Street Crusader

In the days after the 1992 riots, leaders of the United Methodist Church said they felt that they had to do something to respond to the poverty and despair that gripped much of Los Angeles. They were seeking to build social programs, job prospects and some threads of community unity.

What they got, in the downtrodden San Fernando Valley community of North Hills, was Evelio Franco.

Franco’s official title is director of the church’s Shalom Zone, a neighborhood agency formed by the church to foster community harmony.

It is one of five Shalom Zones that the United Methodist Church established in the Los Angeles area after the riots. But Franco could shoulder several other job descriptions: counselor, coach, translator, teacher, ombudsman or simply padrino, godfather.

When the poor and dispossessed Latino immigrants of North Hills have a problem with the police, a teenage son, the Internal Revenue Service or an uncooperative landlord, they often turn to the 42-year-old former aerospace worker with the soft voice and the steady manner for help.

“He reminds me of one of those forts out in he West. He is out there all on his own making a stand,” said Lynn Anderson, who directs the community outreach program for the Penny Lane group home for troubled teens in the area. “Here is this little patch of peacefulness and calm in this neighborhood that can be so wild.”

Many in North Hills would agree with Anderson. But they would add that Franco is not alone. His boss and principal partner in turning the old-line church into a sanctuary for hundreds of immigrants is the Rev. Jim Hamilton, the shaggy haired, bearded pastor of the United Methodist Church of Sepulveda.

“I said we need to do more and we need to get someone who speaks Spanish in here immediately,” said Hamilton, who took over the congregation nearly two years ago. “Evelio and I clicked immediately and we work very closely.”

On a recent Saturday, Franco helped stage a forum on immigration issues. He translated periodically for the attorney at the podium, then shepherded women with worried faces into a corner for private consultations with an off-duty immigration judge. Soon, he was rushing to set up dozens of metal folding chairs for a health fair that would be held later in the afternoon.

In between, he tickled a baby’s chin, offered books to a young schoolgirl and constantly answered questions--about the upcoming tax deadline, about basketball leagues, about everything.

The Shalom Zone has become a catalyst for a raft of programs, many in conjunction with other community organizations: judo classes for youngsters, a pair of soccer teams and English classes in the morning, noon and night.

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But much of Franco’s work is ad hoc: intervening for tenants in getting repairs from a landlord, for example.

In one case, an apartment manager was deposed and the residents were able to select one of their own as the new building superintendent, Hamilton said.

On several occasions, Franco has fought for the vendors who sell grilled corn and other items on the street. Typical of his style, he tries to persuade the workers that they need to obtain the appropriate permits and work within the system, but he also urges the police not to damage equipment or treat the entrepreneurs too harshly.

Franco and Hamilton have even confronted gang members who were caught distributing crack cocaine to schoolchildren. After a tense standoff of several days, the dealers were driven, at least temporarily, from a street corner not far from the church.

“Evelio is willing to go into one of the the most dangerous communities in Los Angeles, a neighborhood where the people who live there are afraid, and put aside that fear and do whatever is necessary to help the kids and the people in that community,” said Andrew Bridge, executive director of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, an agency that advocates for children.

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Franco’s supporters see a deep vein of patriotism in his work: He preaches good citizenship and following the rules to newcomers and, meanwhile, insists that the authorities grant his people the full measure of their rights.

Franco says those are lessons he learned from his father, a Mexican immigrant who joined the U.S. Navy at 18 and later earned his citizenship. “He always wanted to give something back to the country that opened the door to him,” Franco said. “And he wanted me to too.”

Franco worked for 15 years for an aerospace firm in Valencia, and served on the San Fernando City Council for three years in his longtime home of San Fernando. But he found something missing in his life and, in 1991, took a pay cut to take up community work.

“I felt I should get back to what I really enjoyed: being involved with people,” said the one-time student activist.

In some small way, Franco said he hopes that he can give a voice to people who often feel they cannot speak for themselves.

On one Saturday, he wears a T-shirt with a quote from Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the Guatemalan woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize fighting for the rights of natives. The shirt read: “Where impunity ends, peace begins.”

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The Beat

The United Methodist Church established Shalom Zones to help neighborhoods recover after the 1992 riots. The social service agencies help with a myriad of issues from housing to jobs, child care and immigration. For information in central Los Angeles call (213) 749-6310. In the San Fernando Valley call (818) 830-4036.