SAN PEDRO : Law Allows Residents to Decide Use for Base Housing
San Pedro residents will be able to decide the future use of 27 acres of surplus Navy housing in their community under new legislation passed by Congress on Friday.
The new law--the Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act of 1994--allows communities to decide how property associated with closing military bases should be used.
It blocks homeless organizations from opening shelters and programs on military bases by exempting the bases from the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Homeless organizations would no longer get first priority.
In San Pedro, outraged residents have been fighting federal approval given to South-Central Los Angeles-based Turner’s Technical Institute Inc. to run a shelter for up to 880 people in the Navy housing on Taper Avenue.
Turner’s approval was revoked last month because the housing was found to be too close to aviation fuel tanks.
Written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.), the new law will affect other California communities.
Since 1988, 22 major bases have been slated for closure or realignment under the Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990. Applications by homeless groups to use the bases under the McKinney Act have been received for about 13 of the bases.
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