HUD Takes Over Troubled South-Central L.A. Project : Housing: More security, other improvements are promised as Ujima’s private operators are removed.

Federal officials, launching an aggressive effort to clean up publicly subsidized housing, Monday seized control of a run-down, 300-unit project in South-Central Los Angeles that authorities say has been plagued by drug trafficking, gang gatherings and dilapidated facilities.

Describing the troubled Ujima Village housing complex in Willowbrook as among the worst-run in the state, federal officials said this is the first time in California that they have moved this quickly to take over a privately run housing complex.

As government-paid workers began pounding shut abandoned, roach-infested apartments at Ujima Village, dozens of longtime residents there turned out anxiously to hear U.S. Housing and Urban Development officials try to chart their uncertain future.

As part of the takeover, HUD plans to spend up to $6 million to fix the Ujima complex, in the 900 block of East 126th Street, and to implement around-the-clock security to guard against alleged drug dealing, gambling activities, and random gunfire by alleged gang members who live there, local HUD officials said. Previously, private security officers worked only at night.

Over the last decade, residents say they have had to deal with cockroaches and rats in their homes. Broken windows, scattered piles of trash and dried out grass have become commonplace, they said.

They added that broken stairs and damaged appliances are unattended for months before they are repaired by management--if at all.

Several residents noted skeptically that their revolving door of private owners over the last decade made “promise after promise” of rehabilitating the place. One longtime resident demanded assurances that the federal government, unlike its private predecessors, will not simply “take black folks and pacify them” with a few simple repairs.

Charles Ming, regional HUD field manager, said, “I promise you that by December the first you will see some major changes overall. . . . We’re not going to be the fly-by-night (operation) that maybe you’ve experienced in the past.”

HUD took control of the 20-year-old complex Monday from Associated Financial Corp. of Santa Monica, whose investors owe nearly $2 million in mortgage payments, federal authorities said. The firm, which owns 44,000 low-income housing units nationwide, was banned in February from doing business with HUD for a year, following allegations of misappropriated funds.

Under the previous arrangement, the complex was run by Associated, while HUD funds subsidized individual rent payments and HUD served as the mortgage guarantor. As part of the takeover, HUD has hired a private firm to handle the day-to-day operation of the complex, at least temporarily.

Once the HUD repairs are well under way the government, with the aid of still-unspecified public and private funds, plans to turn ownership of the complex over to Drew Economic Development Corp., a private, nonprofit center in South-Central Los Angeles, and to complex residents.

A. Bruce Rozet, chairman of Associated Financial Corp., said of the takeover, “I have no ax to grind with the people at HUD. We all tried to do what we thought was the best thing with what was available.

“It’s time for a change--to have the tenants own it,” he said. “That serves the best interest of everyone because you’ll never eliminate the problems unless the tenants in the community control their own housing.”

HUD and Associated Financial Corp. officials have been negotiating for about a year how and whether to transfer ownership of the Ujima complex, federal officials said.

The key factor in the discussions came in July when the complex’s administrative building was gutted by a firebomb, just after about 80 alleged gang members and young people at the complex clashed with private security guards on the grounds.

“That’s when we said enough is enough,” said Robert De Monte, regional HUD administrator for a four-state area that includes California. Adding to the urgency of the government seizure was the discovery of asbestos and gasoline-coated soil at the site.

Housing officials have been considering taking control of another troubled project, Geneva Towers in San Francisco, although the owners--an investment partnership controlled by Associated Financial--are fighting the move and the matter has landed in court.

Increasingly over the last 1 1/2 years, HUD officials ranging from the agency’s chief, Jack Kemp, to local HUD administrators around the country have been attacking poorly run housing projects in general and Rozet operations in particular.

Last year, in an effort to prove that he had taken a get-tough stance on owners of HUD-subsidized property, Kemp seized control of an Associated Financial-owned project in Washington, D.C. The agency seized two other projects in Tulsa, Okla. At the time, the director of HUD in Oklahoma was Ming, who was transferred to Los Angeles earlier this year.

HUD’s aggressive pursuit of control over such low-income housing projects is seen by some observers as part of an effort by the agency to redeem its tarnished image after allegations that it was badly mismanaged during the Reagan Administration and unduly influenced by a small group of insiders.

Although the current owners of Ujima will not get any payment for the complex, Rozet maintained that their only losses as a result of the transaction will be the payment in taxes--perhaps several million dollars--by investors who had used Ujima as a tax shelter.

Despite the prospect of owning the apartment buildings themselves, Ujima residents said past events prompt them to look at the future with caution.

“The place has deteriorated terribly, and all we’ve gotten is promises, promises, promises,” said 77-year-old Pearl Hunter, who has lived there since 1973. “Maybe (HUD officials) are going to do something--maybe. But who really knows?”

If the multimillion-dollar rehabilitation of the complex is to succeed, said tenant council President Gladys Smith, 56, the complex’s approximately 1,000 residents--who generally pay about 30% of their incomes toward rent, aided by the federal subsidies--will have to take an active role.

Until now, she said, “we sat back and allowed this downturn to happen, so we’re as much to blame as anyone.”

Such cooperation is essential, agreed Lawrence Wahl, vice president of Alpha Property Management Inc. of Los Angeles, the firm hired by the federal government as day-to-day manager of the complex’s rehabilitation.

“One of our priorities is going to be getting the confidence of the residents,” Wahl said after meeting with residents. “I can rehabilitate the whole place, but if I don’t have the backing of the residents, it’s going to be worthless.”

Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this story.