‘Where Will We Go?’ : Neighborhood Shocked by Eviction Plan

Worried residents of a Northridge neighborhood were asking two questions Wednesday:

Where will we go? What will happen to our families?

Many residents of the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue apartment buildings said they were shocked to hear of a Los Angeles City Council vote Wednesday that may eliminate their community. The council cleared the way for possible eviction of about 3,000 residents from what was called a pocket of poverty and crime so that the area can be turned into a gated, middle-class community.

“How can they send all these people away?” asked Andrea Serrano, 40. “No one has told us anything. Oh, I don’t know what to say. There is nowhere else for us to live.”

Will Wait for Word

Serrano, who has 11 children, said she will wait to hear some kind of information from her apartment manager. Like most of the residents living in 650 apartment units in the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue buildings, she speaks only Spanish.

Many of the residents are illegal immigrants.

The city’s plan is seen as a solution to the longtime crime and blight problem in the Bryant-Vanalden area, which some have nicknamed “Tijuanita,” or Little Tijuana.

The courtyards of their apartment buildings are teeming with children. The gutters are clogged with mud and trash. In the afternoon heat, tattered curtains hang out many wide-open windows. Crowds gather around several ice-cream and catering trucks. Some residents carry away bags of vegetables and flats of eggs purchased from a beat-up pickup truck.

Latin Music

Latin music blares from apartments and from the many cars that slowly cruise the streets.

Apartment generally rent for $350 to $500 a month.

“I have lived here three years with my husband and four children,” said Lucia Ahumada, 34. “What can I say? If this happens, my family will have no home. We do not even have a car to live in.”

More than a dozen residents living in the squat, two-story apartment buildings said members of their families work in Chatsworth-area electronic factories, in San Fernando Valley-area restaurants or as gardeners.

All of them said that, even if the city gives them $1,000 to relocate, as was proposed by the council, they doubt they will be able to afford housing in the Valley for their large families.

High Cost to Move

“I have no idea where we would go,” said Alva Gomez, 40. “I don’t think there are other places that want children.”

“It would cost us at least $1,500 to move somewhere else,” said one mother of three. “Maybe I can look in Van Nuys or Pacoima for a place to live, but it is going to be very hard for my family if we have to move.”

“Yes, there are big problems in this neighborhood and I can understand why they want to get rid of it,” said Ruby Hoskin, 42. “But if they don’t want us here, just where are we supposed to live?”