May Intervene With HUD : Berman Ties Rent Hike to Upgrading of Project

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) said Tuesday he may use his influence with the federal Housing and Urban Development Department to help a Pacoima housing-project owner raise rents so he can afford to combat budding crime, drug and vandalism problems.

But first, Berman said, he wants the owner and the management company that oversees Lake View Terrace Apartments to make headway with maintenance on the complex. Berman said he also wants them to hire a new on-site manager to replace the one who resigned earlier this month after she was beaten up, allegedly by a tenant’s son.

“I told them, ‘Let’s start making improvements and then we can go to HUD,’ ” Berman said Tuesday in Washington during a telephone interview.

Berman said he is concerned with “deteriorating conditions and security at a number of housing projects in my district.”

Christopher White, executive director of SK Management Co., which manages Lake View Terrace Apartments, said the company has hired an interim manager and is trying to find a permanent one.

Hiring of Guards

White said raising rents would allow him to hire security guards for the complex. Any rent increase must be approved by HUD because owner Todd Spieker bought the 128-unit building on Filmore Street in 1986 with a low-interest HUD loan and because 45 of the units are under HUD rent subsidies.

The building is already in trouble with HUD, however, because repairs requested after a site inspection more than a year ago have not been completed, White said.

“They were concerned that certain items were not done,” he said. “We responded that many other items were done. We put a priority that with limited funds it would be less important to paint a wall than to install a garbage disposal.”

HUD spokesman Scott Reed would not comment on the investigation.

Residents of Lake View Terrace Apartments conducted a tour Tuesday afternoon for members from Berman’s and Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi’s staffs, a HUD inspector, and managers of other federally subsidized apartment complexes. The tenants acknowledged that their complex is in better shape than several of Pacoima’s other low-income housing projects.

“We’re trying to stop it before it gets worse,” said Hobart Ellis of the crime, drug and vandalism problems. “We don’t want this to turn into a battleground.” Ellis has lived in the apartments for 16 years.

Among the tenants’ complaints are a children’s playground rendered unsafe by stagnant water and flea-infested sand; exposed wires, and high cinder-block garbage-dumpster enclosures that double as drug “shooting galleries” and hiding places for drug dealers.

Since the manager left, drug dealers have broken through front security gates, which have not been repaired, tenants said.

White said the wires are cable television and telephone lines, adding that it is the responsibility of the companies that installed them to enclose them.

He expressed frustration at the wear and tear on the year-old security gate. “Unfortunately, at Lake View Terrace Apartments, we find that the drug-related problems are such that we have trouble keeping the security system working,” he said. “They have sawed off locks and broken off locks. There have been about 20 or 30 repairs made to those gates.”

Berman said he learned about problems at the Lake View Terrace Apartments from Rose Castaneda, a member of his staff. He said he will discuss tenant complaints raised Tuesday with White and apartment owner Spieker.