Raffle Winner Finally Gets Her House

Nearly one year after winning a house in a South Gate raffle, Maria De Los Angeles Fitz picked up a ring of keys at City Hall on Monday and began packing for her long-delayed move.

For months, it seemed this day would never come for Fitz, a divorced mother who at the time of the “Dream Home Raffle” was sharing a two-bedroom apartment with her daughter and another family.

Just two weeks after she won the home in January, the City Council members who had approved the contest were removed from office in a recall election. They left the southeast Los Angeles County city nearly bankrupt, awash in political corruption probes and with new leaders in no mood to honor some of their predecessors’ contracts.

But after state auditors determined the raffle was not an illegal gift of public funds, the new council decided to close the deal.

Fitz said her 13-year-old daughter, Ruby, already has started packing.

“This is a really great day,” said the teenager, who accompanied her mother to City Hall. She hoped, she said, to have a Christmas tree in their new two-story home on Post Street by the weekend.

Though happy for the family, Councilman Greg Martinez said Monday that building a house for $155,000 to give away was not a wise expenditure.

“It’s just something we have to do. It’s not something we want to do,” he said. “The residents weren’t happy with this giveaway home, where only one person benefits from the city’s coffers.”

The contract signing marked a quiet end to one of the odder stories that spun out of the political turmoil that racked South Gate earlier this year.

When the raffle was announced, then-Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba, Vice Mayor Raul Moriel and Councilwoman Maria Benavides were targeted in a fiercely contested recall campaign.

They said the raffle would raise awareness of the shortage of affordable housing, but many residents thought the contest was a ploy to curry favor with voters.

Fitz was announced the winner at a carnival-like event attended by hundreds of residents outside City Hall. A few weeks later, Ruvalcaba, Moriel and Benavides were recalled in a landslide special election along with former Treasurer Albert Robles, who was the city’s political boss.

Fitz, a shy, church-going Mexican immigrant, was perceived by many to be allied with the Robles political machine, though she had never been involved in politics.

The new council members postponed a decision on whether to award the house to Fitz pending an audit of the city’s finances by the state controller’s office. The audit is completed but has yet to be released.

On Monday, Fitz cracked a wide smile after receiving three keys from City Manager Gary Milliman.

In contrast to the balloons, music and hoopla that accompanied her initial triumph, Fitz’s final contract signing took place in a nearly empty City Hall. No council members were present.

Fitz didn’t seem to mind. Though the city will not pay her property taxes as promised by the former council, she was happy that her wait was over.

“I’m very grateful. This is a great blessing, and I give thanks to God,” Fitz said.