Quake Aid Requests Near Half-Million Mark : Relief: Despite record figures, funds won’t run out, officials say. The May 17 deadline may be extended.

Requests for government assistance stemming from the Northridge earthquake--already at an all-time high for a U.S. disaster--are expected to top 500,000 by Monday, as applications pour in from a wide swath of the region.

As of Friday, government agencies had received 497,626 requests for assistance, and approved more than $1.4 billion in aid to businesses and individuals. Earthquake victims have received checks for everything from emergency housing to replacing lost dentures.

The number of requests--shattering the record of 304,000 from Hurricane Hugo--is larger than the population of some major cities, such as New Orleans and Denver.

“We have as of this point 148,000 applications,” said Bernard Kulik, assistant administrator for disaster assistance for the U.S. Small Business Administration. “That’s a lot, almost as many as we had in Hurricane Andrew, the Midwest floods, Loma Prieta and Hurricane Hugo--combined.”

Officials say they are in no danger of exhausting a federal allocation of $9.8 billion in earthquake relief--even with an expected $2.6 billion in requests from local and state governments for their emergency response costs and repairs to public facilities.

Records and interviews show the vast scope of the relief effort:

* The Federal Emergency Management Agency has assisted 237,000 people, including 149,000 homeowners who needed repairs to make their dwellings “safe, secure and sanitary.” The agency also paid rent for 88,000 renters and homeowners whose residences were rendered uninhabitable.

* Of the 148,000 applications received by the Small Business Administration for home, personal and business loans, 25,000 have been approved.

* The state Department of Social Services paid an average of $1,058 to 13,000 earthquake victims who were unable to draw on any other resource--public or private--to pay for basic necessities. Funds were provided to allow earthquake victims to replace lost appliances, clothing and, in one case, a $10,000 electric wheelchair.

* The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved approximately 20,000 rent subsidies for low-income quake victims.

Applications came from every corner of Los Angeles County, from Azusa and Long Beach, from Palmdale to Pacific Palisades, according to the state emergency officials. The vast majority were from Los Angeles, including more than 30,000 from Northridge, 23,000 from Van Nuys and 20,000 from Canoga Park, 10,000 from Santa Monica and 4,200 from Hollywood. In Ventura County, more than 18,000 applications came from Simi Valley.

The application deadline for most programs is May 17, but officials said it could be extended if the demand warrants. The total number of applications exceeds 500,000, because some individuals have applied for more than one form of aid.

“The thing that surprises us the most is that over two months after the earthquake, we’re still seeing such a large number of people still coming in requesting assistance,” said Richard Andrews, director of the state Office of Emergency Services.

But Andrews said there are no indications that fraud or other abuses are inflating the number of applications.

*

Although the number of applications continues to rise, officials said the proportion of new applicants whose damage does not qualify for aid appears to be increasing. The main reason is that they suffered insufficient damage.

“As checks go out to people, they tell their buddies and they say, ‘Hey, I’m going to call and apply too,’ ” said Peter Wessell, one of about 500 field inspectors working seven days a week to survey damage claimed by applicants.

He said that one day last week, he failed to find a single applicant who he thought qualified for aid.

About 80% of the applications completed by early this week had been judged eligible for some aid, but one official said that percentage could dip as low as 70% by the time agencies stop taking new requests.

Some late applicants have discovered more damage after they began tearing down walls or exposing foundations to make repairs. Some were property owners who suffered new damage in the strong aftershocks.

Carlos Gonzalez, 41, a San Fernando homeowner, applied for aid last week only after a longtime friend who is a FEMA employee said he might be eligible.

With cracked walls and floor damage in his home, Gonzalez said he tried making the repairs himself. But he said last month’s magnitude 5.3 aftershock worsened the damage and the roof began leaking during the recent rainstorms.

Gonzalez said he did not apply earlier because he had assumed that most federal relief was available only through loans. “I didn’t want more debts,” he said.

But in fact, he may be eligible for a FEMA cash grant for home repairs.

Like Gonzalez, Jeannie Russell and Artie Parti of Van Nuys only recently applied for aid.

Initially they thought the damage to their townhouse was relatively minor compared to the buildings that had collapsed in other parts of the San Fernando Valley.

Then the bills began adding up. One estimate put the cost of filling cracks and repainting at $9,500, with other repairs to cost thousands more. Although they had insurance, Russell, a chiropractor, and Parti, a children’s party entertainer, still would be out at least $3,400. “There’s a cap on what we can get from the insurance so we decided we needed a little bit more help,” Parti said.

But Wessell, the FEMA inspector who visited their townhouse, said he found that the damage was not enough to qualify them for aid.

“If it’s mostly . . . cosmetic cracks throughout and that is all it is, that is not a hazard,” he said.

One reason so many applications have been filed is that relief agencies have aggressively spread the word about the types of aid available.

“We’re still finding pockets of people” who suffered losses and did not apply, for various reasons, said Fausto Recalde, an outreach worker serving central and southern Los Angeles.

Yelena Lerner, a Russian-speaking federal relief worker, found that little attention had been paid to the city’s Russian immigrants, many of them elderly and living in the West Hollywood area. So she prepared a Russian-language flyer.

Among those drawn to FEMA centers by the handwritten flyer was 64-year-old Maria Lebedeva, who lost appliances, housewares and a television in the earthquake but did not know where to turn.

“We got (the flyer) from a friend,” she said through an interpreter, after applying for a cash grant. “Before, we didn’t know.”

Some people have been frustrated by the aid process.

Joan Lampner, a hygienist whose Bel-Air condominium was declared unlivable, said she had to make repeated calls and visits to relief agencies trying to get a FEMA inspector to her home. “They’d say, ‘We’ll put a tracer on it,’ ” she said. “I must have had them put a tracer on it every day.”

Nearly two months after applying for aid, and getting a relief supervisor to track her file down, Lampner finally met with an inspector at her condo and a few days later received her first $3,400 check for property repairs. With mortgage payments coming due, she is still waiting for a FEMA temporary housing grant.

“Everybody’s very caring here,” she said last week at a FEMA center. “It’s just very difficult.”

Officials acknowledge that there have been delays, glitches and some bottlenecks, notably problems with the software in a high-tech system of hand-held computers used in the field to file inspection reports verifying damage.

But Frank Kishton, the federal coordinating officer for the relief effort in Los Angeles, said the overall response and distribution of aid has been quicker than after other disasters. On average, it has taken FEMA about three weeks to process a request and provide a check to an applicant for housing assistance, officials said. It has taken the Small Business Administration four to six weeks to approve loans to homeowners and businesses, although it can take longer to receive a check.

Officials said they are not finding much fraud.

There have been only five arrests so far. Four people are accused of fraudulently obtaining money by claiming to have lived in the Northridge Meadows apartment building, which collapsed, killing 16. One person was arrested on charges of submitting a fraudulent SBA application for $1.5 million.

However, Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said more arrests and prosecutions will come soon.

People who obtained money improperly can probably avoid trouble by returning the checks, Hochman said. “We’re trying to encourage people to give the money back before we have to go out and get it,” he added.

FEMA spokesman Phil Cogan said some fraud occurs in every disaster and that the agency tries, through computer checks and inspectors’ visits, to pursue those who improperly obtained money.

But he said, “By policy, we are in the business of providing assistance . . . not arresting people. If . . . it was an honest mistake, we don’t prosecute.”

Times staff writer Richard Lee Colvin contributed to this article.

* LITTLE HELP: SBA loans have been slow in coming. D1.

How the Quake Compares

Individual requests for assistance: Northridge earthquake, 1994: 497,626 ($1.4 billion) Hurricane Hugo, 1989: 304,369 ($1.1 billion) Hurricane Andrew, 1992: 229,372 ($1 billion) Midwest floods, 1993: 166,998 ($776 million) Loma Prieta earthquake, 1989: 86,247 ($655 million)

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Small Business Administration

Means of Assistance

The federal and state governments offer a number of programs to assist disaster victims. The application deadline is May 17, but it may be extended. Here are major assistance programs:

Low-interest loans. Through the Small Business Administration, homeowners can receive loans of up to $200,000 for repairs to dwellings and up to $40,000 for replacement of personal property. Businesses can receive up to $1.5 million.

* Applications: 148,251

* Approved: 25,043, for $739 million

* Average home loan: $28,000

* Average business loan: $63,000

* Pending: 106,512

Disaster housing: FEMA pays up to $10,000 to homeowners for repairs to make their residences “safe, secure or sanitary.” The agency also pays rent--in two-month increments for renters and three-month increments for homeowners--for people displaced by the quake. The program is available to residents regardless of income. FEMA also picks up mortgage and rent payments for up to 18 months for people who lost their jobs because of the earthquake and face eviction or foreclosure.

* Applications: 374,858

* Rental assistance: 88,008, for $265 million

* Average payment: $2,750

* Home repairs: 149,000, for $348 million

* Average payment: $2,435

* Mortgage and rental payments: 421, for $10 million

* Average payment: $2,235

* Pending: 65,957

Individual and family grants: Earthquake victims who cannot obtain enough money from other public and private sources to meet “serious needs” can qualify for up to $22,000. Applicants must have been turned down for an SBA loan. Money can be used to repair or rebuild a home, buy appliances and clothing, and pay funeral expenses if the death is disaster-related.

* Applications: 170,470

* Approved: 13,192, for $14 million

* Average grant: $1,058

Note: Some applications were requests for information only and some people applied for more than one program.