Some Fear L.A. Housing Policy Shift Would Leave Poor Without a Voice

The resounding rebuff by the mayor and City Council last week of a proposal to make bootleg garage apartments safer and in some cases, legal, comes at a time when Los Angeles is on the brink of a major shift in housing policy.

The change is expected to be hastened by the departure of housing chief Gary Squier, an appointee of Mayor Tom Bradley, whose activist style riled a number of Mayor Richard Riordan’s aides. It could leave the city reliant on private sector solutions to what some describe as one of the worst housing crunches in the nation.

Riordan, who does not have a housing deputy or count housing as a priority, is expected to chart a course in Squier’s absence that would mix housing with attracting new business to the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“From the mayor’s perspective, housing development would just be one tool among many to help revitalize a neighborhood,” said Chris O’Donnell, Riordan’s budget director and the architect of a recent plan to combine some funds for housing, redevelopment and public works projects into one pool.

There has been talk of combining the Housing Department with the struggling Community Redevelopment Agency, a move that could leave the city without a designated advocate specifically for housing.

Advocates for the poor say Riordan’s approach would leave the city rudderless when it comes to housing.

“There’s no real coherent policy,” said Jan Breidenbach, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Non-Profit Housing. “There’s no champion on the City Council, and the leadership doesn’t come out of the mayor’s office.”

Over the next year, the city will have to deal with the impact of welfare reform on the ability of poor families to pay rent, as well as the anticipated expiration of contracts with landlords to provide low-cost housing under the federal Section 8 program.

Some neighborhoods, according to Squier, City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg and others, are deteriorating so fast that if the city doesn’t step in soon, they will be lost as places to live and work.

And throughout the city, according to figures gathered by the Housing Department in 1994, 500,000 households pay too much for housing or live in substandard and overcrowded conditions.

Still, even the mayor’s top deputies agree that there is little consensus on how to move forward.

“Housing policy?” said one powerful aide to the mayor. “Do we have one?”

Another aide, Riordan deputy Kelly Martin, said the mayor views housing as important, but not as a priority.

“It doesn’t mean he doesn’t think there’s a tremendous need,” Martin said. “He does. But there are other tremendous needs. We do a lot of juggling in this office. We also pave streets.”

The mayor has long considered merging the Housing Department with the CRA, and has reduced the housing agency’s budget for two years running. The agency’s budget has declined from $68.2 million two years ago to $57.1 million for the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the CRA’s annual outlays for housing have fallen from $40 million three years ago to about $5 million.

Martin said that the mayor’s office will look at its housing policy as part of the search for a replacement for Squier, whose resignation last month becomes effective July 1. “At this point, I don’t even think we’ve decided what philosophy we want,” Martin said.

Squier, plucked from the ranks of community organizers by then-Mayor Bradley, resigned shortly after an audit criticized his department for its management of some earthquake recovery funds. During his tenure, he pushed hard for the construction of new housing as well as the rehabilitation of deteriorating stock.

“I’m too difficult during the budget time,” said Squier, who resisted Riordan’s plan to consolidate funds traditionally earmarked for housing with money from other departments.

He was so zealous in enforcing laws against slum conditions that the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles took to lampooning him in its newsletter.

Irma Vargas, president of the apartment association, said she hoped the rejection last week of recommendations by the Garage Housing Task Force--chaired by Squier--meant that the housing chief’s influence was on the wane.

Many officials, including Squier, see the rejection of the garage recommendations as an acknowledgment that it would be extremely difficult politically to legalize garage apartments. At a hearing last week, homeowner groups packed the council chambers, arguing that legalizing even some bootleg units would ruin the city’s single-family neighborhoods and drive down property values.

“It’s political suicide to take on the homeowner groups in that way,” said Sally Richman, director of policy and planning for the Housing Department.

Still, the vote pointed up the city’s lack of a plan to address its housing problems, said Blasi and others.

Housing activists are right, said Councilwoman Laura Chick, to complain that there is no champion for housing issues on the council.

“There has never been a citywide plan that says, ‘Here are the things we need to do to create an adequate amount of livable, affordable housing for our poor residents,’ ” Chick said. “And we’re never going to have quality of life throughout our city until we do that.”