THEY’RE MAJOR MOMS : ‘I Want My Children to Have a Better Life . . . ‘

Sandra Villalobos, 30, is the resident director of Casa Loma, a low-income housing facility in the Westlake area that opened two years ago and offers such services as child care, job training and educational services. Built by feminist Latina developers New Economics for Women, it houses 110 families, the majority of them headed by single Latinas.

Villalobos is the single mother of two, 13-year-old Denise and 7-year-old Roberto, and a longtime community activist. In November, she will take over the direction of La Posada, a New Economics for Women facility catering to teen-age mothers. She was interviewed by community correspondent Leslie Berestein.

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I’ve been working with this community since I was 17, after my daughter, Denise, was born. I became a receptionist at the family planning clinic I was referred to, and with

in a week I became a peer counselor, going out to high schools, middle schools, churches and community centers to talk to girls about how difficult it is to be a teen mother, and to get them on birth control.

I got involved with Casa Loma because I was asked to do some focus groups with prospective tenants and service providers. I was still working part time at the clinic, but I was also doing focus groups as a consultant.

What interested me was that I lived about two blocks away from here, in a one-bedroom apartment with my two children. I had seen them building this and said to myself, “Oh God, another $800-a-month apartment complex,” never thinking it could be affordable housing units.

So when I got called by New Economics for Women’s executive director, Maggie Cervantes, and she told me what they were doing, I got really interested, because I’m a single mother. I thought this could be an opportunity for me to learn a lot, and do more of what I like to do, which is community organizing and outreach.

I got hired because of my community organizing ability, and that’s how I became the Casa Loma director. No administrative background; I’ve learned it here.

I call this neighborhood mi barrio. I shop here, go to the supermarket, walk the streets and take my morning runs around here. I’ve never had any fear, but lately it’s starting to get scary, with all the drive-by (shootings) and gang activity. My daughter gets off at the corner, and she has to walk. What’s going to happen one of these days if there’s a drive-by shooting? Is she going to get caught in the middle or what?

I think it’s the violence in general that a lot of mothers fear. Especially single mothers, who are working full-time jobs and come home at 5 or 6 o’clock. Their kids come home at 2:30. What are they going to do the rest of the afternoon? Let’s be honest, they’re not doing their homework. They’re bored, watching TV. So they go out in the street and play with their friends, and could get picked up by the wrong crowd.

It gets scary at points. If it weren’t because I work here at Casa Loma and also live here, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to take 15 minutes at the middle of the day to go see what my daughter’s doing.

In my two years of living here, I can say it’s been very rewarding. The tenants look out for me and my children. They know how busy I am, and if I have a six o’clock meeting, I know deep down in my heart that one of the other residents is going to say, “Oh, my God, let’s feed Sandra’s children!” Or they’ll ask me, “Did you cook dinner tonight?” And I’ll say, “Oh, I haven’t had a chance, I’m going to a meeting.” And they’ll say, “Don’t worry, we’ll take some food to your children.” That’s the best part.

I want my children to have a better life, and a good education. But at the same time, I don’t want to move them out from their original neighborhood, where they were born and raised. I don’t want to see myself forced into going to live in Northridge. I don’t want to do that to my children. I really want them to grow up where they were born, and take advantage of the best thing in their neighborhood, which is their cultural roots.