City May Use Slumlord Ordinance on Caltrans

Demanding fast answers, the Pasadena City Council has vowed to learn more about the financial and community impacts of the degenerated and vacant state-owned homes in town, saying the city’s slumlord ordinance could be wielded to get the properties repaired.

For decades now, the state Department of Transportation has owned more than 600 houses in Pasadena, South Pasadena and Los Angeles along the path of the planned Long Beach (710) Freeway extension. Many of those homes, however, are in disrepair and vandalized, with more than a quarter uninhabitable or vacant, The Times reported last month.

Newly elected Councilwoman Ann-Marie Villicana, whose district includes several dilapidated Caltrans homes on Pasadena and St. John avenues, said the city has been slow in taking action against Caltrans. Under her lead, the council directed city officials to find out by Monday the number of Caltrans properties in Pasadena, the vacancy rates and their overall condition and impact on property taxes.

“The problem is that they are really running [the houses] down and causing the other homes to devalue,” Villicana said. “We’ve been suffering from this for 30 years and even if the freeway is accepted, it could be another 10 years.”

Both Villicana and Councilman Paul Little want prosecutors to weigh using Pasadena’s slumlord law to fix the properties so they don’t blight what are otherwise well-kept neighborhoods. Doing that could mean filing civil or criminal charges against the state and establishing a strict regimen of progress hearings and improvement programs.

As part of that effort, City Prosecutor Tracy Webb said officials would visit Caltrans-owned homes in Pasadena and give the state 30 days to repair the worst houses or face possible prosecution. The state owns about 120 houses in the city, most just a block from upscale Orange Grove Boulevard.

“We need to aggressively pursue Caltrans to force them to maintain their properties,” Little said. “We can’t tolerate slumlords even if they are the state.”

He wants city officials to figure out how the highway department can be slapped with health, safety and building code infractions. Community critics believe the freeway houses would have hundreds of citations if it weren’t for exemptions protecting the state from local regulations.

Theo Walker, Caltrans’ local property chief, said most freeway homes are in good condition despite the criticism, and that the agency is not a slumlord. She said the agency has $3.2 million to fix up historical homes along the future pathway, including several dozen in Pasadena. “We are serious about bringing them up,” said Walker.

To make up for lost property taxes, the three cities with Caltrans houses get 12% of the rent from Caltrans. Pasadena officials have said they want to review whether they are getting their fair share.

Two years ago, Pasadena records show, the city got about $167,000 in rental income. The next year that amount dropped to $102,000.