Help for Substandard Housing

The 1997 deaths of eight Los Angeles residents from fires that raced through their illegal garage apartments underscored the city’s lack of safe and affordable housing. Unfortunately, there were no easy solutions. Now, a new $150-million public/private loan program can serve as an important part of an ongoing solution. It will help bring some residences into full compliance with city codes, and help prevent others from deteriorating to slum status.

But all of that is contingent upon making a very complicated financial program function as planned, and that won’t be easy.

It’s estimated that about 150,000 apartments and other residences in Los Angeles fail to meet city housing code requirements. One-fifth of those could be considered “severely distressed,” but no one really knows since there has never been a comprehensive accounting.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick produced a good idea with Neighborhood Codewatch, a program in which volunteers are trained to look for and report substandard residences and other deficiencies. Then Mayor Richard Riordan proposed, and the City Council supported, a program to begin the inspection of the city’s housing units every three years. But that still left the problem of how to help apartment owners pay for the costs of repairs and improvements.

The loan program, announced last week by Riordan, involves Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Home Savings of America and several other lending institutions. Apartment owners will be able to get loans in smaller amounts than these financial institutions usually handle, since the banks don’t consider it cost-effective to make small loans. Several details remain to be worked out. Among them is how to ensure that slumlords, who have the financial wherewithal to pay for improvements, don’t benefit.

Some owners will lack the good credit required to qualify, but this program should result in better living conditions for Angelenos throughout the city.