Group Takes Step to Help Ease Housing Woes in Boyle Heights

Invaded by transients and abandoned by its owner, a graffiti-scrawled, four-bedroom house mars a modest residential strip of apartments and houses in Boyle Heights.

But as he stands inside the two-story stucco structure on Clarence Street, Manuel Bernal looks past the exposed wooden frame, torn insulation and broken pipes.

He envisions a family.

“This house has a lot of opportunity,” he said Wednesday. “There’s a room for each kid to study and sleep in.”

Bernal and five other longtime Eastside residents formed the East Los Angeles Community Corp. a year ago to tackle housing problems in Boyle Heights and unincorporated East Los Angeles.

Although the population of Boyle Heights has jumped from 76,000 people in 1970 to 94,500 today, housing development lags. Only 17 single-family homes have been constructed in Boyle Heights in the past three decades, according to the Los Angeles city Housing Department.

The result is a high rate of overcrowded units. More than 50% of the housing units in Boyle Heights are overcrowded and 31% are severely overcrowded, according to the Housing Department.

Bernal’s group works with the department to identify abandoned houses and lots. It uses the Los Angeles Youth Conservation Corps’ apprenticeship program to undertake construction work and develop the properties.

The group, which operates on $120,000 in private and public grants, has acquired the Clarence Street property and two other sites through loans and plans to develop affordable single-family homes by May.

Group member Elsa Casillas also has organized monthly meetings in church halls and community centers during the past six months to educate residents on how to address housing problems.

“Residents didn’t know what to do about an abandoned house which deteriorated to a place of gang activity,” Casillas said. “We showed them how to document public nuisances, contact housing officials and councilmen, and get the place boarded up. We know we can’t completely solve housing problems. But we hope that by educating residents on how to access help they can improve conditions in their neighborhoods.”