Housing Authority's Disposition

Rancho San Pedro Conversion to Seciton 8 Threatens to Dispossess Some Residents

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

Business owners and town boosters once quietly advocated the bull dozing of Rancho San Pedro, lamenting that the World War II era workforce housing was a roadblock to a greater San Pedro, perpetuating the town’s reputation as “the slum by the sea.” It made sense to the average citizen that saw dystopian news stories coming out of Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens not far in the not-so-distant past, where Los Angeles Police Department never came with less than an army to get a suspect. Always the creators of unintended consequences, humans are incredibly fond of solutions that solve many problems at once. That is probably why privatization of all that is and all that will be is such an attractive idea to powerful interests, despite repeated disastrous results. And that is the “solution” being promoted for public housing today.

On Aug. 12, a contingent of Rancho San Pedro residents joined residents from 13 other Los Angeles public housing developments, including San Fernando Gardens and Pueblo del Rio in Westmont, who trekked to the Los Angeles Convention Center where the Housing Authority in the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) held a public hearing on their Draft Agency Plan for 2011.

Ordinarily, one might expect public housing residents to laud a plan that includes such lofty goals as improving public safety in the housing developments, expanding the supply of affordable housing and homeownership opportunities by purchasing foreclosed properties for use as public housing, not to mention the implementation of measures that de-concentrate poverty by the building of mixed-income communities.

Instead, the 190-seat conference room had every seat filled with worried public housing residents and their children, with more sitting on the floor at the back, holding signs that read “No Section 8.” The Housing Authority’s armed guards in uniform (not unlike the LAPD with a different shoulder patch) maintained order while ensuring that the conference room didn’t reach over-capacity. Seventy to 80 more residents stood outside of the hearing, hoping that their voices would be heard––hoping that they won’t be dispossessed from their homes.

The thing that has the residents fearful is the proposal to convert federal public housing like Rancho San Pedro into semi-private Section 8 (voucher) units through disposition.

Disposition, otherwise known as Tenant in Place Change in Subsidy will transfer title of the public housing developments from the Housing Authority to the Housing Authority’s Los Angeles LOMOD Corp., a non profit that operates under contract with the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department.

LOMOD currently provides administrative services to HUD to monitor performance of owners and management agents participating in project-based Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contracts under Section 8.

Residents fear that with this change, under Section 8 rules, they won’t qualify for housing, either because they earn too much, earn too little, or because they are undocumented. Many also fear that rents will rise along with other miscellaneous maintenance fees and that the Housing Authority, or through its non-profit corporation, will become less responsive if they choose to eliminate the developments’ on-site management offices.

According to the Agency Plan, the change may result in some modest increases in rents and maintenance fee schedules. But many residents complain that the increased fees have already been implemented, causing them to wonder how much more will they be asked to pay.

According to Section 8 rules, all applicants must provide valid proof of Social Security, which are verified through a number of federal databases. Previously, it was not required for children younger than six years of age. Veronica Mendoza, the Resident Advisory Council president at Rancho San Pedro housing development believes that as many as 30 families in Rancho San Pedro would be affected if the Agency Plan were adopted.

Mendoza is the Resident Advisory Council president at Rancho San Pedro housing development. She submitted a card to speak, but never made it to the dais. She can’t help but feel that the entire process was geared toward keeping residents in the dark and forcing through policies that would put people most in need out into the streets. “This is not the first attempt nor will it be the last by HACLA to convert public housing into Section 8,” Mendoza explained a couple of days after the hearing. “They want to convert the units and sell them to developers.”

“Mixed-income developments” are nice buzz words used to describe structures that aim to render poor people invisible, rather than eliminate poverty. Ironically, it is times like these that are best to push through such gargantuan efforts with no one really paying attention. The Housing Authority’s annual plan discusses all of the important things, such as the promotion of self-sufficiency, the building of safe and hygienic housing and expanding affordable housing stock. The Housing Authority also appears to fill every requirement of being a transparent process.

That is until you hear stories like Mendoza’s, where she was prepared to bring 250 residents to the public hearing, but was stymied by a list of obstacles she believes were created by the Housing Authority.

Mendoza cited the struggles that she, and her fellow officers on the Resident Advisory Council at Rancho San Pedro (Maria Rodriguez, Sargent of Arms and treasurer Sandra Rivas) had in getting transportation to the hearing. The Resident Advisory Council members requested the transportation in advance, but were told the day of the hearing that vans could not be made available. Councilwoman Janice Hahn, upon hearing the problem, secured a bus to transport about 62 Rancho San Pedro residents to the hearing.

But this was only the tip of the iceberg of struggles residents had to face. Mendoza believes that inspections were intentionally arranged to coincide with the public hearing to discourage resident participation. A week prior to the hearings, subcontractors were taking pictures in many of the homes at the development. Though there are scheduled inspections throughout the year in housing developments like Rancho San Pedro, this one was not previously scheduled.

“One subcontractor came in taking pictures of the inside of the apartments,” Mendoza explained. “My kids called me. They said, ‘Mom, there are two guys here that want to come in and take pictures of the house.’ I said I never got any notification. Don’t let them in.”

Mendoza caught up with the subcontractor and learned that they were inspecting the newly installed toilets. After complaining to management about the lack of notice, the subcontractors left. On the Wednesday before the hearing, residents received a notice that inspections would take place on Aug. 13, just a day after the hearing.

Reportedly, during the Housing Authority’s presentations at many of the developments as well as at the public hearing, residents asked for more information about the disposition process and the increased maintenance fees and requested a guarantee that they wouldn’t be made homeless by the change. The Housing Authority demurred, even though one of the Agency Plan’s guiding principles is to minimally impact the current residents.

Even this paper found it difficult to get a straight answer from the Housing Authority. A Random Lengths News reporter called on-site management at Rancho San Pedro for a comment about the public hearing. The on-site management had to call the Housing Authority’s Wilshire office, only to relay back that questions had to be emailed in advanced. Random Lengths generally prefers live comments, whether via the phone or in person, but made an exception in this case. Two e-mails have been sent, but no reply. It is no wonder residents feel their intelligence is being insulted when they are told they are being heard when it’s all too obvious that they are being ignored.

Click here to see the draft Agency Plan for 2011.