Cleanup Marks New Beginning in Pacoima

In a neighborhood battered by poverty, a vacant lot can be many things.

It could be a dumping ground, a wide-open trash can collecting discarded tires. It might be a stomping ground, a ragged home for people with nowhere else to go. Or it could be a place to hatch dreams.

The four-acre lot at Borden Avenue and Pierce Street, like much of Pacoima, is hovering somewhere in between. It has been mostly vacant, save for a few abandoned houses and clumps of rotting garbage. But on Sunday, Habitat for Humanity sponsored a cleanup day at the site, beginning a dramatic make-over that will bring the neighborhood 55 new homes and a child-care center.

“There’s hope for this area, if the people will--how shall I put it--if they see something wrong, they’ll do something about it,” said William Bryant, who moved here 41 years ago and now keeps a lookout over the area as president of the Judd Street Neighborhood Watch.

Located across the street from Maclay Middle School, the L-shaped lot has long been a magnet for squatters, drug use and illegal dumping. Next summer, however, Habitat volunteers will begin construction on the $7-million housing development, the largest Habitat project ever built in the San Fernando Valley.

“We’re trying to participate in what Pacoima is already doing,” said Nikki Johnson-Maxwell, the director of volunteer services for Habitat’s San Fernando-Santa Clarita valleys chapter. “We’re part of a very exciting time in Pacoima’s history.”

A working-class, predominantly Latino community struggling to replace blighted boulevards with bustling businesses, Pacoima is in the midst of a quiet resurgence.

Vice President Al Gore visited the area earlier this year to unveil a package of federal tax credits, adding an empowerment zone to a cornucopia of programs offering federal loans, state tax breaks, millions in city funds to revitalize business, and other incentives.

Last week, the Los Angeles City Council’s Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee approved a $1.7-million loan of federal housing funds for the Habitat project, called Borden Homes. The full council is expected to consider the loan request this week.

“It’s going to be a vast improvement,” said councilman and newly elected state Sen. Richard Alarcon, who represents the area. “It gives people an opportunity to solidify home ownership instead of tenant residency, which I believe improves the overall quality of life.”

Or, in the words of longtime resident and community activist Marie Harris: “That’s the only way we’re going to have respect--if people take care of their own homes.”

Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based Christian nonprofit organization that has constructed more than 70,000 houses for the poor in 61 countries, has built in Pacoima before. In 1994, eight families who each had pitched in at least 500 hours of construction work received Habitat homes in the Don Adams Villas, a condominium complex on Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

The families who will one day live in Borden Homes are still being selected, Johnson-Maxwell said. Habitat chooses families based on need, ability to pay back a 30-year, interest-free mortgage, and willingness to work with the organization. For this project, a four-member family needs an annual income of $18,000 to $24,000 to qualify.

“We’re trying to basically give them a hand up,” Johnson-Maxwell said. “We’re not giving them a handout.”

Made up of duplexes, Borden Homes will be the first development built by Habitat’s Valley chapter that includes a child-care center. The center will serve families throughout the neighborhood, not just the ones who live in the Habitat homes.

“It’s an opportunity to do more than housing,” said Helena Delu, the chapter’s executive director. “We’re bringing more children into the community. One of the wonderful things we’re also doing is bringing in this facility for child care.”

Esther Villa, who oversees five parent centers at Pacoima schools, including one at Maclay Middle School, said the planned houses will fill a significant void in the community. She said many families with whom she works live in converted garages or squeeze into overcrowded homes with other families.

“I mean, we need so much,” she said, reeling off a list of employment, child-care, education and housing initiatives underway in the neighborhood. “This Habitat just came in at the right time.”