Extension Sought for Quake Aid Program

Worried that the current end date for the Disaster Housing Assistance Program will arrive before some Northridge earthquake victims have even begun to rebuild their damaged homes, Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend the program another six months.

As it stands now, the program that offers up to $1,150 a month in rental assistance to homeowners awaiting completion of earthquake repairs is due to end Jan. 17, 1996, the second anniversary of the temblor.

Beilenson, who lobbied for the program’s first six-month extension earlier this year, asked for a second grace period in a letter Tuesday to FEMA Director James Lee Witt.

“My office has been contacted by hundreds of individual condominium owners and the leaders of several dozen homeowner associations, all expressing their concern about the expiration of the rental assistance program,” Beilenson said.

The congressman estimated that repairs to about 2,000 condominiums in his district will not be finished before the cutoff date.

Difficulties with insurance companies and contractors mean that some homeowners will not begin--let alone end--their repairs by January, Beilenson said.

FEMA is considering Beilenson’s request, said Judy Burgard, a Pasadena-based human services officer.

“If we do extend [the rental assistance program]--and that’s a big if--it could be for two months or three months or six months,” Burgard said. “It’s not automatically six months.”

As of Monday, FEMA had dispersed about $359 million to 400,000 applicants through the Disaster Housing Assistance Program, she said.