Tenants Turn Slum Into Own Castle

Three-and-a-half years ago, the residents of Cambria Apartments in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles wrested control of their decaying apartment complex away from an unresponsive owner.

Aided by a federal grant, the tenants organized and became its owners. But with that victory came the sudden challenge of evicting the drug dealers, prostitutes, roaches and rodents that had made their complex one of the most notorious slums in Los Angeles.

Saturday, that job was completed. After more then a year of renovations, the Cambria Apartment complex has emerged as a symbol of community power and opportunity.

Twelve families that once coped with the appalling conditions of the former slum were greeted not with the familiar sights of sagging stairways and trash-strewn halls, but with gleaming new kitchens, bathrooms and the hope of security and safety.

“It has all changed so much. It was the worst of the worst conditions possible. There were leaks, cockroaches, and just very inhuman conditions,” said resident and tenant organizer Maria Contreras. “But now it’s beautiful. Just look at it now.”

Indeed, the renovated Cambria Apartments seem to be from a different world.

The smell of fresh paint and new carpets fills the building. Workers are still applying the final touches, but what was once a 68-room “nightmare” will soon be a comfortable, clean and safe home.

“We did this for ourselves and for our families,” said Josephine Guzman, who helped lead the push for changes. Although renovations on the building began only a year ago, the transformation has been six years in the making.

In 1992, the three-story building on South Union Avenue was a poster child of the slum world. City officials had dubbed the Cambria Apartments “one of the worst” slums in Los Angeles.

The building’s owner later pleaded no contest to 40 counts of code violations brought by the city’s slum housing task force.

After complaints consistently went unheeded, residents went on a rent strike.

City officials said the landlord responded by essentially abandoning the building: He stopped paying utility bills and the mortgage and fired the manager.

The tenants began to organize.

With guidance from community groups, Cambria Apartments’ residents formed a nonprofit organization called Communidad Cambria with the aim of purchasing the building and bringing control of the complex to those who lived there.

In May 1994, with $600,000 in federal funds, the nonprofit organization bought the building. The group’s board of directors, which included three residents as well as other community members, set out to repair the damage.

The organization worked with tenants rights groups, UCLA professors and the city of Los Angeles. The efforts resulted in more than $4 million in funds to renovate the building.

The small, cramped studio apartments that once filled the complex have now mostly been turned into bedroom units. The apartments are spacious and, most importantly, affordable.

For the veterans of the slum days, the success has had special meaning.

“It has given us new hope--that change can be a reality,” said Teresa Marcial, a resident and president of Communidad Cambria’s board of directors.

“What we’ve learned has translated to our everyday lives as well. Some of us are even going back to school.”