Poor Seeking New Home as L.A. Shuts Unsafe Motel : Condemned: Building inspectors have declared crime-ridden Pacoima structure unsafe. Some of its longtime residents say they have nowhere to go.

An old and dilapidated Pacoima motel, which police and residents said had become a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes in recent months, will be boarded up and closed Monday morning, displacing several poor families.

City building inspectors declared the 18-unit, court-style Olive Motel at 10867 San Fernando Road unsafe Friday and ordered tenants to vacate the decaying cabins and duplexes.

Inspector Robert Cantu taped a sign on each unit declaring it a misdemeanor to enter.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” tenant Maria Rutilia Estrada said Saturday. “I have no money. I have no work.”

Her neighbor, Hemilia Valera, said she and her five children cannot move out by the 8:30 a.m. Monday deadline because her husband is working in Canada and she has no way to communicate with him. “How will he be able to find us?” she asked.

Los Angeles police welcomed the news that the motel will be closed, saying the complex had become a center for criminal activity.

“They have a lot of drugs, prostitution, drinking, you name it,” said Sgt. Bill Thomas.

Estrada, a resident of the complex since 1971, said it once had been a nice place to live.

“No more,” she said, gesturing toward several people gathered in the rear of the complex, laughing, drinking and smoking. “Now, there are many prostitutes and drug dealers here. Still, I have no place else to go.”

Estrada, who speaks no English, lives at the motel with three grandchildren, a daughter and her husband. She said she learned that she had to leave when owner David Reza visited her Saturday to tell her.

“I’m so worried. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep,” Estrada said.

Matilda Vega, who managed the complex from 1970 until 1984, said the motel was once clean and landscaped. She returned to the complex Saturday to offer Estrada and her family temporary shelter in her Panorama City home.

“You can put your things in storage,” Vega told her friend.

“I have no money,” Estrada repeated, adding that she was concerned that her furniture and personal belongings would be boarded up inside the condemned cabin because she had no place else to put them.

Vega said the complex had been all but takenover by drug dealers and prostitutes in recent months.

“Some of the families moved out,” she said. “There maybe are eight or nine of them left.”

Reza could not be reached, but an employee at his Simi Valley furniture store said his boss has offered to help Estrada and other tenants relocate their families.

“There are a lot of vagrants there,” said the employee, who would not give his name. He said Reza had sold the complex in 1988 but was forced to foreclose on it last year after the buyer failed to make payments. Reza had wanted to tear the complex down for several months, the employee said.

The buyer, Rod Daniels of Granada Hills, also visited the motel Saturday. “I was concerned about some of the tenants,” he said.

Daniels said he learned after he bought the complex in November, 1988, that some of its units were havens for drug dealers and prostitutes. He said he stopped making payments on the motel, which he had intended to renovate, after he discovered that the property had been cited for building code violations before he purchased it.

Members of the city Homeless Project will be present Monday to provide temporary shelter and aid for tenants who have not found new housing, project officials said.