A Work in Progress

When Los Angeles officials unveiled an ambitious plan a few years ago to renovate the decaying and gang-infested Pico Aliso public housing project, they said it wasn’t just a job of laying bricks and mortar to reshape one of the toughest neighborhoods in L.A.

It was billed as a $140-million roll of the dice that would be watched across the country as a prototype of how public housing projects could be transformed in the next century.

The Pico Aliso plan “may be the only way public housing will survive in the United States,” said Don Smith, executive director of the Los Angeles Housing Authority.

That would be a tall order, considering the mean streets that constitute Pico Aliso and the gangs that call it home. Since the start of 1998, seven homicides and countless other violent crimes have been reported in the project, located east of the Los Angeles River and downtown.

Federal officials, convinced that Smith and others in Los Angeles are on the right track, are providing most of the money to revitalize Pico Aliso through grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

These days, as the renovation work reaches the halfway point in the project’s southern portion, where residents are moving into brand-new suburban-style townhouses, the jury is out on whether the grand experiment will meet its extraordinary expectations.

Officials, for example, are still trying to find a developer to put together a commercial strip along 1st Street that they hope will include a supermarket. The closest supermarket now is several miles away.

One thing, however, is clear as the renovation proceeds. Opposition to the demolition of the World War II-era apartments and the Housing Authority’s handling of it has been more vocal and strident than in August 1997, when the work began.

In recent months, several meetings involving the residents turned into tense confrontations at which three residents, all women, were arrested for disrupting the gatherings. In the eyes of some critics, the incidents have dashed whatever goodwill was garnered by the construction of the new housing units.

“The Housing Authority just lies to people,” Pico Aliso resident Freddie Tellez complains. “They don’t tell you anything. They arrest people who speak out against them.”

Housing Authority officials said the recent tension at residents meetings is the work of outside agitators who don’t support the renovation work. “I think we have the support of most of the residents for what we’re doing,” Smith said.

Instead of replacing or refurbishing the 1,252 units in the three sections that comprise Pico Aliso, L.A. housing officials decided to use a unique federal plan--the Hope 6 Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program--to build 905 units of various designs.

Lower Population Density

Where past efforts at public housing were aimed at providing transitional homes for as many people as possible, the new approach calls for fewer units to break up the heavy population density that is often associated with public housing. Before the work began, Pico Aliso had more than 4,500 residents; more than 91% were Latinos. Utah Street Elementary School, which is within the project’s boundaries, is one of the city’s larger elementary schools, with nearly 800 students.

New suburban-style townhouses and clustered family homes, called casitas, will comprise the bulk of the new units to be built in the Pico Gardens, Aliso Village and Aliso Extension areas that make up the sprawling project.

Several new apartment buildings just for senior citizens also figure in the mix of housing.

In another break with the past, some of the new units will be put up for sale. For example, a two- or three-bedroom casita, which could go for as much as $250,000 in Orange County, may sell for only $130,000 in Pico Aliso, officials say.

They believe homeowners in a community previously made up of renters will help improve the area’s emotional and physical atmosphere.

As much as 15% to 20% of the overall cost of building the new units has been set aside for apprenticeship plans, job training and other programs for Pico Aliso residents, including local gang members. Because of those efforts, Father Greg Boyle, the spiritual counselor to many area homeboys and an influential voice on the Eastside, supports the revitalization.

Another groundbreaking feature is the Housing Authority’s decision to loosen eligibility requirements for those interested in living there. While the average income of Pico Aliso residents is about $12,000 a year, officials said they hope to attract families with higher incomes. Under the new plan, families with incomes of up to $30,000 a year can move in.

These changes, and the attempt to attract commercial ventures like a supermarket and other businesses, are a new direction for public housing, officials say.

“What we’re trying to do is change the social and physical [reality] of Pico Aliso,” says Xavier Mendoza, director of the Housing Authority’s renovation effort.

Critics, however, see it differently.

Elizabeth Blaney, an organizer with a residents group called La Union de los Vecinos de Pico Aliso, rejects the notion that the grand scheme is the best way to revitalize the area. She and others maintain that the Housing Authority set out to destroy the closely knit communities that characterize Pico Aliso by forcing out lower-income families.

Blaney, who does not live in Pico Aliso, and others have a list of grievances against the Housing Authority:

* Instead of demolishing Pico Aliso’s 1,252 apartments, they argue, most of the units could have been remodeled at less cost.

* By using Section 8 federal housing subsidies as an enticement, Blaney contends, the Housing Authority is forcing out anyone who wanted to remain at Pico Aliso as long as possible while construction went on around them. (Section 8 subsidies supplement a low-income tenant’s ability to pay market-value rent.)

* The decision to rebuild less than three-fourths of the number of original units in Pico Aliso will further reduce availability, critics say. “Why would they reduce what’s left of affordable housing in Los Angeles?” Blaney asks.

The decision earlier this year to erect fences around Aliso Village as a means of reducing crime also was criticized by the Vecinos group.

That move, activists charged, was made without proper consultation with the residents. That’s a continuing issue with La Union de los Vecinos, which means the Union of Neighbors. They contend they are intimidated, harassed and arrested when they speak out against the Housing Authority.

In 1996, the start of demolition was delayed for several months when residents filed a complaint with HUD, charging that the Housing Authority wasn’t planning to build enough units to accommodate residents who wanted to stay in Pico Aliso.

Smith, Mendoza and others in the Housing Authority reject the criticism with patient answers. But they get agitated at the suggestion that they have used the subsidies as a means of forcing people out of Pico Aliso.

“That’s absolutely not true,” fumed Smith, who pointed out that, without prodding from the Housing Authority, only about 30% of the original Pico Aliso residents want to return to live in the new units. “We’ve done all we can for them.”

In addition, Mendoza said an extra 266 Section 8 subsidies have been offered to residents who have opted for various reasons not to return. By making the extra Section 8 money available, the Housing Authority is actually expanding the pool of affordable housing in Los Angeles, he said.

Security Measures

The contentiousness over the revitalization work has grown to the point where Housing Authority police routinely check the identities of people planning to attend the monthly residents meetings at Pico Aliso. Only residents are allowed to attend. Video cameras document disruptions at the gatherings.

Three women, who are members of Vecinos, have been arrested for disrupting recent meetings. The three, Julia Toledo, Maria Torres and Josefina Castallanos, accuse the Housing Authority of ignoring the residents and the Housing Authority police of brutality.

On the other hand, the head of the residents advisory council in Pico Village, David Ochoa, has accused Vecinos members and supporters of threatening him and his mother, who also lives in the project. A police report was filed last month after the door of Ochoa’s mother’s apartment was kicked in.

“The people in Vecinos are just troublemakers,” Ochoa said.

Problems have plagued Pico Aliso for many years. Violent crime has been a constant companion for residents, with as many as six street gangs calling the project their home.

But recently, police say, the relocation of families as a result of the demolition has reduced the number of area gangs. “Oh yeah,” said Housing Authority Police Chief Ray Palacios, “it was a much bigger problem before.”

Smith, the head of the Housing Authority, admits that Pico Aliso has a tough reputation, but he remains optimistic that the renovation will succeed.

“It’s not a hellhole,” he said.

Meanwhile, the work to reshape Pico Aliso is moving forward.

In Pico Gardens--the southernmost part of the project, where 577 apartments will be replaced--the first of the new townhouses have already been occupied. They range from one-bedroom units for single mothers and others to four- and five-bedroom apartments for large families, including grandparents. The rest of the townhouses and expanded recreational facilities, administrative offices and a child-care center should be ready for occupancy by next July.

In the Aliso Extension area, which is directly south of 1st Street, the first of more than 80 casitas will be ready by next month.

The reaction of the occupants has been mostly positive.

“For me, I’m very happy with this new apartment,” said Maria Cisneros, who moved into a new three-bedroom townhouse nearly two months ago after having lived in a dilapidated Pico Aliso unit for 20 years.

She was particularly enthusiastic about an outdoor patio area, which she could not have had in the past. “This is just wonderful.”

Vecinos member Tellez, however, is upset over the size of the newer units. He would have preferred to have his present Pico Gardens unit--which he claims is larger--remodeled, Tellez said.

One new occupant of a one-bedroom townhouse, Martha Lawson, 56, remembered the day in 1952 when the first apartments in Aliso Village were occupied. Lawson, who prefers to be called “Mama Jean,” said: “We lived down here [in Pico Gardens] and went up there to see the new apartments. They were nice, but they are nothing like [her new townhouse]. I’m so contented. My neighbors are nice; my friends are here. What else do I need?”

Just then, her daughter, who lives in an old apartment across the way from the new townhouses, called to Mama Jean as she chatted about her new digs.

“Wait until I get my new unit,” she said.

Some problems have been encountered in the new units.

One resident, 56-year-old Victoria Allison, said she was unhappy that her three-bedroom townhouse wasn’t spacious enough and that her children were forced to buy her a clothes dryer. “We used clotheslines [in the old unit] to dry clothes and we aren’t allowed to use them now,” she said. “I didn’t have $300 or $400 to buy a dryer but my kids got me one for Mother’s Day. They shouldn’t had to do that.”

Despite the problems, housing officials said Allison’s rent for the new unit is affordable and typical of what new occupants can expect to pay. She paid $118 a month in her old apartment and her monthly rent is $152 in the townhouse.

“This new place is taking some getting used to,” Allison said.

For her and all the project’s residents, it will clearly take some time to get accustomed to the vast changes going on around them.

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Rebuilding

The Pico Aliso public housing project, consisting of Aliso Village, Aliso Extension and Pico Gardens, is being revamped. Its 1,252 aging apartments are being demolished and replaced with suburban-style townhouses and two-, three- and four-bedroom homes, called casitas. The project will include a commercial shopping strip that may feature a supermarket.

*

Utah Street Elementary School: To remain open during construction.

Commercial Development: Plans being developed for a shopping strip and supermarket.

Aliso Extension: Construction nearly complete on the first of 90 casitas, including 5 senior citizen units, expected to be completed by December 2000.

Aliso Village: Residents already being relocated. New housing expected to be completed by June 2002.

Pico Gardens: About 40% of construction on 280 townhouses has been done. Completion expected by July 2000.

Source: Los Angeles Housing Authority