For years, Daniel Lubiano tended the roses in his front yard while watching the home across 82nd Street in South Los Angeles fall apart.
In foreclosure for nearly a year, the house had been neglected by tenants who refused to pay their rent. The stucco was chipped and dirty, and the yard was covered in weeds.
The empty carport behind the house became a favorite spot for teenagers trying to hang pairs of tennis shoes from electrical wires overhead. In all, there were 28 pairs dangling there.
"We spend a lot of time trying to make our house look nice," said Lubiano, a 30-year-old mechanic. "It would be nice if we had people move in who really wanted to take care of the place."
That's exactly what federal and city officials are hoping.
Newly appointed federal Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan on Wednesday toured the home, and another on 90th Street, to gauge the depth of the housing problem in California, where more than a quarter of the nation's foreclosures have occurred.
Donovan was in Los Angeles to tour some of the homes the city is buying with its share of the $6 billion in federal money being given to local governments to buy foreclosures under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. He was joined by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who wrote the bill that created the program.
The city intends to use its $33-million piece of that money to turn some of the homes into low-income rental housing. Others it will refurbish and sell to low-income and moderate-income families.
"We want to bring real families into these neighborhoods, not more investors," said Mercedes Marquez, the head of the city's housing agency.
Donovan, the former head of New York's housing agency, said he believed the city was off to a promising start and that he hoped to change the way the Department of Housing and Urban Development deals with local housing offices.
"When was the last time you came to HUD and said we have a problem and we want you to help us solve it?" Donovan asked. "HUD has not been that kind of partner, and we want to do that now."
The aim of the federal effort is to reduce blight and add affordable housing. There has been some grumbling among housing programs about the formula that was used for the funding allocation, with some agencies saying that big cities like Los Angeles and Cleveland gobbled up more than their fair share. Some real estate brokers and private investors also have been critical of the program, saying it could force prices down even further.
