Many Quake Victims Leave Tents, Find New Housing

Pelted by rain and persuaded to move indoors by relief workers, hundreds of immigrant families in central Los Angeles have abandoned the tent cities they fled to in fear after their apartments were rocked by earthquakes 13 days ago.

Red Cross officials said Monday that over the last three days about two-thirds of the estimated 3,500 people who left older apartment houses in the eastern and western fringes of downtown Los Angeles have either returned to their homes, moved in with friends or relatives or sought shelter from relief groups.

“The numbers on the streets are down significantly,” Red Cross spokesman Ralph Wright said. Many families are doubling up in neighbors’ apartments, he said, taking advantage of a recent city decision to temporarily suspend limits on overcrowding in rental units.

Shortage Still Felt

Wright and other relief agency officials and housing activists cautioned that the dwindling numbers of families on city streets does not lessen the housing crunch caused by the earthquake. With 11 shelters still crowded with more than 1,100 homeless quake victims, the Red Cross is having difficulty finding long-term housing for those whose apartments and houses have been condemned.

“We are trying to move as many people as we can out of the shelters into housing alternatives,” Wright said. “But as fast as we do that, more buildings are condemned and new people come to the shelters.”

At Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, the number of homeless increased in recent days as rumors swept through the Latino immigrant community that a so-called psychic in France had predicted another quake, according to Red Cross officials operating the gymnasium shelter.

Judy Ritter, a Red Cross volunteer manning the Roosevelt facility, said the number of people at the gym was more than 350--higher than it was one week ago immediately after the Oct. 1 quake. Ritter said the resurgence was due in part to rumors that a new quake was supposed to strike Monday afternoon.

Many Are Hesitant

Building Inspector Henry Cruz, assigned to counsel quake victims at the shelter, said many of their apartments have been inspected and judged safe for occupancy. But many tenants, seeing cracks and other signs of damage, are reluctant to move back in, he said.

A Legal Aid Society attorney, Deborah Dentler, said the situation has been aggravated by the slowness with which quake-damaged buildings are being checked by city inspectors. As of last Friday, only 800 city buildings had been inspected, with about 7,200 still to be checked, Dentler said.

Often, Cruz said, apartment dwellers in the heavily Latino neighborhoods of central Los Angeles agree to return to their buildings only after bilingual inspectors accompany them.

But rain and the efforts of relief workers have significantly reduced the numbers of those camping outside their apartments.

For example, police said Echo Park Lake and Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights, where many frightened people decided to pitch tents instead of sleeping in their own buildings, were virtually empty Monday night.

Many Find New Shelter

In a vacant field in front of a City Housing Authority building at 6th and Valencia streets, at least half of an estimated 100 families who had lived under canopies fashioned from sheets and rugs had gone home or found other shelter by Monday night.

“My building is safe,” said Maria, one of the refugees. “But others are not. I’m afraid (other buildings will collapse and) block my way out.”

She added that many of the quake refugees feared a police sweep of the area. “Police came two days ago and said we would have to leave,” she said.

Housing activists said that teams of volunteers and government relief workers, emboldened by Mayor Tom Bradley’s decision last week to suspend a city ordinance that limited overcrowding in rental units, have been able to persuade some fearful tenants to move in with neighbors.

At least 1,000 people also have moved out of Red Cross shelters in the last week, Wright said, with about 800 doubling up in apartments rented by friends or relatives. The other 200 have either moved into some of the 180 housing project units opened last week by the city or else into some of the 100 low-cost apartment and motel units listed as temporary housing by the Red Cross.

Some Still Homeless

“That doesn’t leave much else for those who are still in shelters,” Wright said. He added that in some cases homeless quake victims have been reluctant to move into housing projects because of crime and the long distance from their jobs.

Meanwhile, lines were long again at seven federal disaster relief offices. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Verne Paule said that between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday, 697 people had registered--most at the Whittier, Alhambra, La Habra and Hollenbeck offices.

Paule said that on Monday, 634 out of 1,035 people who applied for federal emergency aid asked for housing assistance, which consists of federal funds to pay for the first month or two of living arrangements in rental units found by displaced quake victims.

Government relief officials are working with Red Cross and other volunteer agencies to identify new sources of temporary housing. “We’re told there’s a shortage, but we hope to determine what kinds of housing is available,” Paule said.

In Whittier, City Manager Thomas G. Mauk announced that most of the city’s Uptown business district would reopen today. Two buildings have been razed since demolition began Saturday and seven more are scheduled to be demolished.

Staff Writer Mary Lou Fulton contributed to this story.