FEMA Begins Closing One-Stop Aid Centers : Earthquake: Glendale and Simi Valley sites are the first to be shut. Officials cite declining applications.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday began shutting down its one-stop assistance centers for quake victims, a day short of today’s one-month anniversary of the 6.8-magnitude temblor that forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek help.

By Wednesday the 21 service centers had distributed nearly $230 million in grants and loans and given out more than 340,000 applications--including 87,000 to those who walked into the centers, which were opened three days after the quake to provide victims one place at which to fill out applications to various federal, state and local agencies for emergency aid. Others applied by telephone or mail.

The first two centers to close were at the Glendale Civic Center Auditorium and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Wednesday. Centers in Santa Monica and two in the Santa Clarita Valley will close Friday.

The center at Calabasas High School will close Saturday, when FEMA begins phasing in the second part of its disaster assistance program by opening two new Earthquake Service Centers, at 1901 S. Bundy Drive in Santa Monica and 28460 Ave. Stanford in Valencia.

While the Disaster Assistance Centers helped victims fill out applications for aid, the Earthquake Service Centers will provide follow-up assistance as applications are processed.

The Disaster Assistance Centers are being closed because the number of applications is declining, said Rita Kepner, a FEMA spokeswoman. Eventually all of them will close to be replaced by 10 new Earthquake Service Centers, she said.

“We’re hoping to have the service centers in sectors that will serve the same people as the assistance centers,” Kepner said.

On Wednesday, the FEMA operation at the Winnetka Recreation Center, one of the busiest, remained crowded, but without the tension or long lines that characterized its first days of operation.

Philip Manriquez of the state Office of Emergency Services said the center is accepting about 200 new applications daily, compared to about 600 daily during the first week.

About 500 people are being helped daily, instead of the 1,100 that were being helped each day earlier. Manriquez said the center is already starting to do some of the follow-up work that the new Earthquake Service Centers will provide.

Frank and Mae Edwards, formerly of Porter Ranch and now renting in Sherman Oaks, registered by mail and on Wednesday went to the Winnetka center to hand in their applications, a process that took a little more than an hour.

“It was a lot easier than I thought,” said Mae Edwards, who is seeking assistance to rebuild their badly damaged house.

Near Simi Valley, state and federal disaster aid workers packed up their forms at the Reagan Library, where about 90 quake victims a day had been assisted, said site manager Lisa Schoenthal. A second site serving Simi Valley victims, at the Sycamore Drive Community Center, will remain open indefinitely.

The library site’s 70 workers will be sent to the Sycamore Drive center and to a center in Fillmore, Schoenthal said.

New applicants were still showing up. Father David G. Davidson, pastor of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Thousand Oaks, came seeking a loan to repair the church’s pipe organ.

Davidson said he juggled his busy Ash Wednesday schedule to go to the library site because it is about five miles closer to Thousand Oaks than is the community center. “I knew if I didn’t make it in today I’d have to drive even farther,” Davidson said.

Jan Lyttle, a receptionist who lives in Simi Valley, was looking for a loan to replace cracked block walls around her home. Lyttle said she had put off applying because she was reluctant to begin the ordeal of repairing the damage.

“The Sycamore center is closer to my house, but friends told me that workers here were very friendly,” she said.

About 130 showed up at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, about 50 of them new applicants, down from more than 600 a day in the first two weeks after the quake, said center manager Clara Feldberg.

“There just weren’t enough applicants coming in anymore,” to keep it open, she said. “But I think we’ve taken care of most of the people around here.”

The center, which served a large Armenian population, provided three Armenian-speaking workers who will be shifted to centers as needed, Feldberg said.

As of Jan. 15, more than 340,000 people had registered for assistance by phone or in person at FEMA Disaster Assistance Centers, with the majority applying by phone, Kepner said.

More than 243,000 people applied for housing assistance, but as of Monday only 58,106 had been declared eligible. Grants totaling more than $150 million have been distributed.

The HUD program is designed to provide housing for 18 months for people with low incomes. Recipients pay 30% of their income toward rent, with the government paying the balance. HUD officials must inspect and approve the rental properties and a formal agreement must be signed between HUD and the landlord.

As of Wednesday, 16,554 housing certificates had been issued, but only 5,517 people had found places to live, and of those, HUD has signed contracts for 2,009, according to HUD spokesman Scott Reid.

But most quake victims do not qualify for housing grants, and are referred instead to the Small Business Administration for low-interest, long-term loans. According to SBA spokeswoman Diane Brady, 283,835 applications have been sent out as of Tuesday. However, only 40,570 applications have been completed and returned.

Of the returned applications, 2,532 have been approved and provided with loans totaling $78.4 million, with the average loan for nearly $31,000 at 3.625% over 20 years. All but 200 of the loans approved have been for individuals rather than businesses.

Brady said another 100,000 completed applications are expected in the next few weeks.

“It’s general procrastination,” Brady said. “We always have a big influx around the deadline, which is March 18.”

The Jan. 17 quake killed at least 57 people, collapsed freeways and damaged or destroyed more than 45,000 homes. State officials have estimated the total cost of the damage at $13 billion to $20 billion.

President Clinton has approved $8.6 billion in earthquake relief, the largest disaster aid package in the nation’s history.

Times staff writer Sara Catania contributed to this story.