Los Angeles Times Special Quake Report: One Year Later : Still Shaken / Coming Back : Central City Repairs Picking Up

While the Northridge earthquake hit the San Fernando Valley the hardest, Central Los Angeles, with many houses more than 50 years old, suffered some of the most concentrated residential damage in the city.

A year after the quake, reconstruction is just beginning on many of the earthquake-damaged houses. The process of applying for Federal Emergency Management Agency, Small Business Administration, state and local loans to repair houses typically takes months, and even after money is secured, contractors are often backlogged, city officials said.

“It’s a work in progress as far as construction, but it’s really starting to pick up, and there will be a lot more in the next couple of months,” said Samuel Luna, director of the Los Angeles Housing Department’s neighborhood recovery program.

Outside the Valley, the area bounded by La Brea Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard between Adams and Jefferson boulevards was among the city’s hardest hit. The city has poured nearly $19 million in loans to about 80 homeowners in that area.

The destruction in one neighborhood off West Adams Boulevard near Crenshaw was so heavy that the city named it one of 17 “ghost towns,” areas where abandoned buildings drew thieves, vagrants, gangs and prostitutes.

“There was a real threat to public safety in some areas,” Luna said.

There are still 38 vacant buildings in the West Adams ghost town, down from 54 in August.

The West Adams ghost town is made up mostly of single-family houses, which give the neighborhood stability. About 85% of the homeowners are either still in their houses or will return to them once they are rebuilt, Luna said.

Rebuilding of the damaged houses in the West Adams area has been slow not only because of the lengthy loan application process, but also because many of the homeowners are retired, living on fixed incomes and reluctant to take on a large debt, city officials said.