Bryant-Vanalden Plan Faces Rising Protest

A wave of protest from community activist groups threatens to kill a proposed neighborhood renewal plan that could evict 3,000 predominantly low-income Latinos from a crime-ridden, run-down cluster of apartments in otherwise fashionable Northridge.

Support for the unprecedented measure, which was approved last week on a preliminary 9-4 vote of the Los Angeles City Council, has eroded in the wake of criticism that it is racist, unconstitutional and morally wrong. A final vote is expected on the measure in September.

“I would be shocked if the thing came back and was approved,” said Councilman Ernani Bernardi, the most vocal opponent of the plan. “I have to be confident that the City Council and the mayor will not permit this kind of action.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Coalition for Economic Survival, the Mexican American Political Assn., the Concilio of Chicano Affairs and San Fernando Valley Legal Services are among the groups that have opposed the measure.

‘Dangerous Precedent’

“If this is allowed to happen in Northridge, it will happen in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Fairfax,” said Larry Gross, coordinator for the Coalition for Economic Survival. “It sets a dangerous precedent for every low-income renter in the city.”

The backlash has thrust Northridge residents and civic leaders who support the plan into the uncomfortable position of responding to charges of racial and economic discrimination.

Caught in the middle are the mostly Latino residents, many of them illegal immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador. Unorganized and isolated because of language and fear, most of them are unaware that they may be forced out of their homes.

The measure proposed by Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the Northridge area, would grant landlords of 30 apartment buildings near Bryant Street and Vanalden Avenue a one-time exemption to a provision in the city’s rent-control law.

Would Lower Costs

The exemption would make it easier for landlords to evict tenants for the purpose of renovating apartments and improving the three-block area. Apartments could then be rented at higher prices to a “new class of tenants,” according to a report from the council’s Governmental Operations Committee.

Specifically, the legislation would lower to $7,500 the per-unit minimum expenditure required under city rent-control laws if landlords want to evict for the purpose of renovation. Currently, landlords may evict tenants only if they spend at least $10,000 per unit on renovation.

The legislation would require landlords to pay evicted tenants $1,000 or three times the current rent, whichever is greater, as relocation assistance. No such aid is required under current law.

If approved, Bernson’s plan also would seek council approval of a $40-million, tax-exempt bond issue to help finance renovations, including landscaping, fencing and construction of a swimming pool and other recreational facilities. Bernson said the bonds are needed because apartment owners cannot afford to finance needed improvements.

Units for Low-Income Tenants

The plan would reserve 20% of the units for low- and moderate-income tenants. But critics said most of the current residents would not be able to afford the renovated units or find apartments in the Valley in the $350- to $500-per-month price range they now pay for three- and four-bedroom apartments at the complex.

Several activist organization leaders said the month’s interval before the next vote will give them time to organize tenants and lobby city officials.

“It might be that Wednesday’s vote was just a test balloon that the council put out,” Gross said. “But it is important to let them know from square one that there is going to be a fight if they continue this course of action.”

The Bryant-Vanalden complexes have long been a problem because of high crime and slum-like conditions in many of the 650 units. Previous law enforcement and safety and health department efforts to clean up the area have failed, according to the measure’s supporters.

Neighborhood Conditions

A report from the city’s Community Development Department, which oversees the rent-control law, stated that singling out Bryant-Vanalden could be justified because the conditions there are “clearly below the level of the immediate neighborhood” and the crime problems “appear unsolvable unless there is a total removal of all present tenants.”

Supporters, mostly nearby residents and apartment owners, maintain that renovation would be in the tenants’ interest because it would clean up the severe crime and blight that plague the area.

“Housing for the poor should be in an area that is safe and clean and not dirty, and in an area that is compatible to the other surroundings,” said Shirley Forsch, who has lived near the area for 24 years. “I don’t think it should be in the center of single-family homes.”

Even if the measure is approved, Bernardi said he believes that legal challenges to the ordinance will head off mass evictions. He said the city attorney’s office told him privately that there is not “a prayer of a chance of drafting an ordinance that will stand a constitutional test.”

Assistant City Atty. Claudia McGee Henry refused to confirm or deny any statements made in private to a council member. She also declined to take a position on the legality of Bernson’s proposal before the ordinance is drafted for final approval.

Constitutional Problems

But legal aide officials and attorneys with several activist organizations claim that there is no way to write the ordinance so that it is constitutional.

“It’s discrimination based on wealth, and that is unconstitutional,” said Gary Williams, assistant legal director of the ACLU in Southern California, which is preparing for a lawsuit if the measure passes.

“It’s our position that it is not only legally wrong, but it is morally unconscionable to throw people out on the street simply because they are poor.”

Although crime statistics are not kept for the area, Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Rick Vialano said last week that “it is by far the greatest crime-ridden area” in the Devonshire Division.

“There are a lot of vagrancy crimes--people sleeping on lawns, in the backs of cars. There are crimes of violence, aggravated assaults. There are narcotics and prostitution. . . . It is the hottest three blocks in the division, hands down.”

6 Unsolved Killings

Three of the six homicides this year in the division have occurred in the Bryant-Vanalden area and none has been solved, Vialano said.

Bernson said that nothing the city has done has reduced the rate of crime or improved living conditions in Bryant-Vanalden. He noted that a city task force of building, fire and health inspectors issued 2,000 citations during a one-day sweep of the area.

“I think we’ve got it to the point where it’s as good as it will be under the current system,” Bernson said during Wednesday’s council meeting.

But, after the meeting, three council members who voted for the plan said they have had second thoughts about it. The council members said they initially cast favorable votes as a “courtesy” to Bernson because it involved a problem area in his district.

“A number of us went along with it just for that reason,” Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said, referring to the council’s unwritten rule of deferring to a council member on issues that affect only his district.

He added, however, that he was “troubled” with the proposal and said he would not necessarily vote for it in its final form.

Doubts by Finn

Councilman Howard Finn, whose East Valley district has several crime-plagued housing developments, said he is not convinced that Bernson has exhausted the existing tools, such as more aggressive police enforcement and prosecution of slumlords.

Finn said he voted in favor of the plan to see if the city attorney could come up with a definition of blight that would address similar problems citywide.

“I will not support it being used in just one place,” Finn said.

Councilman Marvin Braude agreed that “by no means was this action in my mind the approval of a particular project, but rather the creation of a tool.” Because of the controversy created by the measure, he said, chances of the council approving Bernson’s plan are now “much less than 50-50.”

Bernson made his plan public in October but it drew little attention until the issue came before the full council.

Since last week’s action, a few Valley-area social workers and legal service attorneys have tried to organize Bryant-Vanalden residents.

Protest Staged

On Friday, a handful of representatives from the San Fernando Valley Chapter of MAPA and the Concilio of Chicano Affairs, which is mainly involved in voter registration drives, staged a demonstration in front of Bernson’s Northridge office.

They carried signs saying “LA Council Members are Hypocrites” and “Stop Mass Evictions.” But no Bryant-Vanalden residents were at the protest, which prompted one participant to ask another whether he should attempt to find residents and drive them over to join the demonstration.

Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenants’ rights group, sent bilingual community organizers into the apartment complexes, knocking on doors and translating news accounts of the plan to residents in hopes of stirring opposition.

“And they responded,” Francisco Villaseca of the coalition said. “Before I knew it there were 50 or 60 people gathered around me. There is a real feel of community there with a Latino flavor. They are afraid of losing their homes and need someone who can explain things to them.”