HUD Examines Bribery Charges at Housing Project : Lake View Terrace: Tenants claim the manager accepts payments from apartment-seekers and exploits racial tensions in the complex.
Federal officials Thursday began investigating allegations that the manager of a housing project in Lake View Terrace accepted bribes from apartment-seekers, improperly obtained apartments for relatives and fomented racial tensions between black and Latino tenants.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development--which provides financing for the privately owned and managed Lake View Terrace Apartments--said it launched the probe at the request of Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City), who represents the area.
HUD is also looking into allegations that the Latina resident manager and a management company are intentionally pitting new Latino residents against longtime black residents. Residents and their legal-aid lawyers accuse the management of exploiting racial tensions in order to harass a residents council made up of black residents who have vocally criticized the owner and new management company.
A Berman aide, Rose Castaneda, met Wednesday night with a predominantly black group of about 30 tenants to hear complaints of mismanagement at the 128-unit complex in the 12500 block of Fillmore Street.
Its 370 residents are about 50% black and 40% Latino, according to management officials.
The project and the management company--Spieker Companies Inc.--are owned by Richard Tod Spieker of Palo Alto, who has been criticized by tenants in the past for maintenance and security problems at the complex. The company was given conditional HUD approval in March to run the housing project, taking over from another firm.
“We are going to be looking very carefully at the tenants’ allegations and concerns,” said William Christiansen, a HUD spokesman. “We have also made the owner aware of them.”
Tenants contend that the manager, Blanca Aquino, has accepted bribes in exchange for placing tenants in apartments ahead of applicants on a waiting list, according to Christiansen and Castaneda. Tenants also say the manager bypassed the waiting list in order to provide her sister and mother-in-law with apartments, made discriminatory comments against blacks and took part in fights between blacks and Latinos.
Aquino became manager about two years ago, working for a previous management company, residents said.
Castaneda said she has contacted the FBI about the allegations. And Christiansen said representatives of HUD, Berman and the residents will meet with Spieker and his staff today to discuss a situation that one resident described as increasingly volatile because of recent racial confrontations in the complex.
“It’s getting hotter,” said Lillian Price, a 20-year resident who is president of the Lakeview Terrace Tenants Assn. “This could explode. We feel they are turning the Spanish against the blacks.”
In a telephone interview from Palo Alto Thursday, Spieker said he heard of most of the allegations against the resident manager for the first time in a conversation that morning with HUD officials.
In response to the bribery and favoritism accusations, Spieker and Mike Damron, SCI’s regional manager, said that only two or three new tenants have been placed since SCI took over in March.
Both men said they knew of no wrongdoing but will address HUD’s concerns thoroughly. “We are very confident that things will work out amicably,” Spieker said.
A key controversy centers on the company’s efforts to organize elections this month for a new residents council. The election angered members of the current tenants group, most of them black, longtime residents, who see it as an attempt to oust them from power in retaliation for their activism.
Their claims were supported by Pamela Brown, an attorney for San Fernando Neighborhood Legal Services, which is working with the tenants.
“The most obvious goal is to destroy the existing tenants association,” she said. “On a more sinister level, they are trying to divide people in the complex and exploit existing racial tensions.”
Spieker and Damrom denied that accusation. They said the election is intended to create a residents council that is truly democratic and representative of all residents, as required by HUD. They said that a HUD management review last year found no evidence that the tenants association was elected by a majority of the residents.
A copy of the review confirmed their account, saying in part: “It does not appear that a majority of the tenants support the organization.”
Spieker’s management company was conditionally approved to run the complex because it had no previous experience running such facilities, according to HUD. The trial period ends July 4, and the results of the investigation could have an effect on whether HUD decides to retain the company, Christiansen said.
