The Orange County Rescue Mission reached out to the community to assist in creating the first place in Orange County where homeless and poor Families could transform their lives while staying together. A partnership between The Orange County Rescue Mission, HomeAid and the City of Tustin along with the community was formed to transform Five acres of the former Tustin Marine Corps Air Station into the Village of Hope.

The challenge of project became the coordination of the many volunteer individuals and companies that shared the vision. Each element of the project had its own team of consultants, amounting to over 75 individual teams within the $15 Million dollar Project. Adding to the number of volunteers was the challenge of finalizing the program and needs of the client, The Orange County Rescue Mission, at the same time as guiding the large number of consultants and volunteers in the same direction as the project.

The solution to this challenge was simply creating a real team environment between the Development team, the consultants and the community. A close relationship was established with the City of Tustin as the design and program were implemented in order to expedite the permit process. Funneling the communication between all the consultants through of the head Architecture team became an essential piece in maintaining the project under control and moving forward. As Project Manager on the Master Architect Team, Ms. Muro-Dittes was responsible for giving the team of volunteers the sense of ownership of the project along with easy access to information and regular communication. This allowed the project to move through the Design and Entitlement Process in record time.

150,000 sf currently under construction, the Village of Hope will provide housing for a total of 192 homeless men, women and children with facilities for 36 families and 88 single adults. The Village of Hope will include 128 dorm rooms, a child development center, playground, parent education center, vocation training classrooms, health care facility, donation warehouse and support offices. There will also be a cafeteria with an outdoor dining are and vegetable gardens. A chapel will also be built. When completed, the Village of Hope will serve as a national model, demonstrating how to successfully redevelop closed U.S. military bases to help the homeless.