The Smart Money Is on Hope

Apartment building owner Richard Burns sets the right standard for the units he runs: “I’d have to be able to live in them myself,” the 62-year-old Rancho Santa Fe resident recently told a reporter. And as owner of eight buildings in a gang-infested part of North Hills, Burns has turned that high standard into reality for dozens of families who previously lived in rundown apartments lorded over by drug dealers and other thugs. Burns’ ability to restore hope to a neighborhood without much demonstrates the power of getting involved.

Burns and his partner, Tim Ryan, began purchasing buildings along Orion, Langdon and Columbus avenues a few months ago as investments. But unlike slumlords who buy buildings solely for the cash flow, Burns and Ryan invested additional money in refurbishments such as new carpet and appliances, fresh coats of paint and patches of grass to replace trash-strewn concrete. After putting up $3.2 million of his own money to buy the buildings, Burns estimates he has spent another $1 million on repairs and upgrades.

The upgrades came with an average rent hike of about 18%. Even so, a two-bedroom unit in Burns’ buildings is about $200 cheaper than the citywide average rent of $850, so the apartments remain affordable to the largely Latino, working-class families who live in the area.

Burns recognized early on that even top-quality units would decay rapidly unless he tried to address at least some of the neighborhood’s problems. Security was obvious. More than one-third of all drug-related arrests in the San Fernando Valley are made in the single square mile that includes the Orion-Columbus neighborhood. And the neighborhood accounted for more than two-thirds of all violent crime reported for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division--a patrol area that stretches from Chatsworth to North Hills.

Understanding that security means more than a steel gate and razor wire, Burns hired armed security guards with the power to make arrests on his property. Police statistics show a 50% drop in reported crime for the past two months. As crime dissipates, apartment managers feel more emboldened. Residents reclaim their courtyards and sidewalks. A neighborhood slowly emerges again from the tyranny of violence.

Remember, though, that Burns is a private businessperson--not a charity or a social service agency funded with public money. His mission: to make money. He understands that smart business requires him to understand the marketplace. People are willing to pay for dignity, for safety and for the feeling that they belong in their own neighborhood. That it might be done with relatively limited investment--at little or no cost to the public--deserves a close look.