Middle-Class Island : Serenity of Pacoima Condominiums Stands in Contrast to Troubled Neighborhood

The dizzying late-1980s climb in real estate prices was the key factor in the decision by Roberta Bowles and her college instructor husband, Allyn Glazer, to plunk down their money for a condominium at the Griffin Glenoaks complex in a suspect neighborhood of Pacoima.

Never mind that the attractive Cape Cod-style condominiums were flanked on two sides by the Van Nuys-Pierce Park Apartments, one of the largest federally subsidized but privately managed housing projects in the nation and, according to police at the time, a source of crime in the neighborhood.

“We thought we had to get in or we’d never own anything, and Uncle Sam was taking everything we had in taxes,” said Bowles, a 34-year-old homemaker, as she played with her 2-year-old daughter Angela in one of the complex’s two playgrounds.

Others were in the same boat. Despite the project’s dicey location, buyers snapped up the 324 attractive Cape Cod-style townhouses and condominiums at Van Nuys and Glenoaks boulevards almost as soon as they came on the market beginning in 1988. The last phase was completed last year and the units sold for between $85,000 and $125,000, far below the price of condominiums elsewhere in the San Fernando Valley. Only one unit remains unsold.

Although some residents say they still do not feel safe walking outside the community’s well-lit security gates at night, they are proud of where they live and the friendly, multiethnic group of residents the complex has attracted. And, what many said was a high-risk foray by the developer into the politically and economically tricky affordable housing market is being called an unqualified success, demonstrating that well-designed, high-density projects can improve rather than detract from neighborhoods.

“It was a great venture that worked,” said Eleanor U. Yavarone, who is treasurer of the Griffin Glenoaks homeowner association and a doctoral candidate in public administration at USC.

To residents of affluent areas, the term affordable housing often summons images of run-down tenements. But Griffin Glenoaks proves that such housing “doesn’t have to look like cinder-block buildings with aluminum windows,” Yavarone said.

Indeed, the complex’s pristine public areas, lush landscaping, three swimming pools and two Jacuzzis give it a homey, welcoming feel. The units themselves range from 650 to 1,157 square feet in seven floor plans and have amenities such as lofts and cathedral ceilings. In 1989, the project was named the top affordable housing project in the Western states by the Pacific Coast Builders conference.

City housing officials say they would like to help developers build more projects such as Griffin Glenoaks. But the difficulties in doing so are numerous. For example, even though the real estate market was booming in the mid- to late-1980s, Griffin Homes found most banks unwilling to finance the project’s construction because of its location in Pacoima.

Now, however, Griffin President Bruce Freeman said securing a construction loan for a risky project of that type would be nearly impossible because of the downturn in the economy and banks’ own financial troubles.

The project was more economically feasible for the company because it was able to buy the land for a low price from a financially stretched developer and it received a 25% density bonus from the city, which allowed more units per acre than permitted in the property’s zoning.

A federal tax-free mortgage bond program also helped make the project work. But the mortgage bond program, which provided loans at less than market rates for first-time buyers with incomes between about $30,000 and $50,000, has now expired. City housing officials are hoping it will be renewed early in the Clinton Administration so that it can be used to boost other, similar efforts.

“It is an example of how it can work when it comes together right, but the fact that we didn’t do another (project) a year after that is testimony to how hard it is,” Freeman said.

He said cities and banks should be pressured to give private developers incentives to build similar projects, because of the financial risks involved.

One of the most daunting aspects of the Griffin Glenoaks project was its location.

To build a bridge to the more than 1,700 residents of the adjacent Van Nuys-Pierce Park Apartments, Griffin paid for some memberships to the nearby Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley, gave some nearby youths odd jobs and hired several ex-college football stars to talk to gang members about the pitfalls of drug use and dealing.

Freeman estimated that the company spent about $100,000 to maintain good relations with neighborhood residents.

But Griffin also put Glenoaks behind a security gate that is manned around-the-clock, installed bright outdoor lighting and wired each unit for burglar alarms. The developer even required early buyers to sign a document acknowledging they might hear gunfire or see drugs being sold in the neighborhood.

“We had heard about shootings and that rocks had been thrown through windows,” said Raphael Lucillo, 33, a chef who paid $126,000 for his family’s 1,100-square-foot townhouse with three bedrooms and two baths.

But he and others said the tight security at Griffin Glenoaks and improvements at the apartments have kept most rumors they had heard from becoming a reality.

The Van Nuys-Pierce Park Apartments now have security guards seven nights a week. Griffin Glenoaks residents also say the Foothill Division of the Los Angeles Police Department has worked hard to reduce drug- and gang-related problems in the neighborhood.

“A lot of the non-criminal people are really pleased we’re here, because it’s become safer,” said Glenoaks owner Roberta Bowles.

Proof of that, residents say, is that the gated community came through the riots last April unscathed, even though some nearby stores were looted.

Still, Griffin Glenoaks remains a middle-class island in a lower to lower-middle class community. While police officers, postal employees, small-business owners, actors, salespeople, teachers, plumbers, carpenters and engineers call Griffin Glenoaks home, many of the people in surrounding neighborhoods are unemployed or work at low-paying jobs.

More noticeable still is the racial differences between those inside the gates and those outside. Although Griffin Glenoaks is home to an array of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, only about 3% of the residents are African-American and only about 7% are Latino. Outside the gates, Latinos comprise between 58% and 90% of the population of nearby census tracts while African-Americans comprise between 16% and 27%.

Jerianne Shelton, who is white, said that one of the reasons she and her husband, Jeff, and their daughter have decided to move to a house in Palmdale is that they feel isolated.

“You’re inside and that’s it,” she said of Griffin Glenoaks. “The community as a whole has been very good and very supportive, but I want a different lifestyle for my kid to grow up in.”

Some said they are afraid to use the post office on Van Nuys Boulevard, do not take their children to nearby parks and do not shop at night.

But Yavarone and many other Griffin Glenoaks residents are more sanguine about their neighbors beyond the gates. Some are involved in local groups, such as charity Meeting Every Need with Dignity, or have worked on youth recreation projects in the area.

“To the extent we can take care of not only our own thing . . . but the community as a whole, we will grow closer and that gap, if it ever existed, will grow narrower,” Yavarone said.

Anna Alvarez, the office manager for the Van Nuys-Pierce Park Apartments, said the residents of her project have come to accept their neighbors.

It is “amazing to think that this exists in Pacoima, this little Shangri-La,” she said. “It’s nice to have them next to us because it’s a compliment to us . . . and we try to keep our place up so they can feel the same.”

Delfina Martinez, a great-grandmother who has lived in the Van Nuys-Pierce Park Apartments longer than almost anyone else, said her son and others benefited from Griffin Homes’ outreach efforts early on, gestures that created a reservoir of charitable feelings toward the owners of the condominiums.

“I’ve been a supporter from the beginning,” she said.

Down the street, LeRoy Chase Jr., executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, lets the homeowner group from Griffin Glenoaks use the club for its meetings.

“I wanted to get them to make sure they come outside the gates of the development and open their arms to the community so the community could make them aware that we are all one, and I think this is taking place,” he said.

Griffin Glenoaks residents also are proud of the diversity within the community’s gates.

Although whites represent more than half its population, there are Filipinos in substantial numbers as well as African-Americans, Latinos and immigrants from Russia, India, Iran, Poland, Mexico and Japan.

Debra Finley, an African-American who has lived in the Pacoima area for 20 years, does not feel cut off from the community by living at Glenoaks.

“I enjoy it here,” said the grandmother and purchasing agent. “Recently, when everyone had a garage sale, it was wonderful. I spent the day going out, socializing, meeting a lot of different people.”

Roberta Bowles boasted that “we have just about every nationality here, it’s like a real United Nations. If Los Angeles could work like the complex does, where neighbors see each other as neighbors, instead of colors, then I don’t think we would have had the riots.”