FEMA Grant Extends ‘Ghost Town’ Patrols

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has granted Los Angeles an additional $3.6 million to help prevent earthquake-ravaged “ghost towns” from becoming overrun by vandals, officials announced Wednesday.

The grant provides welcome financial relief for the city, which found itself footing the bill to keep security guards from walking off the job at 15 ghost towns after previous FEMA funds ran dry. Most of the ghost towns are in the San Fernando Valley.

“If we didn’t have these funds, the vandals would be taking over these properties,” said Robert Moncrief, major projects manager for the city’s Housing Department, which oversees the security patrols. “This will . . . ensure that the ghost towns have a chance to recover.”

The funding extends a program begun last summer by city officials to board up, fence off, clean up and hire private security for about 150 damaged buildings that were abandoned after the Northridge earthquake.

FEMA provided $2.8 million for the effort, which officials hoped would be enough to prepare the buildings for rehabilitation. Despite boarding up more than 100 of the damaged structures, however, the city began exhausting FEMA funds by Oct. 31, said Diedre Reyes of the city’s Administrative Office.

“It took more time to get the construction going. You have to get the owners going. You have to motivate people to repair their property,” Reyes said.

The city was forced to pay the private patrol bill, as well as for city work crews assigned to clean up the ghost towns.

With support from U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), city officials asked FEMA for funding to extend the ghost town program to April 30, 1995, including $480,000 for the security patrols.

Community leaders praised FEMA’s decision.

“The only thing that deters crime in these ghost towns is the security guards,” said Harry Coleman, president of a citizens advisory group in North Hills, where one of the ghost towns is located. “It behooves us to repair or refinance to get those boarded-up buildings back in circulation fast enough to stop the bleeding.”

At least two guards and one patrol car have been assigned to each ghost town 24 hours a day.

Additional crime problems in North Hills prompted the city to add even more security there, including a mounted unit that occasionally patrols the streets.

To help speed the recovery, Berman said he may seek more quake-relief funds when Congress reconvenes early next year.