Let’s Hear It for Operation Rebuild

Abandoned, dilapidated and unsecured houses serve as crack dens and gang hangouts in Los Angeles. A city program targets the worst of these uninhabitable houses for demolition to remove the dangerous public-safety hazard, but some of them should be salvaged.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky has proposed rebuilding rather than demolishing the derelict houses to help create more affordable housing. It is a sound proposal. Because housing is in short supply for poor families, government should err on the side of restoration rather than destruction whenever practical.

More than 200 houses were torn down last year as a result of Operation Knockdown. The city bulldozed 50 houses in South-Central Los Angeles while individual owners paid for the other demolitions because they could not afford to, or didn’t want to, bring the houses up to the building codes.

The housing loss, outlined two months ago by The Times, prompted Mayor Tom Bradley to direct city officials to certify a house as unsalvageable before it is demolished. The additional scrutiny has prevented unwarranted demolitions, but now stronger intervention is needed to reclaim the housing.

Yaroslavsky’s Operation Rebuild would use $3 million from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to buy 50 houses next year. Nonprofit developers would oversee the rehabilitation, then sell or rent the homes to responsible low- or moderate-income families. The city would impose restrictions on future rentals or sales, justified by the use of public money, to keep the property affordable for 30 years.

Not all old houses are worth saving, of course. A burned-out shell would be better demolished. If the owner is willing to sell, the CRA could move another house onto the vacant lot. Another poor family--and the neighborhood--would benefit.

No one should have to live next to a crack house. But simply bulldozing derelict houses is not the only solution. Rebuilding them would increase the supply of affordable housing in Los Angeles.