Project Tenants Demand Ouster of Two Officials

Tenant leaders from 12 of the city’s 21 public housing projects have demanded that Mayor Tom Bradley seek the resignations of Housing Authority Executive Director Leila Gonzalez-Correa and one of her most outspoken allies, Housing Commissioner Dori Pye.

Disgruntled tenant leaders from the aging projects sent a letter to Bradley last week after a mid-March meeting at which they decided to press for the ousters of Gonzalez-Correa and Pye.

Gary Squier, the city’s housing coordinator, met with the tenants Wednesday to find out more about their concerns, but declined to comment on whether Bradley contemplates taking any action. He said, however, that the residents’ concerns will be fully aired with the mayor.

“The mayor’s office feels the tenants have a vital role and a crucial responsibility to help the city improve housing conditions where they live, and we’re going to do everything possible to work with them as a team,” Squier said.

Gonzalez-Correa, hired by the city after a nationwide search in late 1986, has been increasingly criticized by tenants for failing to clean up the neglected--and in many cases rat-infested--projects scattered throughout Los Angeles. They house more than 8,000 of the city’s poorest residents.

Responding to the tenants’ demand that she resign, Gonzalez-Correa said there is “a wall between myself and some of the residents that I really need to get past.” She said she was sorry to hear about the letter, and that she shares the tenants’ goal of improving life at the projects.

“I want to get the residents not only involved in the decisions of the Housing Authority but empowered within the Housing Authority,” she said, with the eventual goal of turning operation of the projects over to a resident-controlled council, a practice that has met with success in many large cities.

Gonzalez-Correa inherited an agency left in disarray by a previous director, Homer Smith, who resigned under pressure. In recent months, she has quietly sent her resume out to other housing authorities in major cities. However, since the news of her job-seeking was reported in The Times, she has promised to complete her three-year contract.

Claudia Moore, chairwoman of the Housing Authority Resident Advisory Council, said Gonzalez-Correa’s poor relationship with tenants “cannot be overcome, and we are in agreement that she must go.”

Moore said a rally has been scheduled for April 27 on the steps of City Hall to demand the resignations of Gonzalez-Correa and Pye.

Moore said tenants are not being included in major planning to modernize the projects, and tenant desires are being ignored. For instance, she said, the crime-ridden Jordan Downs project in Watts, widely regarded as the city’s worst, was not ranked first on a list of priorities in Gonzalez-Correa’s new five-year modernization plan.

“Never have we been asked what we would like to see done first, or even what we would like to see done,” Moore said.

Denies Ignoring Needs

Gonzalez-Correa said she has begun mailing out questionnaires to every family in the projects, asking what changes they would like to see, and has employed a group of residents to help provide services to tenants.

Pye, a Westwood businesswoman, several weeks ago became involved in a shouting match with tenants who had criticized Gonzalez-Correa at a public meeting.

After the incident--in which Pye claims she was physically menaced by one tenant holding a purse and a second tenant who raised his fist in the air--Pye began bringing an armed bodyguard with her to meetings with tenants, a practice she has since discontinued.

Although she said she was disappointed over the tenants’ request that she resign, Pye said, “The residents have a right and a reason to be unhappy about the conditions in the projects--there is no question in my mind about that. But for (Gonzalez-Correa) and the Housing Commission to correct these problems has been very difficult because we do not have enough money.”

Pye said her use of a bodyguard, “was because I was threatened and it was a frightening experience for me. I think it’s been made into a big thing--many commissioners have used the Housing Authority police for rides to the airport or escort or whatever--and in this case I felt it was justified.”

However, tenant leaders say Pye’s use of a bodyguard insulted them and demonstrated that she is biased against the poor and incapable of conducting the duties of a housing commissioner.