Housing Code Citations Anger Many Residents

‘It’s making a difference. Residents are developing a whole new sense of community.’

--Madalyn Blake, community development administrator

Mabel Krieger, a 73-year-old La Crescenta woman, admits that her home “was kind of worn down” when she received a notice from the City of Glendale last year which gave her 60 days to repair safety violations and to clean up her dilapidated property.

The house had become an eyesore in the quiet neighborhood of 1920s-era homes along Buena Vista Avenue just south of Montrose Shopping Park. The stucco paint was falling off in chunks, the water heater was improperly connected, sewer lines repeatedly backed up, wiring in the house was frayed, the tile roof leaked and the garage was near collapse.

“It was a disaster and I knew it,” said Krieger, who lives with her daughter. “But I didn’t have the money to fix it up,” she said, explaining that she lives on a meager fixed income.

Krieger is among owners of more than 1,700 structures in Glendale who have received “beautification notices” since the city began scouring neighborhoods for health and safety code violations in September, 1984, and forcing residents, under the threat of fines or a jail sentence, to make repairs.

City ‘Intruding’

The program has angered many property owners like Krieger, who said she felt that “the city was intruding into my private affairs.” Some complain that the forced repairs create undue financial hardships, requiring them to either borrow money or spend their savings.

The program also has had the unintended side effect of leading to the sale of some low-income rentals and the dislocation of renters whose homes are demolished and replaced with more expensive apartments and condominiums.

Nevertheless, Glendale officials are hailing the inspection program as a success.

“People are planting flowers and fixing up their houses and whole neighborhoods are being greatly improved,” said Madalyn Blake, the city’s community development administrator who oversees the program. She said the results are especially noticeable in areas of south Glendale which were considered blighted.

“It’s making a difference,” she said. “Residents are developing a whole new sense of community.”

In addition, officials said, some of the financial pain is eased by low-interest federally sponsored loans that can be obtained by property owners to make needed repairs. Krieger, for example, eventually obtained such a loan for $19,000 and completed the repairs, but not until she had fought the city for almost a year.

Enforcing Regulations

Previously, the city had enforced code regulations only when tenants or neighbors complained about substandard conditions. But three years ago, city studies estimated that more than 2,500 structures in Glendale lacked adequate heating, plumbing or were overcrowded.

In response, the city began to inspect neighborhoods at random on a door-to-door basis. Most of the neighborhoods in the city now have been surveyed once and inspectors are returning to neighborhoods for the second time,

“It’s unacceptable in this city to have housing that is a hazard to life, health and welfare,” said Councilman Larry Zarian, who spearheaded the program and, during his term as mayor, succeeded in January in getting a second full-time inspector hired. Zarian also said that homes with peeling paint and overgrown lawns “are a blight on the neighborhood.”

Under the program, yellow tags asking that the owner or tenant permit inspection of the interiors are posted on homes that have exterior code violations or appear to be run down. Once the inspection is done, or even if the owner refuses, a “beautification notice” may be sent listing the improvements that are required.

Blake said an assumption is made that properties that appear neglected on the outside probably are neglected on the inside, too, and have health and safety hazards. If necessary, the city can obtain a court order to inspect buildings. Typically, inspectors check the interior of about 10% of the units in any apartment building suspected of having safety violations.

City officials point out that more than 670 homes and apartments once deemed substandard have been repaired and beautified. But 178 others have been demolished--often old, single-family homes destroyed to make way for apartment buildings and condominiums--which has led to displacement of hundreds of families in need of low-cost housing.

City officials said they try to find new housing for those in need, but no records are kept on the number of families forced to seek housing outside of the city.

Hundreds of other cases, where owners are unable to, or have refused to comply with the city’s orders, have been sent to the city attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution. Penalties can include fines of up to $500 and/or six months in jail.

A member of a pioneer Glendale family has the dubious distinction of becoming the first and only resident to be imprisoned for not complying with the city’s orders. James Conner, 62, served 30 days in the city jail last year for failing to paint his home--the 114-year-old Taylor House at 1027 Glenwood Ave.

Generations of the Conner family have lived in the house since 1908. It is one of the oldest structures in the city and is listed as a historical site in the general plan.

Conner repeatedly has been ordered by the city to make repairs to the house, which is constructed of rustic channel redwood boards, square iron nails and horsehair plaster on wood lath. But Conner, who lives in the house alone and is restoring it by himself, said the work will take years.

“This place was built just after the Civil War,” he said. “I just can’t get everything done all at once.”

He said he will continue to ignore the city’s suggestion that he borrow money to complete the project. He also does not want to sell, even though he has had numerous offers.

“I was born here,” Conner said. “My parents lived here. My grandfather lived here. I remember when there was nothing but alfalfa fields out there. They tell me my house is an eyesore in the neighborhood. There was no neighborhood until my family built it.”

Conner said he did not mind going to jail, and will do it again if necessary, because he feels he has no choice in the issue.

Dozens of other property owners have paid fines or been ordered by the courts to make repairs. About 90 cases are still pending before the city attorney and many of those also may face jail sentences, city officials said. One resident, a 63-year-old widow who has been unable to repair her rental property, is threatened with a jail sentence when she returns to court next month.

The city’s threats provoke heated reaction, said Alexander C. Pyper, city building superintendent whose department issues code violation notices. “We get barraged with angry calls constantly.”

City workers advise such callers to apply for government-sponsored low-interest loans to make the required repairs.

Krieger of La Crescenta said “it is a hardship” for her to make the $132.10 monthly payments on the 15-year, 3%-interest loan she obtained, but added, “it’s getting paid.” She also admits that without the $19,000 government loan, the work “probably never would have been done.”

Chris and Judy Barnes of La Crescenta, who operate their own plastics molding business in Pasadena, also qualified for a low-interest loan. Judy Barnes said she and her husband “were really ticked” when they were ordered by the city to repaint the wood siding on their house which had become faded and stained with the weather. “We live in America,” she said. “We were insulted.”

Barnes said they refused the city permission to inspect their house and stalled painting for almost a year until they were threatened with criminal action by the city. “That scared us,” she said.

When they learned that they qualified for a government loan, they decided that instead of borrowing $2,000 to repaint the house, they “would go all the way,” Barnes said. They borrowed more than $12,000 at the 3% rate and had the front of the house and entrance stairway redone in brick.

“Our neighbors tell us the house is just beautiful now,” said Barnes, who estimates that the house, which they bought in 1975 for $52,000, is now worth more than $200,000.

Homeowners can qualify for subsidized loans--up to $15,000 or more--if their annual income is within specific limits, ranging from $25,350 for a single person, to $45,300 for a family of 8 to 10 members, according to officials.

Apartment owners also can obtain 6% loans or matching grants if at least 51% of the tenants in a building are of low or moderate income and rents are below fair market rates.

But, although many people cited for code violations apply for subsidized loans, only 45 property owners--or fewer than 3% of those cited--have actually qualified.

Helen Gellas, who lived alone in her Arden Avenue home for 39 years, said that for a year she ignored the city’s orders to either repair her property or demolish it. She said she did not want to put the more than $9,000 in repairs that was needed in the house, which is in the downtown redevelopment area next to the proposed site of a new hotel. She also did not qualify for a low-interest loan.

Finally, the Glendale City Council a year ago condemned the property, which Councilman Jerold Milner described as “the worst in Glendale, atrocious.” With that, Gellas sold the house to a real estate speculator “for a pretty good price,” she said, and bought a newer home nearby.

The Arden Avenue home is now repaired and rented to tenants, but Gellas predicts the city eventually will pay a higher price for its action if it eventually tries to buy the property for redevelopment.

But even some critics of the code-enforcement program now admit that it has merit.

Scott E. McCreary, a real estate investor whose family owns rental property in Glendale, was the leading opponent when the city began the program. At the time, he charged the inspections displaced families and forced increased rents.

“I’ve had a change of heart,” McCreary said last week. “I took a long walk around southern Glendale and decided that, perhaps, the means justify the end. The neighborhoods look nicer, and when things look nicer, there is more pride and the people have a more positive outlook toward life.”

McCreary said he is philosophically opposed to a program that results in increased rents and forces demolition of low-cost housing, but he said the city has become more sensitive to those issues. Jess Duran, assistant director of community development, believes the program preserves older homes.

Ken Martinez, 35, has one of the most thankless jobs in Glendale. He is one of the two housing code inspectors who, each week, drive around town issuing citations to property owners.

His job, he said, is to save lives.

“Some people really get salty when we tell them they have to clean up their property or make repairs,” he said. “They think that we are harassing them. Many of the elderly fear that the city wants to take their property. And sometimes we get caught in the middle of landlord-tenant fights.”

On one recent tour of the city, Martinez cited one absentee landlord of an east Glendale home, occupied by a Latino family of five, for numerous violations, including the lack of a heater, bare ceiling wires with no fixtures and faulty faucets and drain lines. He also noted that an illegal battery-operated smoke alarm did not function. New city regulations require that fire alarms be electrically wired.

At his next stop in front of an aged north Glendale residence, Martinez marveled at the improvements that had been made by the elderly owner, who has consistently balked at the city’s orders to make repairs. “We try to give owner-occupants as much time as they need,” Martinez said, describing the once-dilapidated conditions of the property.

“But somehow,” he said, “I’ve got to get her to paint her house.”