Bryant-Vanalden Tenants Wary of Redevelopment Project’s Perils

Tenants of the Bryant-Vanalden area of Northridge have expressed little enthusiasm for a city plan to renovate and beautify their run-down neighborhood, saying they are more concerned with rent increases and the risks of applying for government housing subsidies.

About 100 tenants met Thursday night to hear city officials and developer Devinder Vadehra explain for the first time the effect on them of the major redevelopment project, which is meant to transform their unsightly cluster of apartment houses into a groomed and gated community to be called “Park Parthenia.”

The plan, approved last week by the City Council, calls for the city to issue $20.8 million in tax-exempt bonds and lend another $4.2 million to Vadehra to buy and renovate 462 apartments in the blighted neighborhood.

Although the redevelopment plan does not call for evictions, some tenants would be temporarily relocated to apartments in other Bryant-Vanalden buildings. After units are refurbished, monthly rents will be increased by up to $175. To reduce the hardship of the increases, the city will offer federally funded rent subsidies to low-income tenants.

Translated in Spanish

Thursday’s meeting at nearby Napa Street Elementary School was the first in a series of information sessions and the first time tenants have publicly expressed their concerns over the plan. It was translated for tenants, most of whom speak Spanish and are believed to be illegal immigrants.

Craig Avery, director of the city Community Development Department’s housing division, told the group that “the number one issue that the City Council asked us to continue to make clear to you is that rights of the tenants are protected.”

The developer told tenants they will get new carpets, drapes and kitchen cabinets and that plumbing problems and leaky roofs will be fixed. Also, he said, cockroach infestations will be eradicated, which drew skeptical laughter from the crowd.

When the meeting was opened for questions and answers, the tenants instead withdrew to study schedules showing when their buildings would be renovated, talking quietly among themselves.

At the urging of city officials, they later asked questions, especially about applying for the federal rent subsidies under a program known as Section 8.

Concerns on Legal Status

Maria Perez, a nine-year resident of the neighborhood, said, “We are all afraid of what’s going to happen to people who are not legal. Can we apply for the subsidies?”

David Pallack, an attorney with San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, assured tenants that proof of citizenship will not be required in the applications and that if their economic status warranted, they could receive subsidies.

A Reagan Administration proposal to restrict rent subsidies to legal residents was recently postponed by Congress until at least October, 1987, a spokesman for the federal Housing and Urban Development Department said in an interview Friday.

Another tenant asked how receiving a rent subsidy could affect his chance of being granted amnesty under the recently passed immigration legislation. A key section of the new immigration law provides for legalization of residency for those who can prove they have lived continuously in the United States since 1982 and can show evidence of self support without “public cash assistance.”

Joe Flanders, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said in an interview Friday that “there is no way of knowing at this point” if accepting housing subsidies would be considered such assistance under the law.

Regulations to implement the law have not been written, he said, but are expected to be published in late February.

“What is important to know is that each case will be judged on its own merit,” Flanders said. Even if the regulations had been completed, he said, “we could not make a blanket statement about how housing subsidies would affect these people.”

Pallack predicted that uncertainty will prevent tenants from applying for subsidies, and then the increased rents will prevent them from remaining in the refurbished apartments.

“I think that any hint of negativism will turn them away,” he said. “I will advise them that if they can get along without it, they should not apply.

“It’s demoralizing. It almost makes all the good benefits that this plan had for these people go out the window.”

Perez, whose husband manages an apartment building, said many tenants have come to them asking their advice on what to do.

“I tell them to make up their own minds,” she said. “We are all talking. We want to get all the information and take time to make this decision.”