Council Promises Help for Northeast Valley
Alarmed that city enforcement of anti-slum codes for apartments has fallen years behind schedule, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday ordered a reform of the program to get it back on track.
Two years ago, city officials promised that every one of the city’s 750,000 apartments would be inspected once every three years, but only a quarter of the units have been inspected to date and officials say it may take six years or more to visit them all at the current rate.
“I’m very disappointed we haven’t made better strides,” said West Valley Councilwoman Laura Chick.
The council ordered Housing Department General Manager Garry Pinney to report in the next two months on how to reorganize and improve the effectiveness of the Systematic Code Enforcement Program. It was launched two years ago after a task force charged that the city was not doing nearly enough to prevent the spread of slum conditions in the city’s stock of multifamily housing.
“The program has a lot of flaws,” said Councilman Nate Holden. “I think it was wrong to have made the promise if they couldn’t do it.”
Pinney said he is drafting proposals to address some problems which have caused delays, such as the difficulty in gaining access to apartments for inspections. Despite posting notices in advance, inspectors often find no one to let them in, or residents who do not cooperate.
One proposal is to inspect only half the units in a building if there have been no complaints. The city attorney’s office is considering whether such a plan would be legal, given that the city has imposed a fee of $1 per month for all apartments to pay for the program.
Landlords challenged the fee in court after it was imposed two years ago. That case is on appeal.
Pinney told council members that his department is experimenting with hand-held computers to make input of inspection data more efficient.
“Can we make improvements? Of course,” Pinney said.
Once inspections take place, Pinney said, the city has been successful in getting repairs made in 96% of cases.
But a recent study by a citizens task force headed by UCLA law professor Gary Blasi found that in a quarter of the cases it took an average of four months to gain compliance, with inspectors having to return to the property up to 12 times.
The Times recently reported on the housing and health-care crises in the northeast Valley, including a Sun Valley apartment building where, after more than a year, much of the city ordered repair work has not been done.
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The stakes for code enforcement are particularly high in the northeast Valley, which is plagued by the highest rate of building code violations in apartments citywide.
The Times’ series found a proliferation of slum housing conditions, with as many as three families occupying substandard dwellings, including illegally converted garages and old camping trailers.
The area, which has been hit by an influx of immigrants, also faces a health crisis, with more than half of the adult population lacking health insurance. Public health experts say they have found a high concentration of shigella, an intestinal disease typically found in developing nations.
Pinney said he will make recommendations to speed action on problem properties with foot-dragging landlords, including improved coordination with a city program that forces compliance by impounding rent to pay for repairs.
Other city officials complained that the program has simply been underfunded. One housing official said the city may have to triple the 55 inspectors now assigned to get the program back on track.
Chick said she is open to hearing from Pinney about the need for more resources.
“The whole goal of the program is to take some new steps to preserve our older housing stock and make it more habitable,” the councilwoman said. “We have to make this program work.”
