Toughest Job for Housing Chief: Repairing Broken Lives

For Housing Authority Executive Director Leila Gonzalez-Correa, the toughest fissures to repair in the city’s neglected housing projects may be of the human variety.

Tenants, finding a voice after years of dormancy, have accused her of filling them with false hopes about jobs for residents and a proposed $150-million modernization of the projects, little of which has materialized. She has antagonized the Housing Authority Commission that hired her by sending out resumes in search of a job, although since the story appeared in The Times, she has pledged to stay.

Tense relations with the tenants have been aggravated by the commission, which is planning to spend thousands of dollars on a 50-year anniversary celebration, and hopes to hire a public relations firm to improve the authority’s image.

“If they want our trust, they’re going to have to stop pulling acts like that and get down to painting and fixing and the job at hand,” tenant leader Claudia Moore said.

Mayor Tom Bradley and the City Council have caught some flak over the Housing Authority’s troubles themselves, with critics dubbing the city “the biggest slumlord in Los Angeles.”

“I wouldn’t take Leila’s job for the $95,000 they’re paying her or for $1 million,” said a city housing expert who asked not to be named.

Amid the hubbub, the U.S. Department of Justice has stepped in, offering to mediate between Gonzalez-Correa and tenants who oppose her. In addition, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury has hired the firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells to audit the authority.

Perhaps most significantly, the city’s chief legislative analyst, on orders from the City Council, is working with a high-powered panel of community leaders and housing experts on an independent plan for bringing financial help and social programs to the projects--the first such effort by City Hall.

With so many forces swirling about, observers, both publicly and privately, say it is difficult to judge the job Gonzalez-Correa is doing.

People who know her say that she has innovative, good ideas but alienates people--especially residents who once welcomed her arrival 18 months ago from Texas--by giving the impression things will change tomorrow; that she is smart and financially astute but ill-advisedly shoots from the hip and becomes defensive when put on the spot.

“Anger begets anger, and I think if she could detach herself a little more it would help a great deal. I think that’s her Achilles’ tendon,” said one housing official.

Despite such problems, there are signs that support for her is growing. Two weeks ago, middle management at the 700-employee authority sent a letter to Bradley, commending Gonzalez-Correa for obtaining federal funds and for reorganizing the agency.

Gary Squier, Bradley’s housing specialist, said the mayor supports Gonzalez-Correa. “I think she’s doing a pretty good job in terms of fixing the major systems within the tangled bureaucracy she inherited,” from former Director Homer Smith, Squier said.

“The previous administration was running that big Housing Authority without computers, and that is impossible,” he said. “Can you imagine just having to do that alone, just computerize? That’s hard work, and she’s making sure it gets done.”

If she can earn the trust of the tenants and of the Housing Authority Commission that hired her, persuade federal housing officials that Los Angeles deserves more money and build a solid political bridge to City Hall, “a lot of people who live in the projects could be pulled out of their ruts,” said a top city official.

The chief legislative analyst’s community panel, working independently of the Housing Authority, may be a key factor in that effort. Gonzalez-Correa and Alvin Greene, the powerful chairman of the Housing Authority Commission, are members, as is Moore.

Staff analyst Judy Steele said a pilot program aimed at giving teens and young adults better academic, social and job skills will be proposed by the panel this year for use at an inner-city project.

“This will be a very small program, to see if it works,” Steele said. “We will hold a young person’s hand, basically, getting them over whatever their problems may be, whether it’s a lack of transportation or poor reading skills.”

Analyst Jim Krakowski is heading a group investigating creative financing--especially the idea of redevelopment, which would require moving apartments at some projects closer together to make room for profitable enterprises such as small shopping centers.

Despite assurances from city officials, many residents are suspicious that the Housing Authority may use redevelopment as an opportunity to evict people.

“Reactions like this show you how far we still have to go to earn their trust,” Gonzalez-Correa said.