Riot Relief Will Help Build Homes for Poor : Pacoima: The lumber industry’s donation will enable Habitat for Humanity to complete a condo project.

In the first major post-riot relief for the San Fernando Valley, Rebuild L.A. is channeling $70,000 worth of supplies donated by the lumber industry to help build eight Pacoima townhouses for poor families.

The donation will enable Habitat for Humanity to complete its low-income condominium project, which depends largely on volunteer labor and gifts of building materials, Habitat executives said.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Pete Boron, president of Habitat for Humanity of San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys, the local chapter of a nonprofit international group whose most famous volunteer is former President Jimmy Carter.

Rebuild L.A. officials said Thursday that Gov. Pete Wilson has agreed to drive the first nail into the donated wood during a formal ceremony Feb. 23 at the site in the 10900 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley cannot attend that day, so he will participate in a second ceremony Feb. 27 honoring the raising of the first wall of the project, they said.

The donation by six lumber companies of beams, siding, insulation and wood chips for landscaping was put together by two trade groups--the California Forestry Assn. and the California Forest Products Commission.

The groups plan to donate more supplies to Rebuild L.A. not only to help revitalize the city, but to draw attention to what they believe is over-regulation of the lumber industry, a spokesman said. In the past three years, 30 mills have closed, resulting in the loss of 8,500 jobs, he said.

“If you want to rebuild L.A. literally, not spiritually or emotionally, you need affordable lumber, and you won’t get that if you keep over-regulating us,” said Donn Kea, a spokesman for the California Forestry Assn.

The condominium project is being financed by the Los Angeles City Council, which loaned $312,000 to Habitat for Humanity last May. The units will be sold to poor families willing to put 500 hours of work--”sweat equity”--into the project, including 150 hours on another family’s unit.

The units will sell for between $50,000 and $62,500, depending on their size, and the eight buyers will be given zero-interest loans for 20 years, Boron said.

The lumber contribution marks the first time since the spring riots that the Valley has significantly benefited from the rebuilding effort. Previously, Rebuild L.A. gave two local organizations two nine-passenger vans on loan from General Motors, its only contribution to the Valley.

Fearing that the Valley would be ignored, a coalition of 60 local groups banded together in May to form the San Fernando Valley Unity Coalition to press for donations. The coalition recognizes that most of the riot damage occurred in South Los Angeles, members have said, and that only about 63 Valley buildings were set afire or vandalized, compared to hundreds elsewhere.

But they say the Valley deserves attention because, contrary to its image as a homogenous suburban enclave, it has problems of poverty and disaffection they said contributed to the rioting.

The donation to Habitat for Humanity is “a good beginning, but the Valley still needs resources,” said Irene Tovar, a Mission Hills resident and the only one of 80 members on the Rebuild L.A. board representing the Valley.

Tovar, a candidate for the 7th District of the Los Angeles City Council representing the northeastern portion of the Valley, was responsible for telling Rebuild L.A. officials about the need for the lumber in the Valley, said Tony Salazar, co-chairman of Rebuild L.A.

“We’ve never ignored the Valley, and this is clear evidence of that,” Salazar said. “People in the Valley have to realize that things don’t happen overnight.”

But Benjamin M. Reznik, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said Tovar’s role in securing the donation demonstrates the need for more Valley representation on the Rebuild L.A. board.

“But for Irene, the Valley wouldn’t have gotten the supplies,” Reznik said.

The companies that donated the supplies are Georgia-Pacific Corp., Collins Pine Co., Pacific Lumber Co., Sierra Pacific Industries, P & M Cedar Products and Louisiana-Pacific Corp.