Residents Protest Plans to Raze Housing Project

More than 100 residents of a Boyle Heights housing project and their supporters gathered Monday evening to protest a plan by city housing officials to demolish and rebuild the 33-building development over the next six years.

Carrying banners, written in Spanish and English, reading “Don’t Demolish Our Community” and “We Need More Homes for Low-Income Families,” the demonstrators called on the city Housing Authority to drop plans to relocate residents of Aliso Village and agree to renovate rather than raze the 685-family development.

Earlier this month, city housing officials declared a state of emergency at Aliso Village, a move that could make federal funds available for relocation and demolition. There are no funds available for renovation, which could cost up to $66 million, said Housing Authority spokesman George McQuade.

Several areas in the 56-year-old project are structurally unsafe because of rotting support beams, and the 23 families living in affected apartments will be relocated within two months, McQuade said. Residents are not in immediate danger, he said.

Officials said the remaining families would be moved out within two years.

But some at Aliso Village think the city’s plan to rebuild only 269 public housing units is unfair.