New Plan Hammers Out Aid for Quake Victims : Aftermath: Pacoima widow is the first Southern Californian to benefit from the $5-million private-public program.

When a Southern California Gas Co. truck pulled up to her home two months ago, Angela Rubalcava was afraid to answer the door. She had not paid her bills since the Northridge earthquake ravaged her Pacoima home.

“I thought it was a bill collector,” said the 47-year-old widow, who shares her home with six other family members. “Then I decided, ‘Well, I’m here. I’m not going to hide. Whatever’s going to happen, I’ll face it.’ ”

But instead of getting chewed out by a bill collector, Rubalcava was greeted by gas company officials interviewing quake victims for a new aid program.

On Saturday, Rubalcava was rewarded for her open-door welcome when she became the first Southern Californian to benefit from the new, $5-million program--a private-public effort that sends workers out to cracked and damaged homes to hammer out up to $1,500 in quake repairs.

“This is like a dream,” said Rubalcava, whose home was transformed by the temblor into a jigsaw of cracks, some big enough to fit a fist through. “I had spent all $3,000 that FEMA gave me to pay for a new water heater and re-tile the bathroom floor. I was rejected by the Small Business Administration. I had no money at all.”

Called the Community Partnership for Earthquake Repair, the program is aimed at hundreds of people like Rubalcava who have exhausted their Federal Emergency Management Agency relief benefits and were denied SBA loans.

“It’s filling a void for a lot of people in the San Fernando Valley who need to have repairs made and who are primarily low income, disabled or seniors who don’t have the resources available to them,” Gas Co. Chief Executive Officer Dick Farman said.

The program is sponsored by a variety of state and local agencies.

To qualify, applicants must have an annual income that meets federal poverty level standards--for example, $22,100 for a family of four and $29,500 for seniors or the permanently disabled.

Repairs include damaged doors, windows and walls; minor roof repair; tearing down damaged chimneys; strapping water heaters; debris removal, and repairs to plumbing, heating, water, electrical and gas systems.

To mark Saturday’s kickoff, about 40 members of the sponsoring agencies descended upon Rubalcava’s three-bedroom home with hammers in hand.

Rubalcava, an office clerk who lives with her three sons, two grandsons and daughter-in-law, watched as a work crew spent less than an hour installing a back door missing since the temblor.

Next, a work crew of California Conservation Corps members will return to patch the cracks that have haunted her since January. The repairs are expected to take less than a week.

“The fear will never go away, but at least I won’t have these cracks to remind me of that day,” she said.