Moratorium Sought on Demolitions : Housing: Yaroslavsky expresses outrage over destruction of repairable homes in anti-drug program. Bradley proposes some reforms.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on Tuesday called for a 60-day moratorium on city-ordered demolitions of abandoned homes, and Mayor Tom Bradley proposed other restrictions, based upon a published report that an aggressive new anti-drug tear-down program had destroyed salvageable houses.

Yaroslavsky said Operation Knockdown was billed a year ago as a “last resort” to rid neighborhoods of crack cocaine houses, but “this program has gone far beyond that,” resulting in the demolition of homes in poor areas with acute housing shortages, regardless of whether drugs were involved.

The Times disclosed Tuesday that the program, intended to destroy about 70 derelict homes used as crack dens and gang hide-outs, had quietly expanded as city Building and Safety inspectors received mounting complaints from police and neighbors concerning dilapidated or crime-ridden houses.

As a result, 215 homes and other buildings--including an unknown number of repairable houses--were bulldozed at a cost to the owners of $2,500 to $4,500 each. Some houses had been used by homeless squatters who were then put on the streets.

Moreover, city officials were unable to provide a figure--and said they were not keeping track--of how many homes were actually known crack houses.

“I was outraged,” Yaroslavsky said. “(Elected officials) have actually gone down with press agents in hand to watch demolitions. Demolishing of homes is nothing to celebrate in this city.”

Bradley, in a letter to The Times, called Operation Knockdown a program that “has worked,” but he proposed two reforms. He asked for more certification showing that homes are not repairable before they are destroyed, and proposed that owners be told of loans that may be available to repair their homes.

“Only if a property is in serious disrepair--with open windows and doors and roofs that have been burned down by fire--should Building and Safety activate Operation Knockdown,” Bradley wrote.

But Yaroslavsky, whose motion will be considered by the City Council next Tuesday, said that even if a home is “really dilapidated,” the city should attempt to resolve the problem without demolition. “The big picture is that we have the worst homelessness anywhere,” Yaroslavsky said. “We are always quick to criticize the Bush Administration or Reagan Administration for causing homelessness but don’t . . . blame ourselves.”

Bill Chandler, an aide to Bradley, said the mayor ordered Building and Safety officials last week to undertake the changes proposed in his letter. He said the changes were ordered after a Times reporter asked the mayor for comment on the newspaper’s findings.

Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said the majority of homes torn down could not have been fixed, but he was unable to provide statistics. Building and Safety officials earlier told The Times that they were not keeping a tally.

Fabiani said Bradley opposes Yaroslavsky’s motion for a moratorium, believing “that people who live near these crack homes don’t deserve to live near them even one more day, and certainly not 60 more days.”