GROUP HELPS FAMILY OF 4 FIND HOME OF THEIR OWN.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

For the past few years, Connie Gutierrez has kept a door knocker inside her car.

The knocker represented a dream that one day, she and her three young daughters would end their homeless existence and move into a house of their own.

On Sunday, dozens of friends and family members joined Gutierrez to bless the ground where Habitat for Humanity will build that dream house.

``I'm a blessed woman,'' Gutierrez said. ``I do believe in miracles.''

Right now the dirt lot has no foundation or frame, but Gutierrez says she already can see her home and the place where she will hang her door knocker. On Sunday, stakes and signs marked the spot where her future kitchen, bedrooms and garage will be built.

Gutierrez estimated she and her daughters, Connie Marie, 13, Jessica, 7, and Deanna, 6, have moved more than 10 times in the last 2-1/2 years.

Guests at the sometimes tearful event represented family and friends who had supported her through her ordeal.

``Almost every person that's here, I've lived with them,'' she said. ``It was like a core of people, and I circled those houses.''

The Gutierrez home will be the 11th Habitat house in Ventura County and the third in Thousand Oaks. The location of new houses depends on where land becomes available and how many costs can be defrayed, said Elden Sandy, Habitat's Ventura County construction coordinator.

For the Gutierrez home, the city donated the land, and the Target department store chain will supply the concrete as well as the electrical, plumbing and heating systems, Sandy said.

``They're helping with the materials and also with the funds,'' said Gerry Olsen, vice president of the Habitat board of directors.

Every time Target opens a new store, its workers also help to build a home in the same community, Olsen said. Target's other Habitat project in Ventura County is in Camarillo.

The completion of the house is set to coincide with the grand opening of the Target store on July 26, Sandy said.

If the 1,186-square-foot home with three bedrooms and two baths were built with no assistance, it would cost about $60,000, Olsen said. Gutierrez will pay about $450 to $500 a month on her 20-year mortgage, he said.

Prospective homeowners must complete a 12-page application and undergo a series of interviews with Habitat evaluators, said Debbie Schrader, a member of the selection committee who took possession of her own Habitat home 18 months ago.

Long before she had even heard of the Habitat location in Thousand Oaks, Gutierrez said she heard a voice speak to her during a church service.

The voice said, ``I'm going to plant you like an oak tree, never to be moved,'' according to Gutierrez.

``Immediately, I got my pen and my notebook and wrote it down,'' she said.

Her new home at 193 Flittner Circle will be a little larger than normal and has a slightly unusual L-shape, because planners had to work around the oak tree that will sit in her back yard.

When Gutierrez learned of the oak, she remembered the voice from church.

``I came out here a lot and I prayed on the oak tree and I would hug the oak tree,'' she said.

Because Thousand Oaks has strict protective rules regarding its oaks, builders accommodated the tree and left an open space between the Gutierrez home and a soon-to-be-completed Habitat home next door.

``Basically we've created a courtyard here for two families,'' Sandy said.

After living with her three daughters in close quarters for so long, Gutierrez is ready for some privacy.

``I can't wait to do the simple stuff,'' she said. ``I look forward to taking a cup of coffee to my room and reading a book.''

THE FACTS

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide by making adequate, affordable shelters.

Habitat has built more than 60,000 homes worldwide since 1976, providing about 300,000 people in more than 2,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable homes. The organization builds in all 50 states and in 60 foreign countries.