Garden Grove Council Decides to Hire a Slum-Busting Team

The Garden Grove City Council voted Monday to spend $62,000 to bring a Florida slum-busting team to Buena Clinton.

The team is from Fort Lauderdale’s Oasis project, which attempts to reward landlords and tenants who are “constructive” forces in a neighborhood and to target those who contribute to slum conditions, crime and other problems.

Councilman Milton Krieger said: “This is a real people project. It will make them (Buena Clinton residents) feel more important about themselves. We saw the before-and-after pictures from Fort Lauderdale. The difference was amazing.”

The contract approved Monday night calls for the city staff to work closely with representatives of the Oasis Institute so that the staff eventually can operate the program.

Incentives Offered

The Oasis plan gives grants to landlords and tenants who improve their properties. The reward system is designed to present the positive forces in the neighborhood as role models.

Tenants and landlords who don’t make repairs or who contribute to such crime problems as drug use and burglary are targeted and monitored by Oasis officials. In that way, Oasis can help with evictions and coordinate police and building code enforcement in a “target” area.

After Oasis director Bill Lindsey toured the area in July and discussed the idea with Garden Grove officials and residents, a city estimate of the cost was put at about $95,000. But a staff report later indicated the cost would be considerably less because of the city’s recent housing code crackdown and stepped-up police patrols in the blighted Buena Clinton area.

Bylaws Approved

In a related action, the City Council also approved a list of bylaws for the fledgling Village Grove Property Owners Assn., a group of landlords who own about 55% of Buena Clinton’s apartment buildings. Under the plan, each property owner will pay assessments to create a $10,000 reserve account to pay for the cleanup of problem properties.

The bylaws include a ban on leases for “transient or hotel purposes” and require that owners keep their property clear of trash, remove graffiti within a week of its appearance, and tow illegally parked or inoperable vehicles.

In addition, owners must allow no more tenants than four per one-bedroom apartment or seven per two-bedroom unit. Those limits will be reduced to three and five people, respectively, by June 1, 1988.