Tough New Managers Make Apartments Livable Again

The Rivera Villa Apartments, known for years as a gang haven, are being cleaned up.

Most of the rowdy tenants have been evicted in the last two months, and security systems have been fixed. Gang members no longer linger in the front lobby harassing residents. Gang members also have been chased out of a secluded dirt area in back of the complex where they drank beer and smoked marijuana.

Exterior walls have been painted, covering all but a trace of the graffiti that once splattered the 90-unit complex in Pico Rivera.

Police trips to the Rivera Villa Apartments, which sometimes numbered six a day, have been reduced to about one a week.

Some tenants say they now feel it is safe to come out of their apartments at night.

The improvements began after Don Clark, a former Green Beret, and his wife, Lisa, were hired in September to manage the complex at 7650 Passons Blvd. Their first challenge was to walk past about 50 men who were loitering in the front lobby, Don Clark recalled.

The Clarks said they called police when tenants became unruly. At the outset, sheriff’s deputies sometimes made as many as six trips a day to the complex, Don Clark said.

Residents who were disruptive or had frequent visitors in their apartments were served eviction notices, and county marshals sometimes were called to enforce the orders. In two months, more than 35 tenants were evicted, Clark said.

Annette Solis, who lives in the complex with her four daughters, said she has noticed the change.

“It used to be a hellhole,” she said. “It was rough living here. I have little kids, and when they come home from school, I used to let them play outside. But then cops would come running through with their guns out.”

She said she now can sleep peacefully at night. “The drug dealers don’t come around anymore. There’s a new ‘No Trespassing’ sign by the front entrance that actually stops people. I haven’t seen the police here for a week, and that’s good.”

City officials, who have been receiving a monthly report from the Sheriff’s Department on activities at the apartment complex, also said they have noticed improvement and have resumed referring applicants from a program that provides partial rent payments for low-income families.

City officials earlier had halted referrals from the Housing Assistance Program until the complex was cleaned up and unruly tenants were evicted, Community Development Director Bill Shannon said. It was the third time in the last eight years that city officials had taken such action, he said.

“The key is to have managers who are stable and willing to stay with the problem,” Shannon said, noting that there have been four different owners in the last eight years.

The current owner, Sam Menlow, has owned the complex less than two years, Shannon said. “I just tried to eliminate the elements that were connected with the trouble at the Rivera Villa Apartments,” Menlow said. He refused to comment further.

Resident, Dawna Deckard, 26, said the complex has become a better place to live, but expressed concern about whether the new managers will remain.

Gang members harassed previous managers--one left the same night he moved in, she said.

Don Clark said he plans to stay for a while. “My wife is scared, (but) there is no more real heavy-duty violence. The most they’ll do is beat one another with their bare hands. I am more tempted to take them over my knee and spank them.”