Huge Rent-Controlled Complex in San Pedro to Be Razed for Condos
The Southwinds Apartments--by far the largest rent-controlled apartment complex in San Pedro--have been vacated and will be torn down sometime within the next several months to make way for luxury condominiums.
The 174-unit Southwinds development catered to moderate-income tenants and, because its apartments are spacious, couples with children. Many tenants had lived at the complex for years--decades in some cases--and thus paid rents that were below market because of Los Angeles’ rent control laws.
By last week, six months after they first received eviction notices, all the tenants had moved out.
The replacement of Southwinds with condominiums follows trends in San Pedro, where affordable housing is becoming more and more scarce as land prices spiral upward.
City housing officials say the loss of Southwinds will have a significant effect on the San Pedro rental market, where the average rent in 1988 was $694--compared to about $475 for new residents at Southwinds. But many tenants were paying much less than that, some as little as $300 for a three-bedroom apartment.
“It’s really very sad because those buildings are basically sound,” said Barbara Zeidman, director of the city’s rent stabilization program. “San Pedro has very few large housing complexes, period. (Southwinds) is certainly the last large block of more moderate rental units.”
Southwinds, which sprawls over 9.3 acres between Western and Weymouth avenues, north of 19th Street, will be replaced with 163 two- and three-bedroom townhomes, according to San Pedro developer Eugene Bozulich.
Bozulich purchased the Southwinds complex with his partner, John Trutanich, in 1984. He would not disclose the purchase price.
The townhomes, which Bozulich said will sell for at least $300,000, will range in size from 2,000 to 2,700 square feet and will have various amenities, including fireplaces and two- and three-car garages.
The development, which Bozulich said will cost “in excess of $30 million to build,” will go up in phases and should be complete by 1992.
“It will be an asset to San Pedro,” Bozulich said. “We’re very proud of this development. We’re not out-of-towners just trying to make a buck and leave and build a shabby project.”
But before Bozulich and Trutanich begin construction, they must first move 48 of the Southwinds apartments to a site elsewhere in Los Angeles, to comply with a requirement imposed by the Los Angeles City Council.
City officials say the requirement is intended to compensate for the loss of rental housing when Southwinds is demolished. Bozulich said he and Trutanich have contracted with a moving company to relocate the units but have yet to find an available site.
In addition, the developers were required by city law to pay each Southwind tenant between $2,000 and $5,000 in relocation assistance. They also hired Griffith & Associates, a company that specializes in relocation, to help their tenants find new homes.
Southwinds tenants learned of the developers’ plans in 1987, and occupancy at the complex has dwindled since then. About 100 apartments were occupied when eviction notices were sent out in February.
According to Zeidman, the eviction hit especially hard at Southwinds because most of its former tenants are middle-class people--too wealthy to qualify for government housing subsidies, but not wealthy enough to be able comfortably to afford San Pedro’s high rents.
5 Qualify for Subsidies
Indeed, Penny Griffith, owner of Griffith & Associates, said only five Southwinds tenants qualified for subsidized housing. The rest, she said, have had to “redo their budgets.”
“Most of the buildings we deal with are rent-controlled buildings, and the people are used to paying relatively low rent and they really don’t want to pay much more than that,” Griffith said. “The realities are that to move, they’ll have to pay more rent.”
Some former Southwinds tenants are now paying double or triple what they previously paid.
One former tenant, who did not want to be named, said she paid $300 for a three-bedroom apartment at Southwinds and is now paying $600 for a one-bedroom unit elsewhere in San Pedro.
“You have to be rich or you have to be on welfare,” she complained. “If you are a middle-class person in San Pedro, you have no home, or you have to work two jobs to find a place.”
Another former resident, Lorraine Patalano, said she paid $362 a month for a three-bedroom unit at Southwinds and is now paying nearly triple that amount for a three-bedroom apartment elsewhere in San Pedro. Patalano, who had lived at Southwinds for 16 years, said she splits the rent for her new apartment with two of her children.
But for Patalano and other longtime Southwinds residents, the eviction meant more than the loss of an affordable apartment. It also meant the breakup of the Southwinds community.
“It’s been real tough,” said Christine Virgason, who was among the last to move. “A lot of people have lived here for 20 years, and raised families. . . . It used to be teeming with people, little kids all over the place. It was just a nice, family-oriented place.”
