Owners Ordered to Fix 3 ‘Ghost Town’ Buildings

Growing impatient with a politically connected nonprofit organization’s failure to repair earthquake-damaged buildings in a North Hills neighborhood, city inspectors have cited three structures as public nuisances and ordered the owners to fix the problems within 30 days.

The orders summon executives of Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development to a public hearing Tuesday, where inspectors said they will ask the Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission to officially declare the buildings public nuisances.

The orders will give developers 10 days to secure building permits for the work. But the commission is expected to give them more time to complete repairs, while requiring them to secure the buildings to keep vandals out and agree to a timeline for repairs.

All three buildings are located on Orion Avenue in the Orion-Parthenia neighborhood, one of 17 severely damaged communities designated as “ghost towns” because they have been uninhabited since being condemned after the Northridge quake of January 1994.

The Los Angeles Housing Department and NEED, which is run by people who worked in and contributed to Councilman Richard Alarcon’s campaign, have come under criticism because of their failure to make much progress in the neighborhood, long after work on other ghost towns was completed or nearly completed.

The Orion Street buildings are three of five that NEED purchased in the ghost town with loans from the Los Angeles Housing Department. It has completed work on a 10-unit building, the smallest of the five, and started work on another.

It also used Housing Department funds to buy a sixth building--located on Blythe Street, just outside the ghost town--where work also has stalled. But the Housing Department said it is processing another loan to get work started on that building soon.

The Housing Department has loaned NEED more than $7 million to acquire and repair the six buildings, plus another $3.5 million for two buildings in other neighborhoods.

The inspectors’ actions against the three Orion Avenue structures come just as the city Housing Department has agreed to seek City Council approval to loan NEED more money to get the work started--perhaps within three or four weeks--on the three Orion buildings.

Gary Squier, general manager of the Housing Department, said Thursday he will ask the City Council for a bridge loan of not more than $500,000 so NEED can start repairs immediately on one of the buildings while awaiting completion of permanent financing arrangements. He said NEED will complete financing arrangements for the other two buildings without additional loans from the city.

Squier, who was on leave last summer, said he does not object to the department’s hard line.

“If I were them, I would have referred it to hearing long ago,” he said. “These projects have been a nuisance, and they are inexcusably deteriorating. It’s the Building Department’s responsibility to hammer whomever is responsible, whether it’s us or a private entity.”

Inspectors did just that last summer but suspended enforcement action after Housing Department officials told them that NEED had obtained loans to repair the buildings and that work would start soon.

Inspectors say they will not give in this time, however, despite Squier’s assurances.

“We started this last summer, and we backed off to see if they would do anything,” said Allan Fish, the building inspector who posted the notices on the three buildings last month, ordering the owners to repair them.

“My desire is that they either repair or demolish them. Nobody wants to demolish them, but you’ve got to do something,” Fish said.

Fish said police, City Council members, residents and others have been invited to the hearing to testify about the condition of the buildings and the problems they pose. The owners will also get a chance to explain their plans for repairs.

He said the board could give them an extension of time, but he thinks NEED should not get more than two or three months.

Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Coordinating Council, said he will ask the commission to establish a detailed timeline for NEED and to insist that the organization stick to it.

Alarcon said a representative of his office will attend, but did not know if he will speak. Alarcon intervened with inspectors last year for NEED when inspectors began enforcement actions on the Blythe Street building. Inspectors postponed action after Alarcon and Housing Department officials assured them that repair loans were being processed, that the building would be secured and emergency repairs made to three occupied apartments.