Voice of the Poor : Publishing: L.A.’s newest newspaper is written by and for residents of public housing. Its concerns extend over area codes and gang boundaries.
Los Angeles’ newest newspaper is staffed by some of its poorest residents--a former battered woman with seven children and a paraplegic who lives on $964 per month, among others.
They are putting out the first publication of its kind in the nation, one written solely by and for residents of public housing. The as-yet unnamed quarterly will go to the 32,447 people who live in 21 city housing projects from Pacoima to Watts.
The purpose of the paper is to provide residents with information about Housing Authority programs and give them a forum to express concerns that stretch across three area codes and dozens of gang boundaries. The Housing Authority is also hopeful that the paper, which will contain sections in Spanish, English, Vietnamese and Cambodian, will help forge a sense of community and pride among disparate ethnic groups.
Residents of public housing often complain that mainstream reporters only write about crime and violence in their neighborhoods.
“Now, we have a voice,” said Helen Sierra, president of the Housing Authority’s Resident Advisory Committee and a resident of the Dana Strand Village apartments in Wilmington.
The newspaper cleared its first major hurdle last year when the Los Angeles Housing Authority got about $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to publish through 1995, after which it is expected to become self-supporting through ad sales.
But the paper’s editor, Hugo Garcia--a bilingual journalist with 15 years experience in community newspapers in East Los Angeles--still faces some unusual obstacles in getting out the Aug. 1 inaugural edition.
There is the resident-cum-news-editor who can’t make it to an editorial meeting downtown from Mar Vista Gardens in Culver City because he doesn’t have money for gas or parking. Housing Authority officials are checking to see if federal regulations allow them to use the grant money for transportation. They’re also trying to figure out how much to pay staff members.
Then there’s the little matter of training a resident to eventually take over as editor and teaching basic journalism skills to would-be reporters and photographers, some of whom never graduated from high school.
But the biggest problem may be overcoming residents’ suspicions regarding anything produced by the Housing Authority. The agency is haunted not only by the usual tenant antipathy toward operators of government-subsidized housing, but also by its own scandal-ridden history.
“They don’t trust us,” said Marshall Kandell, the agency’s communications director. Only a handful of people volunteered to work for the paper despite thousands of recruitment flyers that accompanied March rent bills, he said.
But agency officials are confident the paper will be a success once the first issue lands on tenants’ doorsteps. They point out that the Housing Authority has come a long way since the late 1980s, when two controversial and ineffective executive directors resigned and HUD designated the agency as “operationally troubled.”
It was removed from the list last year, partly because it has succeeded in forging partnerships in which tenants help make decisions about how the World War II-era apartment complexes are operated, HUD officials said. The newspaper is essential to continuing that progress, they said.
“It’s not intended to be a mouthpiece for the Housing Authority,” said Joseph Shuldiner, the agency’s former executive director, who was recently appointed as assistant secretary of HUD for public and Indian housing. “One would hope it would not become an anti-house organ either, but residents are entitled to raise issues without any political censorship.”
The paper will differ from a HUD-funded, bimonthly newspaper distributed to 230,000 project residents in New York City. That paper is almost exclusively written and edited by an employee of the Housing Authority there.
With only marginal interest from Los Angeles public housing residents, Garcia is still scrambling to find residents willing to fill the paper--which will either be a 32-page tabloid or a 16-page broadsheet--with local news.
“We’ll accept just about anything from anybody, even gangbangers,” said Garcia, who will earn about $26,000 annually until he hands off the paper to a resident-editor in 1996.
So far, he has scheduled stories on a recent softball game between gang members and Housing Authority employees and on a joint venture between the residents’ council and private firms to modernize some apartment units. There’s also a feature planned on a resident who found a missing dog belonging to a terminally ill child and another on a social club for seniors.
Maria Mendia, 34, of San Fernando Gardens in Pacoima, is helping to put together a story on HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros’ visit to Imperial Courts in Watts in May. The mother of seven ultimately wants to write an advice column for battered women. She recently attended one of a series of basic journalism workshops given by the Housing Authority.
“I been abused for many years before and I know how they feel when the mens hit,” Mendia said. “You go to court and try to cover up. You don’t say nothing because you’re scared. Then they hit you again. I learned my lesson and I don’t want other ladies to pass through what I passed through.”
Michael Just, 35, a resident of Owensmouth Gardens in Woodland Hills, who was paralyzed from the waist down in 1982 when a drunk driver hit his car, has volunteered to write an editorial for the paper criticizing people with minor medical conditions who use handicapped parking spaces.
“I think the paper will help people realize that project residents aren’t just a bunch of schmoes sitting around watching soap operas and fighting,” said Just, who just graduated from Cal State Northridge and hopes to earn a master’s degree in counseling.
Some residents see the paper as a steppingstone to getting a job.
“I love graphics, that’s what I want to do,” said Christopher Offoh, the Mar Vista Gardens resident who supports his family on $800 a month and can’t afford the gas to travel to editorial meetings. “I just need a ride down there.”
Future issues will include stories on Housing Authority programs, such as a $100-million effort to remove lead-based paint from the projects, which can cause brain damage if ingested.
The paper will not focus on crime, except for major incidents, Garcia said.
“The only time the projects are in the news is when something negative happens, and people there are sick and tired of it,” Garcia said.
Another reason is that the Housing Authority is concerned about the risks of reprisals if residents file crime stories.
“It’s one thing for The Times to send reporters in, but we’ve got people that have to live there, and we don’t want anyone killed,” Kandell said. “Still, we’re going to have ugly stories here, and we’re going to report them.”
Correspondent Carmen Valencia contributed to this report.
