HUD Pledges More Aid for Aliso Village

The head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pledged $23 million Tuesday to begin the demolition and rebuilding of the 56-year-old Aliso Village public housing project in Boyle Heights.

The announcement by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who appeared with Mayor Richard Riordan and other officials, gives the city’s Housing Authority $35 million to begin the razing and rebuilding process.

The Housing Authority still has to get additional funds from private investors, lenders and other public sources to build what is being touted as a smaller, but more attractive, housing development.

Aliso Village will shrink from 685 units for low-income residents to 469 units for low- and middle-income tenants. The HUD money that the Housing Authority already has ensures that the 269 units earmarked for the lowest-income residents will be built, said Don Smith, executive director of the local agency.

In June, public housing officials said that the World War II-era buildings in Aliso Village were unsafe and declared a state of emergency. A group that opposes the city’s plan to relocate residents and to build a smaller housing project said it would keep fighting.

“The Housing Authority’s plan is based on a lie--that a state of emergency exists in Aliso Village,” said Leonardo Vilchis of Union de Vecinos Unidos.

Residents from 23 of what the Housing Authority says are the project’s least-stable units will be moved within a month, said Smith. Others will follow in the ensuing months.

Riordan said he sympathized with Aliso Village residents who didn’t want to move, but added that changes are needed.

“My heart goes out to them. But taking big steps forward is sometimes hard on people,” Riordan said.

“We won’t get where we need to go if we don’t have the guts to make the move.”