is the Homeownership Center. It covers an eight-state area of the West and about 134 of its 174 employees are in the Santa Ana facility. It typically helps first-time homebuyers who have trouble getting insurance from private sector insurers.
Joseph C. Bates, director of the Santa Ana Homeownership Center, said 1999 was a banner year, as it insured 307,000 homes in its region. However, higher interest rates and the increasing appreciation of homes are knocking more buyers out of the market. Bates predicted the center would insure 10% fewer homes this year. But over the next five years, his department is projecting that it will insure $110 billion worth of homes in California, including $6 billion in Orange County.
“There’s a big business going on that business might not even be aware of,” Bates said.
The Community Builders Office is like a one-stop shop to connect the public to the department’s programs. In September, the Community Builders Office is scheduled to hold an inauguration of what it calls its “storefront office.”
In prior years, a handful of city officials and business executives who knew how to work the system could get funding from the department. Now the department wants to let more municipal and business executives know what type of funding is available.
The department is establishing the American Private Investment Corp., similar to the federal government’s Overseas Private Investment Corp. but its focus is on U.S. cities. This program offers tax breaks and other incentives to large U.S. corporations to create jobs in poor neighborhoods. The department is also in the process of establishing a secondary market for corporate bonds backed by HUD that are a way for corporations working in poor areas to raise cash.
“There are a lot of opportunities available with HUD,” said Cameling. “We’re able to do a lot of economic development. We’re able to bring in partnerships. We do know who is starting which projects and what funding is available.”
The local HUD office recently co-hosted a forum on affordable housing in Orange County, which included speakers representing The Irvine Company and Ernst & Young. It’s working with the Orange County Business Council on a study of housing in Orange County’s unincorporated areas.
The department also is partnering with Cisco Systems to develop 10 training facilities in poor areas in the United States. The Santa Ana office is establishing a Cisco Systems Inc. Academy at Santa Ana Community College. A group of 35 students are expected to take a nine-month course that will train them to be computer network technicians.
“Right now, our focus is gathering interest by potential employers like Conexant that might be interested in hiring these students,” said Ron Jauregui, the Community Builders official overseeing the program. n
