Couple’s Eviction Is Rescinded : Riot aftermath: Offers to help pour in for family whose business was burned. Landlord accepts a payment of overdue rent.

Angela Jimenez and her husband, Rosalio Mejia, have a new lease on life.

When their clothing business burned in a Pico-Union swap meet blaze during the riots, the couple lost their livelihood. They faced homelessness when their landlord ordered them to leave their apartment no later than this past Tuesday because they had fallen behind on the rent.

But at the last moment, the family got a reprieve.

After The Times published an article Tuesday about their plight, the Federal Emergency Management Agency granted the couple aid. Their landlord allowed them to remain in their South-Central Los Angeles apartment.

Now the Honduran immigrants are trying to start a new business and put their lives back together.

“We’re so thankful to everyone,” said Mejia, 57.

Several readers called The Times and Public Counsel’s Urban Recovery Legal Assistance, which offers legal aid to victims of the Los Angeles riots, offering to help the family.

A Sherman Oaks homemaker sent $10. A Beverly Hills attorney offered a $1,000 no-interest loan. A Los Angeles manufacturer donated goods for the family to sell. Others offered to pay the back rent.

Such agencies as the Los Angeles Housing Authority and Beyond Shelter, which administers the county’s FEMA program for homeless families, also offered their assistance. The district attorney’s office helped through its Special Assistance to Victims in Emergencies Foundation--known as SAVE--which uses corporate funds to aid riot victims.

FEMA initially had rejected the couple’s application for emergency rent aid. But Mejia said the agency this week approved a $1,700 check--$425 for each month’s rent missed since April.

Still, the couple--who live with two sons and support another five children and a grandchild in Honduras--worried that their landlord, James Oronoz, would not allow them to stay.

But Robert Greenly, Oronoz’s attorney, confirmed that his client has agreed to accept their payment.

Now that they have caught up on the rent, the couple intends to get back in business. Many of the donations the family received will go toward buying clothing for a new swap meet booth, Mejia said.

“We’ve been given a new chance,” Mejia said. “We’re definitely going to start the store as soon as possible.”

Cynthia Robbins, one of the directors of Urban Recovery Legal Assistance, said that many other riot victims face eviction and homelessness.

“We need to develop a process that will streamline the distribution of funds to those who should get FEMA benefits,” Robbins said. In meetings with a FEMA attorney, she suggested that stopgap measures be put in place to aid victims until they receive full grants.

Frank Kishton, a FEMA coordinating officer, said the agency sees no need to change its procedures. “We’re always taking steps to move out as quickly as we can.”

Robbins, however, said her meetings indicated that FEMA is willing to improve the grant process.

“I’m hopeful, but there’s definitely a need for more action here,” she said. “We want to make sure pre-homeless people don’t become homeless.”