Church Center Evicted Over Amnesty Work

The staff of a Roman Catholic community center in South-Central Los Angeles began moving out of its offices Wednesday because of an eviction notice issued by the owner, who said the center violated its lease by registering nearly 10,000 aliens for the federal government’s amnesty program.

Sister Suzanne Snyder, director of the Holy Cross Community Center, said the eviction leaves many of the center’s programs for the needy in limbo. But the registration program will continue across the street at the rectory of Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, she said.

“I’m very distressed and disappointed by all of this,” she said, as volunteers moved desks, chairs and other supplies out of the storefront offices in the 4700 block of South Main Street.

The center’s volunteers, many of them Spanish-speaking, said the eviction--effective next Monday--is particularly troublesome because the owner, Margaret Allen, is a fellow parishioner of the Holy Cross Church that operates the center.

Allen, who lives near the center, refused to discuss the matter when reached by telephone.

The eviction notice comes at a time when the center has become an important asset to the area’s black and growing Latino population, offering a variety of food, rent assistance and clothing programs to the needy, center officials said.

Allen sent the eviction notice Feb. 1 after warning in a letter that the center must end the registration program for illegals because her insurance could not cover the thousands showing up for help. The registration was not an acceptable activity under the terms of the 1983 rental agreement, she wrote.

“In order to avoid cancellation of my present insurance coverage, my agent has advised me to notify you that the registration process for immigrant amnesty must be discontinued . . .” Allen wrote.

“If this program is not resolved within ten days, I will have no choice but to start eviction proceedings immediately.”

She wrote that the people coming to the center were “loitering in front” of the modest two-story building. On a recent visit, she said that the center’s offices were in a filthy condition, “littered with trash and cigarette butts.”

Snyder and Father William Jansen, Holy Cross Church’s pastor, deny Allen’s assertions, pointing out that the offices were regularly swept and mopped by volunteers. They also said no problems arose from the crush of illegals who came to register for amnesty under the terms of the immigration bill that became law last year.

The Holy Cross center was one of 20 initially designated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to help in the registration process. By registering at the centers, applicants are given an appointment to begin the legalization process that officially begins May 5 and can lead to legal residence.

The law grants legal status to aliens who can prove that they have lived continuously in the United States since before Jan. 1, 1982.

Archdiocese officials sought solutions that would allow the Holy Cross center to remain where it is, but were unsuccessful. Allen rebuffed a church offer to buy the aging building that houses the center, Jansen said.

Center officials said they would not let the eviction notice impede their programs.