Panel Suggests Senior Housing on Navy Land

Housing for senior citizens will be built on 27 acres of surplus Navy property in San Pedro if a group of local residents gets its way.

In a document released last week, the San Pedro Area Reuse Committee said senior housing is the best use of the land at Taper Avenue.

Los Angeles Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who represents the harbor district, appointed the committee earlier this year to look at options for military land left vacant in the area.

The committee has been concentrating on the Taper Avenue site, which has been at the center of community debate and concern since it was announced in January that its 144 housing units would be used for up to 880 homeless people.

Federal officials approved an application by Turner’s Technical Institute Inc., a South-Central homeless advocacy organization, to run the homeless shelter after the Long Beach Naval Station closes this month.

The committee plan for senior housing assumes that Turner’s plan will be derailed, secretary Jerry Gaines said.

“This is a wish list,” Gaines said. “It hasn’t been cleared up yet as to whether or not federal screening is finished. But the senior housing use would be most preferred by the community, particularly those around the property.”

The report also says a smaller homeless shelter run by local organizations could be viable.

Samuel Theus, Turner’s spokesman, said the institute would consider working with the San Pedro groups.

“But it would have to be a program for homeless people,” Theus said.

“I don’t know what the alternatives are, but I do know that (Turner’s) is going ahead every day to get closer and closer to what we need to make that program work.”

Under the committee’s plan, the housing would include affordable houses, assisted living, a nursing home, geriatric day care, a recreation center, open space and walking trails. Outreach programs also would operate from the complex.

The report says the number of senior citizens in the San Pedro/Wilmington area living in poverty increased 26% between 1980 and 1990.

The report says the need, feasibility and community support for Turner’s proposal is low.

However, it suggests other options for the site, including affordable housing, single-family residences, a police special training facility, public recreation, a nature preserve, an educational facility and Air Force housing.

The recommendations will be discussed at a public hearing Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. in Peck Park Auditorium, 560 N. Western Ave., San Pedro.

In the meantime, the federal department of Health and Human Services is reviewing the homeless shelter plan by Turner’s Institute in light of strong community and political opposition.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) has urged department Secretary Donna E. Shalala to reopen applications because the Department of Housing and Urban Development recently disqualified 60% of the Taper Avenue housing for homeless use because of its proximity to aviation fuel tanks.

Gaines said the senior citizen housing could be built outside the danger zone from the tanks.

Federal officials have not informed Theus that some of the Taper Avenue property is no longer suitable, he said.

Turner’s application for the shelter was approved under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. The legislation gives homeless providers priority for surplus federal land.

Federal representatives including Harman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Nebraska) have been working on amendments to the McKinney Act and other federal legislation where it affects military property.

For now, the San Pedro committee is working with another homeless group, Friends of the Crossing, which is interested in applying for a former military site known as 6A, on Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island.