Local News in Brief : Evictions to Be Delayed

Deluged with complaints from 26 families who are being evicted to make way for two large apartment projects in Moneta Gardens, Hawthorne City Manager R. Kenneth Jue said he will negotiate with property owners so tenants can remain in their homes until the end of the school year. He also pledged to investigate possible health and building code violations reported by tenants at the City Council meeting Monday night.

Renters appeared before the council to report widespread disrepair in their dwellings, three-bedroom homes clustered in courts at 13612 to 13630 1/2 Chadron Avenue and 13927 to 13937 Lemoli Avenue. They said water leaks have flooded at least one yard and left floors in several homes chronically wet.

In an interview Tuesday, developer Siraj Hassanally said he will allow families with children in school to remain until the end of the school year, but others will have to leave sooner. He plans to build a 60-unit apartment project on Chadron and 37 units on Lemoli.

Hassanally said rents have been kept to $650 a month--lower than the area average of $850, he said--because of the impending demolition. Tenants have known of his plan to demolish the units for 2 1/2 years, he said. A spokeswoman for Real Estate Connection, Hassanally’s property management firm, said some problems that tenants reported Monday had already been corrected and others will be fixed immediately.

At the council meeting, City Atty. Michael Adamson said the city’s landlord-tenant law calls for the tenants rather than the city to go to court, if necessary, to obtain relocation benefits of up to $2,500.