Illegal Housing Is Cited by City Inspectors

Miguel Torres showed off the illegal garage dwelling to Los Angeles building inspectors Monday as if he were guiding a model home tour.

In order to rent out his home for $450 a month, he had converted his two-car garage on 111th Street in South-Central Los Angeles into three rooms--bathroom, bedroom and living room--for his family of seven. Torres proudly pointed out the bootlegged plumbing and electrical outlets--work of his hands done to convert a shelter for automobiles into a home for his family.

“I have nothing I want to hide,” said Torres, 42, a gas station attendant. “This is the best I can provide.”

But his best is illegal and possibly dangerous, inspectors told him.

Action by the City

On Monday, Torres was among the first of about 60 property owners to be cited in the city’s first attempt in more than 20 years to crack down on building and safety code violations in residential areas.

The pilot program in the 8th Council District, which is expected to take several months, began quietly with four inspectors walking from house to house in a two-block area, peering into back yards and scanning houses for building defects.

Single-family houses--mostly small, wood-framed stucco homes--lined the area surveyed Monday. About half passed muster. They were generally neatly kept, adorned with flower gardens and trim lawns.

At the others, Supervising Building Inspector Heikes Powell and his four-man crew found abandoned automobiles parked in the yards or out front on the street. Several car engines were spotted in overgrown weeds on front lawns. Some driveways and patios looked like junk yards, a violation of city laws that prohibit open storage of debris.

One vacant lot had become a dumping ground for old appliances and damaged furniture. Another lot served as grounds for a squatter in a trailer, a man who told inspectors he didn’t know who owned the land.

Sagging roofs, crumbling cement walkways and broken windows were noted by inspectors.

At one point, Powell became intrigued by a two-story back yard structure in the framing stages. When he looked in the back, he saw that the do-it-yourself home builder had left exposed electrical wiring and the posts and beams were tilting to one side. Each stair was about two feet high.

“It’s good to catch these things early before this guy goes any further,” Powell said.

Powell’s crew also spotted four garages that had been illegally converted into housing--a violation city officials said will be the most difficult to solve.

In a city staggering under a shortage of affordable homes and waves of poor immigrants, the garages, estimated at 42,000 in Los Angeles County, have become the shelter of last resort. But they are illegal, usually dangerous and often unfit for human habitation, authorities said.

As the inspectors made their way down 110th and 111th streets, many residents and passers-by glared at them. But the handful of residents who were at home to answer the inspector’s knock appeared to be supportive.

“I understand what they are trying to do. There are quite a few houses around here that need fixing,” said Marvin Thompson, a homeowner with a ramshackle garage that is weakened and leaning. “In a way it’s cool, as long as they don’t force you to do it right away and give you a loan.”

As the building inspectors wrote up a notice for Thompson, ordering him to fix the garage, he said he had already applied for a $40,000 no-interest loan to repair it as well as remodel his 40-year-old house.

Under the program, property owners will be sent letters detailing the violations and ordering them to comply with the law. Property owners will be offered low-interest or no-interest loans and ample time to do the repairs, said Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell, who pushed for the pilot program in his district.

If the violations are not corrected, property owners could face misdemeanor or felony charges, depending on the magnitude of the hazardous conditions.

It is unclear what will happen to the illegally converted garages, however.

“I hope they can help me,” garage dweller Torres said. “If the city tells us we have to move out of the garage I don’t know what we will do. I need to rent the house to support my family.”