Brea Downtown Plan Clouded by Plight of Poor : Redevelopment: Some opponents of the project claim that it is being used to rid the city of low-income residents, many of whom have moved away.

Jesus Luevano knew the rumors would come true. It was just a matter of time.

Word was that the modest home he rented on Brea Boulevard would fall victim to the city’s downtown redevelopment plans. Sooner or later, he knew, officials would come knocking on his door with the message: “You must leave.”

Unable to afford another home in Brea, Luevano packed up in April and moved his family of five to Chino. Today, the four-bedroom house he shared with 15 relatives is part of a ghost town of empty buildings, boarded up storefronts, homes and vacant lots that once was a thriving downtown.

“I would like to stay in Brea, but (the rent) is too much,” he said.

Luevano is not alone. Since 1985, nearly 690 people classified as having low or very low incomes have been forced to move as the city gobbled up land for redevelopment. Of those, nearly 400 were displaced for the downtown project that was given final approval last week.

The demolition of more than 193 low-income housing units compounded worries--and anger--among low-income residents and their advocates, who charge that Brea officials are on a mission to rid the city of poor people.

“The reason they do it is they have Spanish-speaking people who don’t know their rights,” said one resident who asked not to be named. “You just don’t take an eraser and erase people.”

Plans to transform a 50-acre downtown site were finalized last week by the City Council and Watt Commercial Development Co. The sweeping project includes a large neighborhood shopping center, outdoor cafes, art galleries and a theater.

Mirroring Brea’s other large-scale redevelopment projects--the mall and the Civic Center--the idea is to give rundown areas a European flair to make Brea, as city planners say, a special place to live. One of the features being proposed is housing for artists.

But the price is being paid, critics say, by low-income residents who have lost or will lose their housing.

“It is a major problem,” said Valerie Griffin, program manager for the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force. “They go into these cities and they say they are going to redevelop, and they displace all these people. It is not fair.”

Griffin says she often sees the results of redevelopment first hand. “Homelessness is increasing, and (people being displaced by redevelopment) is a contributing factor.”

City officials concede that many low-income people living in the downtown area have left Brea. Redevelopment services director Sue Georgino said the “majority” moved within a 6-mile radius to surrounding communities such as Fullerton and La Habra.

In fact, according to statistics kept by the redevelopment department, 70% of those displaced moved out of the city limits. But city officials say there is no deliberate plan to displace the poor.

“I am not prepared to say that Brea is not a caring community,” Mayor Wayne D. Wedin said. “Brea has always had a tradition of social caring.”

Some administrators have argued that many of the displaced residents were able to improve their situations with state-mandated relocation funds. Since beginning the project, the city has doled out millions of dollars to prepare the land for bulldozers. Every renting family forced to move is entitled to $5,200, plus additional funds for moving, and homeowners are given fair-market value for their property, officials say.

Part of the problem is that few low-income units are being constructed to make up for the loss of such housing downtown, officials concede. Making matters more difficult for those looking for affordable housing is that no rental apartments in Brea provide discounts to poor families. Three complexes offer a break for senior citizens, and two offer reduced rents for “moderate-income” families.

And Brea is the only city in the county that does not provide Section 8, or federal HUD housing discounts, to its residents. The Housing and Urban Development program administered locally by the Orange County Housing Authority offers rent subsidies to families below the poverty level.

Asked why they don’t apply for HUD money, Brea developmental services director Jim Cutts said the decision was made a long time ago. But Cutts speculates that because of high housing prices in Brea, residents probably wouldn’t qualify for the benefits anyway, even if the city offered them.

“It is a nice program, but it’s not designed for all cities,” Cutts added.

City officials insist that Brea is doing all it can to provide affordable housing. According to a report prepared by a city-hired consultant, it will be a formidable task.

In the next 10 years Brea will need 3,447 affordable housing units to meet government requirements. The reports states that 1,507 existing households already have trouble making monthly rent and mortgage payments.

“This (affordable housing) is a problem not only for the people displaced downtown, it is also a problem for seniors and young families,” City Manager Frank Benest said.

While the existing houses are coming down, many of the roads in the area have been getting a boost. In 1985, the city got a special court order allowing it to allocate $25 million in redevelopment funds for roads, sewers and other infrastructure improvements.

By law, the funds are meant for affordable housing. But some cities, including Brea, have gone to court to request use of the funds for other purposes. City administrators argued that by making improvements to roads and sewers in low-income neighborhoods, poor people benefit. But those benefits have not come in the form of housing.

Some efforts are being made to take up the slack. Negotiations are under way with Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit group, which is considering building 36 apartments for the very poor.

Two other housing projects are in the works, but only one will provide 10 units of housing that those who have been displaced can afford. In addition, houses and apartments being built in the redevelopment project will also include affordable units, Benest says.

But the housing will come too late for the hundreds of families who have already or are about to lose their shelter.

“It is too expensive here,” said Luevano, who searched for months to find something suitable in the area so that he wouldn’t have to disrupt his children’s education. “Why not take the time for the poor people? We live too many years in Brea.”