Housing Authority to Aid Last Aliso Village Families

The Housing Authority announced Friday that 29 families facing eviction from Aliso Village, a public housing project in East Los Angeles, will be relocated to temporary housing and given help finding new homes if they can’t find a place to live by the end of April.

The announcement was welcomed by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, which has been negotiating relocation for the families. Residents of the 685-unit complex were told last year that Aliso Village would be demolished and newer homes would be built.

According to Housing Authority officials, residents had the option of using Section 8 vouchers to move into other public housing facilities, apply for affordable housing or apply for homeownership. Of the families occupying the more than 600 units, all but 29 have been able to find other accommodations, they said.

Until a couple of days ago, the authority had been ignoring the pleas of those 29 families and pressuring them with eviction notices, said Legal Aid attorney Elena Popp. But on Thursday, she said, the housing authority had “a complete change of heart.”

Don J. Smith, the authority’s executive director, disagreed. The agency has never changed its handling of the matter and has always supported families during the relocation process, he said.