Court Orders Ex-Skid Row Slumlord to Aid Children

Convicted slumlord Stephen Regen, 27, of Woodland Hills was ordered Thursday to contribute $2,500 to a Skid Row children’s center and to spend 60 days working for it for failing to make court-ordered repairs before selling a run-down apartment building, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office reported.

Para Los Ninos helps children on Skid Row, where Regen owned the three-story building cited by the city earlier this year for numerous health, fire and building and safety violations.

The order, issued by Municipal Court Judge Lois Anderson Smaltz, followed Regen’s conviction on a probation violation.

He had been barred from selling the apartment building at 1115 Wall St. until city- and court-ordered repairs were complete. The city’s Housing Enforcement Task Force discovered that the three-story building had been sold Sept. 15, one day after the court-imposed deadline for completion of repairs.

“Not enough work had been done on the building at the time Regen sold it,” City Attorney James K. Hahn said.

When Hahn filed charges against Regen earlier this year, he cited problems at the apartment house ranging from broken windows and doors, missing smoke detectors, insufficient water pressure and lack of exit signs to inoperable fire doors and fire hoses, a blocked fire escape, cockroach infestation, holes in walls and ceilings, damaged sinks and unsanitary bathrooms.

Regen pleaded no contest in Municipal Court on Aug. 10 to 12 violations of health, fire and building and safety codes. The court commissioner ordered him to pay $7,308 in fines and penalties and gave him the Sept. 14 repair deadline.

The Housing Enforcement Task Force investigation into the building’s condition and sale is continuing.