Pacoima Housing Project : Community Center Funded at Last

San Fernando Gardens, a 448-unit public housing project in Pacoima, will receive a community center that government officials said Thursday is long overdue.

Because of federal funding cuts when it was built in 1955, the apartment complex was the only project constructed without either a gymnasium or a social hall of the 21 run by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority, said Jill Karuso, resident services coordinator.

Despite several efforts over the years to build a center at San Fernando Gardens, money never became available, she said.

“Right now, we are using Unit 35--a three-bedroom unit--as the sole community center for a community of some 2,000 people and that doesn’t make sense,” said Gary Squier, acting Housing Authority director.

The new center will be sandwiched between offices for the complex and a machine shop for the maintenance crew, according to plans displayed at a news conference Thursday. It will cost $276,000 to build and will be paid for by grants and loans from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Construction could start in the fall or winter, Karuso said. Completion would be before the end of 1990.

Tenants Surveyed

Programs planned for the center are based on responses to tenant surveys and include job training, literacy classes, child care and counseling, she said. The programs will be provided by various social service agencies and community groups.

In one case, staff members of a nearby preschool have offered to teach guitar, Karuso said. In another, a man who owns an auto body shop wants to teach mechanics to youths.

Tenants who attended Thursday’s unveiling were excited about the prospect of a community center, although many said they rank it behind their top priority: increased police patrols to halt open drug-trafficking on their porches and in their courtyards.

“But if we have some kind of center here, for sure it will be used,” said Max Waller, president of the residents’ council.

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi said he had pushed for the community center for nearly two years, ever since Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and former Housing Authority director Leila Gonzalez-Correa toured the project in September, 1987, and vowed to build a center.

“That’s how long we’ve been working on it,” Bernardi said. “It’s kind of ridiculous.”

Several Spanish-speaking tenants complained that presentations by Squier and Bernardi were given in English with no interpreters. Francisco Gonzalez, a 15-year San Fernando Gardens resident, shouted in Spanish: “Those of us who don’t understand English understood nothing.”

At the end of his speech, Bernardi mentioned a proposed fence for the perimeter of the housing project, which he said would “fence out the drug dealers.” The fence idea has caused controversy among tenants. Some believe that it will lock them in with drugs and crime and make police access more difficult.

“Fence” was a word Gonzalez and several other Spanish speakers understood and it led to a lengthy discussion of whether and how it should be built.

“If they’re going to build a fence, it had better be well-closed,” Gonzalez said. “If there are openings, the dealers will get in.”