Apartments Finally Rise From Rubble

Since earthquake damage forced Mario De la Cruz out of his Reseda Boulevard apartment more than three years ago, the soft-spoken restaurant worker has moved his family several times in a search for affordable and safe housing.

Now De la Cruz says he is confident that he has found that place. Ironically, his new home is only two buildings away from where he started.

“It’s a very nice, clean building, and we have very nice neighbors,” said De la Cruz. “We are happy here.”

The De la Cruz family is one of 42 who recently moved into the refurbished Reseda Village Apartments. The complex, which was redesigned to include fewer but larger apartments, is located on a stretch of Reseda Boulevard that became one of the Valley’s most desolate “ghost towns” after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Red-tagged and abandoned after the earthquake, the apartments were purchased and rebuilt by the Los Angeles Community Design Center, a nonprofit architectural and housing agency that is currently involved in four low-income housing projects in the Valley.

On Thursday, center employees were joined by city officials and representatives of several lending institutions involved in the project to officially dedicate the low-income complex and to celebrate the neighborhood’s rise from the rubble.

“It’s important to recognize that these ghost towns have become boomtowns,” said Daniel Falcon Jr., assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department. “We’ve got an answer for every building that was vacated after the earthquake.”

“Prior to the earthquake, there were overcrowded conditions in this building and people were paying from $650 to $850 a month for one- and two-bedroom units,” said Robin Hughes, executive director of the Community Design Center. “Now the units are larger, and the tenants pay from $350 to $650 per month.”

Amenities at the rebuilt complex include a small pool, a children’s play area, two laundry rooms and a community room that will soon be equipped with computers.

“Through this organization’s quality management, the project will continue to be a well-maintained and permanent source of affordable housing for the West Valley,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick at the dedication.