Officials Tried to Limit Number of Poor Tenants

Los Angeles housing officials have privately sought to limit the number of low-income tenants who could remain in the Bryant-Vanalden redevelopment project, a city housing official said Friday.

Barbara Zeidman, director of the Community Development Department’s rent stabilization division, said the city and the project’s developer agreed that no more than 40% of the renovated apartments would be rented to low-income tenants.

The fact that the agreement was not discussed publicly may explain why the Bryant-Vanalden project is mired in confusion. Bryant-Vanalden tenants say they are effectively being forced out of the area, contrary to public promises that they could remain.

“I’m not sure that was ever made clear to the tenants or the council,” Zeidman said. “It was an act of omission, not commission.”

Limit Was Backed

Zeidman said the Community Development Department advocated a limit because it did not want to see Bryant-Vanalden become a public housing project. She said the developer wanted the limit in order to increase profits.

Some City Council members said Friday it was their understanding when the project was approved that low-income tenants would be able to use government rent subsidies to remain in Bryant-Vanalden units after they were renovated, and rents were increased.

“My understanding was that they would be permitted to stay,” Councilman Ernani Bernardi said. “The money was to upgrade the facility, not throw the people out and bring in high-rent people.”

Councilman Hal Bernson, chief sponsor of the redevelopment plan, said the city worked to make rent subsidies available to Bryant-Vanalden tenants “not for relocation but to make the units affordable for people after the renovation took place.”

Amid the confusion Friday, Bernardi said he will ask the City Council, possibly as early as Tuesday, to order a review of the Bryant-Vanalden project and other similar tax-supported housing renovation projects in the city. Bernardi said he also will ask the council to look into whether the Community Development Department has failed to adequately monitor the project.

Bernson was clearly miffed by Bernardi’s planned request. “I don’t know what Ernie’s interest is,” said Bernson, whose district includes the Bryant-Vanalden area. “This is not his district. Maybe we ought to review some of the stuff in his district.”

Bernson Satisfied

Bernson said he is satisfied with assurances from officials of the Community Development Department and Devinder (Dave) Vadehra, the project’s developer, that tenants have been allowed to remain in the Bryant-Vanalden area. “I don’t know who else I can rely on but CDD and him,” Bernson said. He said he could not explain why dozens of tenants have said they were not offered an opportunity to remain.

Zeidman, however, said she also has received reports that tenants are not being given an opportunity to remain.

“They are being constructively evicted,” she said. She said the developer is giving tenants two choices. “The rent is being raised beyond their ability to pay,” and the developer is not accepting Section 8 rent subsidy certificates from all tenants.

About 30 Bryant-Vanalden tenants echoed the sentiment at an emotion-packed face-to-face meeting Friday night with representatives of the city and the developer.

Rebecca Reyes, a Bryant-Vanalden tenant, said that when she visited the project’s office to ask whether any low-income resident who wants to stay can do so, a representative of the developer “was very candid with me. She said that out of all of the units being prepared, only 91 are for those” with rent subsidies.

“It seems to me that you just want to get us out,” she said to representatives of the city and the developer.

Earlier Friday, Zeidman said in an interview that the developer can rent apartments for more than he can receive under the federal Section 8 rent subsidy program, which places a ceiling on rents. “What he is trying to achieve is his maximum cash flow,” she said.

However, Douglas Ford, former general manager of the Community Development Department, said the deparment publicly told tenants at meetings that there was no guarantee that they could remain at Bryant-Vanalden. He said that tenants were told that, “to the maximum extent possible, they would be given a choice.”

“It was clear that nobody had a guarantee they would be able to stay,” Ford said. “What they were guaranteed was that if they were legitimate tenants, they’d be entitled to some relocation, whether it be cash or Section 8.”

Under the federal rent subsidy program, low-income tenants pay 30% of their income for rent; the government pays the rest. To qualify for Section 8, a family of four must earn less than $17,950 a year.

Zeidman, meanwhile, said she still supports a limit but “does not support it being forcibly achieved.”

She said that it was expected that the 40% limit could be reached without forcing out tenants. The city and developer assumed that many tenants would accept government rent subsidies and voluntarily move out to live in larger, more comfortable apartments in other parts of the city. She said that more tenants than expected have opted to stay.

Zeidman added that she disapproves of tenants being forced out. She said the developer probably will reach the 40% level in two or three years through turnover.