A Troubled Santa Paula Neighborhood Gets Help

A Santa Paula neighborhood plagued by violence and overcrowding has received a federal grant of more than $1 million to fight crime and build a base of community activities for residents.

By October, people living in a two-square-mile neighborhood of single-family homes and apartments near Las Piedras Park have been promised an officer walking the beat and a full-time activities coordinator at the park’s community center on 13th Street.

The money is part of the Department of Justice’s Weed and Seed program, which has handed out similar grants to more than 270 low-income, high-crime neighborhoods across the country since it began in 1991.

“Hopefully this grant will create an opportunity for education and training for those who are involved in crime and drugs,” Santa Paula Police Chief Bob Gonzales said at a news conference Wednesday.

The federal program was designed to help communities pay for additional police officers and expand community programs.

Gonzales said the $1,075,000 grant will pump much-needed money into the center’s Boys & Girls Clubs program, provide tutoring for children and adults and boost an English program at Santa Paula High School.

The federal funds also will help the city start new youth athletic programs.

An additional officer, to be added to the city’s 32-member force, will work at the center on a flexible schedule, Gonzales said.

“It’s going to be different,” he said. “They will basically be able to write their own job description. They could work late in the day and into the evening, but it won’t be conventional.”

Considering that a community survey listed residential overcrowding as a main concern of the neighborhood, the new patrol officer also will focus on housing violations.

After a decade-long dip in crime, Santa Paula, a farming community of about 29,000, announced this month that robbery and thefts jumped 13% in 2001.

Residents who live near the center welcomed news of an increased law enforcement presence but questioned whether it will discourage criminal behavior.

“It’s a bad area and we don’t ever just go out for a stroll, especially at night,” said Michelle Karayan, 29, who lives a block from Las Piedras Park. “I have heard the gunshots at night. [The neighborhood] definitely needs to have more attention paid to it.”

The grant will be spread out over five years, said Grace Denton of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, who worked with city and county officials on the grant.

The first $175,000 to Santa Paula will pay the police officer’s salary and benefits, with the remaining funds set aside to hire a full-time office administrator and a part-time assistant. A part-time youth recreation coordinator also will be hired.

The remaining money will be paid out in $225,000 installments over the next four years, said Michael Jump, a development officer in the district attorney’s office who helped secure the grant.

Additional grant money will fund crisis-intervention classes for domestic-violence victims, a new computer and refrigerator, office equipment and field trips, Jump said.

There are fewer than a dozen Weed and Seed programs in Central and Southern California, including two in Oxnard, Denton said.