Los Angeles Housing

Three nonprofit groups that represent low-income families intend to file a class action lawsuit alleging that thousands of tenants in Los Angeles housing projects were improperly charged for trash removal by the city. The lawsuit, slated to be filed Wednesday, contends that residents in 14 housing projects are owed $8 million for payments they made over the last four years. The Western Center on Law and Poverty, working with two other advocacy groups, said residents at Jordan Downs, Ramona Gardens and a dozen other locations signed leases that identified "rubbish removal" as a service covered by the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles.

In a few months, the Los Angeles County Housing Authority will begin allowing rent subsidies to be granted to homeless ex-convicts on parole or probation. The move is controversial, with some critics complaining that it rewards criminals, giving them special treatment and moving them to the front of the line for the limited and much-sought-after subsidies. But that's shortsighted. Homeless ex-convicts, including many who committed only minor, nonviolent crimes, don't go away if they don't get housing aid. Although there are risks associated with the new rule, they're risks worth taking.

Thursday was supposed to mark a new beginning for the dilapidated Pico-Aliso public housing project in Boyle Heights, a collection of nondescript World War II-era apartment buildings in one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Los Angeles. But as about 100 residents and dignitaries watched, a bulldozer poised to begin demolition work did not move.

Three nonprofit groups that represent low-income families intend to file a class action lawsuit alleging that thousands of tenants in Los Angeles housing projects were improperly charged for trash removal by the city. The lawsuit, slated to be filed Wednesday, contends that residents in 14 housing projects are owed $8 million for payments they made over the last four years. The Western Center on Law and Poverty, working with two other advocacy groups, said residents at Jordan Downs, Ramona Gardens and a dozen other locations signed leases that identified "rubbish removal" as a service covered by the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles.

One person was killed and two others wounded by a man who then fatally shot himself Friday afternoon at a Los Angeles housing project. Police said the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute between the dead man and woman, but otherwise released few details. The man, apparently in his 20s, shot the woman, a teen-ager, at close range on the grounds of the William Mead Homes off North Main Street.

More than 120 Korean-American senior citizens joined Los Angeles housing development officials Friday to celebrate the completion of Sangnok Villa, the city's first subsidized housing project for the region's burgeoning Korean community. Between benedictions by a Korean minister and the singing of the U.S.

Without admitting any wrongdoing, the Los Angeles Housing Authority has agreed to establish a $1.3-million fund to compensate Latino and African American tenants at four city housing projects who say they have been subjected to discrimination and abuse.

It's clear that the wife of Los Angeles County's erstwhile coroner will not be rushing to buy Randy Newman's record "I Love L.A." First, Sheila Perper couldn't find a home here to her liking for under $825,000. And the traffic? Forget it. Then there are the city's neighborhoods, which are, well, disturbing. "In California, everything looks like a slum," she said Friday from her home near Pittsburgh, Pa. "I am very disappointed to see how people live." Only last month, Joshua A.

The November vote on San Fernando Valley and Hollywood secession could toss rent control and other Los Angeles housing laws up for grabs, causing anxieties among tenants and landlords alike. Tenants fear the real estate connections of several Valley secession leaders portend a quick death for rent control if the region breaks off from the city.

The federal government will give $50 million to public housing authorities in Los Angeles and nine other cities across the country to help them pay utility bills that have soared because of rising power costs and unusually cold winter weather. The emergency relief effort, to be announced today, also will provide $55 million to help the nation's other 3,100 public housing agencies pay utility bills that exceeded their budgets.

Barry Smith, 56, caught my attention Tuesday morning when he stuck his head into a dumpster at the Jordan Downs housing complex to dig for recyclable containers. When he came up for air, I asked if he'd heard the latest scandalous news about the spendthrifts at the Los Angeles Housing Authority. No, said Smith, he'd been busy scraping to get by. So I told him about the newest outrage. Not only did the housing authority board quietly agree to a $1.2-million payout to the chief they fired last spring, Rudy Montiel, but an audit by City Controller Wendy Greuel and a report by KCET's "SoCal Connected" have revealed lavish travel and dining expenses, as well as perks for employees, including $4,500 spent on Land's End sweaters.

The Supreme Court heard arguments over whether Los Angeles sheriff's deputies went too far when they obtained a search warrant and seized all the guns from a home in South Los Angeles where a wanted violent gang member was thought to be living. Usually, police officers are protected from lawsuits if they enter a home with a search warrant issued by a judge. But last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an 8-3 decision, cleared the way for Det. Curt Messerschmidt to be sued for the raid on an East 120th Street house because it said he did not have probable cause to believe the suspect had a wide array of firearms.

Glen Lim and his mother were anxious to find someone who could explain how their apartment building in Mid-Wilshire had gotten into so much trouble with Los Angeles housing inspectors — and what they could do to fix the problem. Eun Chavis seemed like the perfect answer. She was smart, a veteran city employee and a Korean American who spoke the only language Lim's mother, the manager of his building, understood. But instead of bringing the building into compliance, Chavis used her position at the Los Angeles Housing Department's Koreatown office to collect $16,000 in payoffs from Lim and his family, according to criminal court records, police reports and interviews.

The name Antelope Valley evokes a picturesque desert-scape where pronghorns once roamed and people now live quietly in rambling homes on spacious lots. But a recent lawsuit suggests a less peaceful image of the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale in the northern reaches of Los Angeles County. According to the suit, county housing investigators, sometimes accompanied by posses of armed sheriff's deputies, regularly roust residents on public housing assistance — known as Section 8 vouchers — to see if they are in compliance with the strict rules of the federal housing assistance program.

Los Angeles' housing authority board voted Monday evening to fire the agency's chief executive, Rudolf Montiel. The move comes less than six months after Montiel faced the wrath of city leaders when his agency tried to evict nine tenants who had protested housing authority policies at Montiel's Rancho Cucamonga home. At the time, City Council members called Montiel "childlike" and accused him of acting like "Big Brother. " The eviction notices were later rescinded. Montiel has headed the agency ?

Several Los Angeles City Housing Authority Board members said Thursday they would welcome an audit by Controller Wendy Greuel of their travel expenses. The move comes after a CBS-TV Channel 2 report last month that board members spent more than $150,000 over the last two years on extravagant hotels and restaurants, and sometimes double dipped, accepting per diems for expenses while also paying for meals with agency credit cards. Agency staff has asked several board members to reimburse hundreds of dollars for such double-dipping charges.

Mayor Tom Bradley is correct in attributing some of Los Angeles' housing problems to neighborhood groups that he describes as NIMBYs (not in my back yard). But he also should have recognized the developer-driven chaos that spawned these groups in the first place. In the early 1970s, Bradley forged a consensus among Los Angeles residents that growth was good. And through the 1970s and 1980s, the city saw extraordinary growth.

In an impassioned letter to Mayor Richard Riordan, Los Angeles housing czar Gary Squier has called for a major shift in the way the city attacks blight and decay in its poorest neighborhoods. Squier, who in January returned from a seven-month stint working for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Los Angeles faces a grim future unless it develops a long-term, citywide recovery plan. Current city policy, Squier said, is too focused on limited, short-term goals.

Aging metal detectors at Los Angeles County's Men's Central Jail frequently break down, posing safety concerns for deputies who routinely confiscate weapons that inmates make from scrap metal, sheriff's officials said. "We're stuck with old technology and stuff that breaks down regularly," said Sheriff's Capt. Daniel Cruz, who oversees the jail. Cruz said that of seven machines at the jail, only one is operational at the moment. After a Times inquiry into the faulty machines Wednesday, the Sheriff's Department committed to replacing three of the seven machines.