Playhouse Sale Putting Roofs Over Homeless

NEWPORT BEACH — A group of architects and home-builders raised $144,000 to help the homeless Saturday, auctioning off elaborate playhouses for children to a crowd of 600 at a dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The homes included “Once Upon a Time,” an English country cottage with hand-carved beams and a hardwood, parquet floor. It went to the highest bidders of the night, Harry and Julie Eberlin of Corona del Mar, who paid $27,000.

Then there was “Home Sweet Home,” a California Craftsman complete with running water and a television wired for cable, which earned the grand prize and sold for $22,000.

And a down-to-the-details replica of the famed Mickey Mouse digs at Disneyland’s Toontown which brought in $10,000, “was a real bargain,” according to auction co-chair Don Jacobs.

Saturday’s event was the third annual playhouse auction organized by HomeAid, a nonprofit group that has raised $4.5 million and built 19 shelters for the homeless in Orange County over the past five years. On Monday, the group will break ground on a shelter for battered women.

So far this year, Jacobs said, HomeAid has helped 1,500 people get off the streets.

The playhouses are eight feet by 10 feet and about seven-and-a-half feet tall, with working locks on the doors and durable weather-proofing.

“They will probably last as long as any house,” Jacobs said.