PACOIMA : Year-Old Paper Gives Projects Own Forum

Hugo Garcia, editor in chief of the Resident’s Voice, held up a photo scheduled to run in the newspaper with an article about job training programs offered through the Los Angeles Housing Authority.

The photo was of two public housing residents installing a toilet that they had just fixed. “The major media would never cover this,” Garcia said.

With the goals of increasing communication between the housing authority and the residents of public housing and letting those residents’ accomplishments and concerns be heard, the Resident’s Voice is a unique experiment in community journalism.

Last month, the newspaper was recognized by the National Assn. of Housing and Redevelopment Officials for its work in direct resident services.

The Voice, with a circulation of 12,000, was established in August of last year and is published about every three months. The paper, written in both English and Spanish and also partly translated to Vietnamese and Cambodian, is distributed to public housing residents in Pacoima, South-Central and East Los Angeles, Culver City and San Pedro.

The paper is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD has given the Los Angeles Housing Authority $400,000 over a three- to five-year period to develop the Voice into a self-sufficient newspaper, Garcia said.

All the Voice’s reporters and photographers are public housing residents and work on a volunteer basis, although they are sometimes provided with a stipend. They range in age from 11 to 60.

None has any journalism experience, Garcia said. But he said he is happy to train his recruits, giving them new skills that could be used in a journalism career.

One such aspiring journalist is Luz Elana Tafolla, a single mother of two who lives at San Fernando Gardens, a federal housing project in Pacoima.

“Through this newspaper, we have the opportunity to express ourselves and really talk about the issues that really happen in our community,” Tafolla said.

Tafolla acts as a liaison between the residents and management of San Fernando Gardens.

“When the media comes, they only cover the bad things, like when somebody is arrested,” Tafolla said. “A lot of people think we are bad people because we live in the developments. But a lot of good people who want to be successful are living there; we don’t have another choice.”

Marco Aguilera, who has five years experience at other Los Angeles community newspapers, volunteers as a press consultant one day a week at the Voice, where he teaches the residents how to lay out the newspaper using a computer desk-top publishing program.

“I want to teach them to develop an eye to make sure they have a good-looking paper,” Aguilera said.