Witt Vows FEMA Aid for ‘Ghost’ Buildings : Recovery: He and Feinstein, touring areas blighted by the quake, promise to speed funding for fencing and security.

Standing before a tumbledown Sherman Oaks apartment building, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt vowed Sunday to speed funding for fencing and private guards at quake-ravaged buildings throughout the city that have become havens for thieves, vandals and vagrants.

“We can help,” Witt told reporters on a nearly deserted block of Colbath Avenue, where every apartment building is wrapped with a chain-link fence and red-tagged. “When the proposal comes in, we’ll act.”

City officials plan to ask for about $1 million to pay for four months of private security officers, fencing and wood to board up buildings in 13 areas in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and the Mid-City neighborhood that have been designated “ghost towns” by a city task force.

Accompanied by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and an entourage of local officials, Witt made his comments during a tour of Colbath Avenue, another ghost town on Hubbard Street in Sylmar and a quake-damaged school in San Fernando.

The tour was the latest effort by city officials to combat the drug dealing, prostitution, squatting and looting they say are rampant in and near many quake-ravaged buildings. Last week, city officials authorized police sweeps of the buildings and approved a plan to speed protection, cleanup and demolition of them.

But until Sunday, it was unclear who would pay for the effort. The Los Angeles City Council last week passed a resolution asking for federal assistance to fund security measures in the ghost towns. If FEMA approves the application, it will pay 90% of the cost and the city will cover the rest, agency officials said. Witt said it is not uncommon for FEMA funds to be approved for such uses.

Feinstein said she had heard about the ghost towns and wanted to tour the abandoned buildings to underscore the need to move reconstruction efforts forward.

On the 4500 block of Colbath Avenue, near Moorpark Street, Feinstein peered through a fence at a dilapidated apartment that shifted off its foundation during the Jan. 17 Northridge quake.

“Wow, look at that!” she said, shaking her head at the crushed balconies and cracked exterior walls before moving on to the next weed-infested, fenced-in property. Suddenly, Sherman Oaks resident Fred Grossman pedaled up to Feinstein on his mountain bike.

“Senator,” he said, braking to a stop, “I don’t think the chain-link fence is doing the job. I see evidence of entry and egress and symbols of vandalism. . . . I’m very aware of how much of a ghost town this is.”

Feinstein promised Grossman she would do all she could to remedy the problem.

Gary Squier, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, said FEMA funds would help stop further deterioration of the estimated 6,000 units in the 13 ghost town areas. But he cautioned that the Valley still needs about $300 million to return the housing stock to its pre-earthquake state.

“We just don’t see that money,” he said. “We are really concerned.”

Squier said about 70% of the buildings in the ghost towns are repairable, but many owners simply cannot pay to repair them. Many others are waiting for loan approval, Squier said, and some have already been denied. In all, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 housing units--both single family homes and apartments--were lost in the quake. About three-fourths of those units were in the Valley.

“We just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Squier said.

Feinstein and Witt also toured San Fernando Elementary School with Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Sid Thompson and district officials. Nine classrooms and the auditorium were rendered unusable by the temblor and its aftershocks, and repairs have not begun.

Feinstein and Witt vowed to accelerate the funding process so schools can be repaired more quickly.

“I thought we were moving forward quicker than we were,” Witt said. “I want to see where the bottleneck is.”

Thompson said the extent of damage at the elementary school is similar to that at many schools still awaiting repairs. FEMA has already approved about $17 million in repair costs to LAUSD based on about 2,000 damage reports, district officials said. But 3,500 more reports await completion and approval.