Opposition Loses Steam in Harbor City : Homeless Trailer Plan Gets New Lease on Life

Opposition to a plan to temporarily house the homeless in trailers at a Harbor City housing project has apparently fizzled, and Los Angeles officials now say they are confident the proposal will go forward at Normont Terrace.

One leading opponent--Harbor City homeowner Jan Hughes--said after a public hearing Tuesday night that she would not press her case any further. Another opponent--project resident Aurea Santiago--seemed satisfied with a city proposal unveiled at the hearing to scatter the 12 trailers around the housing project. Original plans called for placing the trailers in a cluster.

After the hearing, Housing Authority Executive Director Leila Gonzalez-Correa said it was her perception “that the majority of the group here really accepts the project as it has been explained to you tonight.” Her comments were greeted with applause from many of the Normont Terrace tenants, whose coordinating council supports the plan.

Petition Opposing Plan

Tuesday night’s hearing--the second public hearing on the project--was called after Hughes and Santiago gave Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores a petition opposing the plan that was signed by 71 Harbor City residents, 56 of them from the 395-unit housing project. Flores said she asked the Housing Authority to hold the second hearing to better explain the proposal.

The plan calls for the city to place 12 mobile homes on vacant land at the 37-acre project, and then use those homes for short-term housing--probably between 30 and 90 days--for homeless families. A spokesman for the Housing Authority said they hoped to have the trailers in place by Christmas.

The proposal is part of a citywide plan to place 102 such trailers at housing projects around the city in an attempt to ease the homeless problem. City officials have stressed that the program is designed for families and have said trailers will not be placed at housing projects where they are not wanted.

At the first Normont Terrace hearing Oct. 2, 38 residents voted in favor of the trailers and 12 voted against them.

Vote Called Unfair

After the hearing, however, Hughes and Santiago began circulating their petition, and some residents said the vote was not a fair representation of the views of all Normont Terrace residents.

Hughes, who has lived across the street from the project for two years, wrote a letter to Gonzalez-Correa to complain about “drugs and peddlers of all sorts” at Normont Terrace. “How convenient it will be for your Skid Row transients to walk outside their brand new trailer and buy drugs,” she wrote.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Hughes was one of the few who spoke against the trailers. “There’s an entire community at stake here,” she said. Afterward, however, she said she would not pursue her concerns because she did not want to look like a villain.

The meeting turned acrimonious at points, with some Normont Terrace residents accusing neighbors who live outside the project--in “the private sector”--of perpetuating lies about the trailer proposal and of trying to control life in the project.

Stella Jurado, who co-chairs the Normont Terrace Coordinating Council, said some who signed the petition were falsely told that the trailers would not have plumbing or running water, and that the homeless would have to use the bathroom facilities of Normont Terrace residents.

Hughes later disputed that statement.

Jurado also expressed her resentment of neighbors who wanted to interfere with life at Normont Terrace. “I don’t go out into your homes and tell you what to (do).”

Like Jurado, most Normont Terrace residents who spoke favored the city’s proposal. Said one woman: “I know in my work, I’ve seen ladies with three babies on Broad Avenue in Wilmington, in cardboard boxes. . . . We have to trust somebody.”