WATTS : Peace Corps Plan Hits Snag With City
A plan to bring Peace Corps volunteers to one of the city’s housing developments remains uncertain as the proposed deadline for starting the program nears.
“We haven’t heard anything on it,” said Marshall Kandell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Housing Authority. “The ball was given to Loyola (Marymount University). We’ve told them we’re willing to work with them, but they are the ones calling the shots.”
The original plan called for up to 12 returning Peace Corps volunteers to live and work with Nickerson Gardens residents to develop an economic education program while working toward master’s degrees in business at Loyola.
The plan hit a snag when the Nickerson Gardens residents council and Loyola officials failed to contact the Housing Authority. Any plan to have the volunteers living in the development would require the Housing Authority’s approval. Currently, more than 12,000 names are on the city’s waiting list for public housing.
The program is slated to start in mid-January, according to Joanne Townsend, manager of public affairs for the Peace Corps in Los Angeles. “They are still hoping to meet that deadline,” she said, adding that part of the problem may be securing stipends and scholarships for the volunteers.
However, Kandell said no funds have been formally approved: “Any allocation of money would have to go through the housing authority commission and that hasn’t happened.”
But David Boje, a management professor at Loyola who has helped coordinate the program, said he has contacted the Housing Authority and was awaiting its funding approval.
“The Housing Authority has been very helpful and they are trying to get two stipends approved by their commission,” he said.
A lack of inquiries may also jeopardize the program. While about 30 people have expressed interest, Townsend said, it is unlikely that even the first dozen would be placed in January.
“I don’t think we’ll have very many, but when a program first starts off it doesn’t tend to go full steam at first,” she said.
