Valley Groups Seek Share of Aid in Wake of Riots : Rebuild L.A.: Unity Coalition points to local problems that it fears could be overlooked as revitalization projects begin.

Fearing that the San Fernando Valley may be ignored in the post-riot Rebuild L.A. effort, leaders of a group of community-based organizations have joined together to make sure the area’s social and structural problems are not overlooked.

Organizers of the movement say they recognize that most of the riot damage occurred in South Los Angeles. But they say the northeast Valley has problems similar to the poverty and disaffection that contributed to the rioting.

“My feeling is, all the elements that existed downtown exist here, but a lot of people out here acted affirmatively to prevent destruction,” said Corinne Sanchez, the director of El Proyecto del Barrio, a private nonprofit health-care and job-training agency in Arleta. She said that just because there was no serious damage here does not mean the Valley doesn’t have the same needs as South Los Angeles.

“Our main objective is to say, ‘When you rebuild L.A., include the Valley.’ ”

The organization Sanchez and others helped form in May is called the San Fernando Valley Unity Coalition. Members include heads of such agencies as the Latin American Civic Assn., Boys and Girls Clubs, the local chapter of the American Red Cross and the Northeast Valley Health Corp., which serves poor people in the eastern part of the Valley. Richard Alarcon, the mayor’s representative to the Valley, has sat in on several meetings.

The group is contacting elected officials and seeking meetings with Mayor Tom Bradley and Peter Ueberroth, leader of the Rebuild L.A. effort. Additionally, Sanchez is pressing Valley concerns as a member of a committee formed by Supervisor Gloria Molina to address Latino needs in the wake of the riots.

Ten Valley buildings were burned in the rioting and looting that broke out after the Rodney King verdicts, with the damage estimated at $635,580. Several members of the coalition said the damage might have been more severe but for the intercession of members of community organizations who were out in the streets trying to calm people.

“We want to make sure we’re noticed,” said Sally Thompson, president of New Directions for Youth, a counseling and job-training organization in Van Nuys. Speaking of the Ueberroth committee, Thompson said, “There are 1.6 million people here, and yet they don’t really look at the Valley.”

Thompson and Sanchez said they fear that money coming in to fund the rebuilding effort and provide jobs for youths will be concentrated in South Los Angeles. For instance, Sanchez said that large sums of money set aside by the state for employers who hire disadvantaged people are being sent, but all of it is going to South Los Angeles.

She also fears that redevelopment agency monies will be concentrated there.

“I haven’t heard of any monies coming down outside of South-Central,” Sanchez said.

Alarcon said Bradley is sympathetic to the needs of the Valley in the citywide rebuilding plan.

“It’s not Rebuild South-Central,” Alarcon said. “It’s Rebuild L.A. There was some very specific structural damage in South-Central that requires attention immediately. But that’s not to say that any part of Los Angeles will be excluded.”

Alarcon denied that the Valley will lose out on redevelopment agency funds. He also said the Unity Coalition is not alone in pressing the Valley’s case. He mentioned the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. and the Valley Interfaith Council as other groups involved in the effort.

Bonny Matheson, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., praised the coalition’s involvement. “We applaud their effort in coming together to support the Valley’s economic health,” she said.

Coalition members met last week with Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who said Tuesday that he would help “any way I can. The Valley has been working on its problems and that is partially responsible for things being much calmer than expected. I would hate to see the Valley penalized for doing the right thing.”

Besides pressing for money for Valley needs, the Unity Coalition is considering broad-based approaches to dealing with local social problems. There are currently about 15 individuals and organizations in the coalition, including Latinos, African-Americans, Anglos and Asians, though membership may reach 25.

“We’re trying to look at the root causes of things, to resolve them before they get to a crisis point,” said Robert Smith, executive director of the Northeast Valley Health Corp.

Smith said unemployment, lack of access to health care and other difficulties in the eastern portion of the Valley may worsen with the departure of old-line companies such as General Motors, which is closing its Van Nuys plant.

“People who had been blue-collar or white-collar are going to be out of work. A year from now, their benefits are going to be gone,” he said.

One of the tasks the coalition has set for itself is to gather data on unemployment, population, education, crime and other aspects of Valley life to prove their case that the area should no longer be regarded as a homogeneous suburban enclave.