123-571: Pacoima ( Tataviam language : Pakoinga , meaning "entrance") is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California . It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley region of LA. Pacoima is bordered by the Los Angeles districts of Mission Hills on the west, Arleta on the south, Sun Valley on the southeast, Lake View Terrace on the northeast, and by the city of San Fernando on
246-499: A four-year degree or higher is generally lower than the percentage of Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County residents, based on 30-year data span from 1991 to 2020. Schools within the Pacoima boundaries are: Los Angeles Unified School District Students in Pacoima are zoned to one of three high schools: San Fernando High, Sun Valley High School or John H. Francis Polytechnic High School . Los Angeles Public Library operates
369-733: A 2 sq mi area (5.2 km) in the City of Los Angeles's bid for a federal empowerment zone. The proposed area, with 13,000 residents in 1994, included central Pacoima and a southern section of Lake View Terrace . In the early 1950s to early 1960s, which was the time of the greatest single-family housing construction and population expansion in Pacoima, most residents worked in construction, factory and other blue-collar fields. By 1994 this had changed and many Pacoima residents were then employed at area factories. From 1990 to 1994, Lockheed cut over 8,000 jobs at its Burbank, California plant. General Motors closed its Van Nuys plant in 1992, causing
492-565: A broader scale, and the NHA dissolved in 1936. The City of Milwaukee , under mayor Daniel Hoan , implemented the country's first public housing project, known as Garden Homes , in 1923. This experiment with a municipally-sponsored housing cooperative saw initial success, but was plagued by development and land acquisition problems, and the board overseeing the project dissolved the Gardens Home Corporation just two years after construction on
615-452: A cabinet-level agency to lead with housing. This act also introduced rent subsidies for the first time, the beginning of a shift towards encouraging privately constructed low-income housing. With this legislation, the FHA would insure mortgages for non-profits which would then construct homes for low-income families. HUD could then provide subsidies to bridge the gap between the cost of these units and
738-581: A cause of the American apartheid residential pattern in the city. Martin Luther King Jr. made housing integration a key part of his civil rights campaign and one month after the publication of the Kerner Commission was published, King was assassinated. His murder instigated another wave of riots and in response, and no later than a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. , Congress passed
861-449: A characterization is a simplification of a much more complex set of social phenomena. According to Crump (2002), the term "concentrated poverty" was originally a spatial concept that was part of a much broader and complex sociological description of poverty, but the spatial component then became the overarching metaphor for concentrated poverty and the cause of social pathologies surrounding it. Instead of spatial concentration simply being
984-648: A children's play area and a community room. Gonzales Recreation Center is also used as a stop-in facility by the Los Angeles Police Department . Originally named Paxton Park, Ritchie Valens Park, Recreation Center and pool are located near the north end of Pacoima. Valens Park has an impressive list of amenities, including an indoor auditorium and gymnasium, both a lit and unlit baseball diamond, indoor basketball courts and outdoor lit basketball courts, children's play area, community room, handball courts, kitchen, jogging path, picnic tables, unlit soccer field,
1107-533: A children's play area, an indoor gymnasium and a center for teenagers which has a kitchen and a stage. The Hansen Dam Municipal Golf Course, opened in 1962 as an addition to Hansen Dam Recreation Area, is located on the northwest boundary of Pacoima. Although Hansen Dam Recreation Area is actually located in Lake View Terrace , a short distance beyond the true northwest boundary of Pacoima, they have always been associated with Pacoima. The golf course also features
1230-475: A city planning report described the central business district of Pacoima along Van Nuys Boulevard as "a rambling, shallow strip pattern of commercial uses... varying from banks to hamburger stands, including an unusual number of small business and service shops." A Los Angeles Times article stated that the physical image of the area was "somewhat depressing." The council recommended the establishment of smaller community shopping centers. The article stated that
1353-418: A community, leading to several negative externalities . Crime, drug usage, and educational under-performance are all widely associated with housing projects, particularly in urban areas. As a result of their various problems and diminished political support, many of the traditional low-income public housing properties constructed in the earlier years of the program have been demolished. Beginning primarily in
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#17328516892731476-643: A department facility in Pacoima that houses, among others the Forestry Division, Air and Heavy Equipment and Transportation operations. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Pacoima Health Center which is located along Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima. The United States Postal Service Pacoima Post Office is located on Van Nuys Boulevard. Politically, Pacoima is represented by Tony Cárdenas in Congress, Caroline Menjivar in
1599-554: A disincentive to high-paying businesses to locate themselves in the area. He further argues that the pathologies caused by a concentration of poverty are likely to spread to surrounding neighborhoods, forcing local residents and businesses to relocate. Freeman and Botein (2002) are more skeptical of a reduction of property values following the building of public housing units. In a meta-analysis of empirical studies, they expected to find that when public housing lacks obtrusive architecture and its residents are similar to those already in
1722-504: A dusty farming area to a bedroom community for the fast-growing industries in Los Angeles and nearby Burbank and Glendale , with transportation to and from Pacoima made easy by the Golden State Freeway . Beginning in the late 1940s, parts of Pacoima started becoming a place where Southern Californians escaping poverty in rural areas settled. In the post–World War II era, many African Americans settled in Pacoima after arriving in
1845-461: A festival, was created in 1994 to honor the renaming of the park. The Hubert H. Humphrey Memorial Park, public swimming pool, and Recreation Center are located near the northern end of Pacoima. The pool is one of only a few citywide which is a year-round outdoor heated pool. The park has a number of barbecue pits and picnic tables as well as a lit baseball diamond, basketball courts, football field, handball and volleyball courts. Other features include,
1968-686: A home ownership model for Section 8, and expanded the HOPE VI program to replace traditional public housing units. The act also effectively capped the number of public housing units by creating the Faircloth Limit as an amendment to the Housing Act of 1937, which limited funding for the construction or operation of all units to the total number of units as of October 1, 1999 and repealed a rule that required one for one replacement of demolished housing units. According to HUD's Residential Characteristic Report,
2091-535: A lit driving range, practice chipping and putting greens. There is club and electric or hand cart rental service, a restaurant and snack bar. In 1974 a clubhouse was added. The Roger Jessup Recreation Center is an unstaffed small park in Pacoima. The park includes barbecue pits, a children's play area, a community room, and picnic tables. Data from the United States Census Bureau show the percentage of Pacoima residents aged 25 and older who had obtained
2214-564: A materials subsidy for housing construction. However, in the wake of the 1946 elections, President Truman believed there was insufficient public support to continue such materials restrictions and subsidies. The Veterans' Emergency Housing Program ended in January 1947 by an executive order from President Truman. With the Office of Housing Expediter ended, housing efforts moved to look at new, comprehensive approaches to address housing issues. The result
2337-538: A need to house those displaced by the clearance (Massey and Kanaiaupuni 1993). However, those in city governments, political organizations, and suburban communities resisted the creation of public housing units in middle and working-class neighborhoods, leading to the construction of such units around ghetto neighborhoods which already exhibited signs of poverty. Massey and Kanaiaupuni (1993) describe three sources of concentrated poverty in relation to public housing: income-requirements structurally creating areas of poverty,
2460-805: A new program called the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Under the demonstration program, eligible public housing properties are redeveloped in conjunction with private developers and investors. The federal government, through its Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program (which in 2012 paid for construction of 90% of all subsidized rental housing in the US), spends $ 6 billion per year to finance 50,000 low-income rental units annually, with median costs per unit for new construction (2011–2015) ranging from $ 126,000 in Texas to $ 326,000 in California . In
2583-494: A package of across the board cuts. Additionally, emergency shelters for the homeless were expanded, and home ownership by low-income families was promoted to a greater degree. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (NAHA), which furthered the use of HOME funds for rental assistance. In his address upon its passage, Bush said, "Although
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#17328516892732706-569: A part of the broad description of social pathologies, Crump (2002) argues that the concept replaced the broad description, mistakenly narrowing the focus to the physical concentration of poverty. The HUD's 2013 The Location and Racial Composition of Public Housing in the United States report found that the racial distribution of residents within individual public housing units tends to be rather homogeneous, with African Americans and white residents stratified to separate neighborhoods. One trend that
2829-503: A poor state of repair" and that there were "conspicuously minimal" curbs and sidewalks. The report recommended continued efforts to improve sidewalks and trees. The report advocated the establishment of a community center to "give Pacoima a degree of unity." Most of the residences in Pacoima were "of an older vintage." The article said most of the houses and yards, especially in the R-2 duplex zones, exhibited "sign[s] of neglect." The report said that
2952-421: A set percentage of a household's income. The 1961 Housing Act quietly introduced a program under Section 23 which allowed local housing authorities to house individuals on their waiting lists in privately leased units through the mechanism of a voucher which covered the gap between household ability to pay and the market rent. This mechanism was repeatedly expanded in later legislation. In response to many of
3075-477: A significant public housing program. Title II of the legislation stated the goal of a "decent home in a decent environment for every American," and the legislation authorized $ 13 billion mortgage guarantees, $ 1.5 billion for slum redevelopment, and set a construction goal of 810,000 units of public housing. Upon its passage, Truman told the press: "[This legislation] opens up the prospect of decent homes in wholesome surroundings for low-income families now living in
3198-507: A stage, and lit tennis courts. The outdoor pool is seasonal and unheated. In the 1990s Richard Alarcon, a Los Angeles City Council member who represented Pacoima, proposed changing the name of Paxton Park to honor Ritchie Valens . Hugo Martin of the Los Angeles Times said in 1994 that Alarcon proposed the rename so Pacoima residents will "remember Valens's humble background and emulate his accomplishments." The annual Ritchie Valens Fest,
3321-403: A strong bent towards local efforts in locating and constructing housing and would place caps on how much could be spent per housing unit. The cap of $ 5,000 was a hotly contested feature of the bill as it would be a considerable reduction of the money spent on PWA housing and was far less than advocates of the bill had lobbied to get. Construction of housing projects dramatically accelerated under
3444-501: Is an example of how stigma and judgement around public housing and affordable housing resulted in a significant change in the racial demographics of urban housing. White flight is a sociological response to perceptions that racially diverse neighborhoods will decrease their home value and increase crime rates. McNulty and Holloway (2000) studied the intersection of public housing geography, race, and crime in order to determine if racial differences existed in crime rates when controlled for
3567-500: Is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language formerly spoken by the Tataviam people of the upper Santa Clara River basin , Santa Susana Mountains , and Sierra Pelona Mountains in southern California . It had become extinct by 1916 and is known only from a few early records, notably a few words recorded by Alfred L. Kroeber and John P. Harrington in the early decades of the 20th century. These word lists were not from native speakers, but from
3690-431: Is doubled for blacks compared to whites. The study further found that public housing tends to concentrate those who struggle the most economically into a specific area, further raising poverty levels. A different study, conducted by Freeman (2003) on a national level, cast doubt onto the theory that public housing units have an independent effect on the concentration of poverty. The study found that while out-migration of
3813-500: Is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities." Several additional housing acts were passed after 1949, altering the program in small ways, such as shifting ratios for elderly housing, but no major legislation changed the mechanisms of public housing until the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 . This act created the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
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3936-520: Is observed is that black neighborhoods tend to reflect a lower socioeconomic status and that white neighborhoods represent a more affluent demographic. More than 40% of public housing occupants live in predominantly black neighborhoods, according to the HUD report. Even though changes have been made to address unconstitutional housing segregation , stigma and prejudice around public housing projects are still prevalent. Segregation in public housing has roots in
4059-583: Is priced much below the market rate, allowing people to live in more convenient locations rather than move away from the city in search of lower rents. In most federally-funded rental assistance programs, the tenants' monthly rent is set at 30% of their household income. Now increasingly provided in a variety of settings and formats, originally public housing in the U.S. consisted primarily of one or more concentrated blocks of low-rise and/or high-rise apartment buildings. These complexes are operated by state and local housing authorities which are authorized and funded by
4182-493: Is seen today. Pacoima's written history dates to 1769 when Spaniards entered the San Fernando Valley. In 1771, nearby Mission San Fernando Rey was founded, with Native Americans creating gardens for the mission in the area. They lived at the mission working on the gardens which, in a few years, had stretched out over most of the valley. The Mexican government secularized the mission lands in 1834 by taking them away from
4305-657: Is that Tataviam was a Chumashan language , from the Ventureño language and others, of the Chumash -Ventureño and other Chumash groups, that had been influenced by the neighboring Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples (Beeler and Klar 1977). However, the Beeler and Klar proposal is based on a word-list collected by C. Hart Merriam while the Takic proposals are based on different word lists collected by Alfred Kroeber and John P. Harrington. The current opinion
4428-579: Is that the Merriam word lists represent a dialect of Ventureño (called Alliklik or Castac Chumash) and the Kroeber and Harrington word list represents a divergent Takic language (Tataviam). Public housing in the United States In the United States, subsidized housing is administered by federal, state and local agencies to provide subsidized rental assistance for low-income households. Public housing
4551-576: The Expo/Sepulveda Station . Metro Local Lines 92, 166, 224, 230, 233, 294 and 690 operate in Pacoima. In 2031, Metro will open the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project light rail project with three stations at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard, San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard, and San Fernando Road & Paxton Street. Whiteman Airport , a general aviation airport owned by
4674-549: The Fair Housing Act which prohibited discrimination in housing. However, since the Fair Housing Act was passed, housing policies restricting minority housing to segregated neighborhoods are still heavily debated because of the vague language used in the Fair Housing Act. In the 2015 Supreme Court case Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project , Justice Kennedy clarified that
4797-703: The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which used only a small capital investment from the federal government to insure mortgages. Construction of public housing projects were therefore only one portion of the federal housing efforts during the Great Depression. In 1937, the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act replaced the temporary PWA Housing Division with a permanent, quasi-autonomous agency to administer housing. The new United States Housing Authority Housing Act of 1937 would operate with
4920-428: The San Fernando Valley and three other libraries. The previous Pacoima Library, with 5,511 sq ft (512.0 m) of space, had around 50,300 books in 2000. In 1978 Pacoima residents protested after the City of Los Angeles decreased library services in Pacoima in the aftermath of the passing of Proposition 13 . The Homework Center opened in the library in 1994. Tataviam language The Tataviam language
5043-462: The Section 8 Housing Program to encourage the private sector to construct affordable homes. This kind of housing assistance assists poor tenants by giving a monthly subsidy to their landlords. This assistance can be 'project based,' which applies to specific properties, or 'tenant based,' which provides tenants with a voucher they can use anywhere vouchers are accepted. Tenant based housing vouchers covered
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5166-466: The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2020, there were one million public housing units. In 2022, about 5.2 million American households received some form of federal rental assistance. Subsidized apartment buildings, often referred to as housing projects (or simply "the projects"), have a complicated and often notorious history in the United States. While
5289-496: The ' towers in the park ' style of Le Corbusier . Jane Jacobs would famously describe the new products as, "Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism, and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Middle-income housing projects which are truly marvels of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life. Luxury housing projects that mitigate their inanity, or try to, with vapid vulgarity ... This
5412-539: The 1960s, across the nation, housing authorities became key partners in urban renewal efforts, constructing new homes for those displaced by highway, hospital and other public efforts. When US entry to World War II ended the era of New Deal reforms, the call for public housing from the NAACP , women's groups and labor unions was quieted. As part of the war mobilization, entire communities sprang up around factories manufacturing military goods. In 1940, Congress therefore authorized
5535-637: The 1970s the federal government turned to other approaches including the Project-Based Section 8 program, Section 8 certificates, and the Housing Choice Voucher Program. In the 1990s the federal government accelerated the transformation of traditional public housing through HUD's HOPE VI Program. Hope VI funds are used to tear down distressed public housing projects and replace them with mixed communities constructed in cooperation with private partners. In 2012, Congress and HUD initiated
5658-467: The 19th and early 20th centuries, government involvement in housing for the poor was chiefly in the area of building code enforcement, requiring new buildings to meet certain standards for decent livability (e.g. proper ventilation), and forcing landlords to make some modifications to existing building stock. Photojournalist Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives (1890) brought considerable attention
5781-480: The African American population was replaced by a poorer Latino immigrant population. Immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador settled in Pacoima. Seventy-five percent of Pacoima's residents were African Americans in the 1970s. According to the 1990 U.S. Census , 71% of Pacoima's population was of Hispanic/Latino descent while 10% was African American. The closing of factories in the area around Pacoima in
5904-498: The African-American and Hispanic populations of Pacoima did not always have cordial relations. He added that by 1994 "the mood has shifted from conflict to conciliation as the town has become increasingly Latino." The majority of the population is Hispanic. According to Mapping L.A. , Mexican and German were the most common ancestries in 2000. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common foreign places of birth. In 2008,
6027-577: The County of Los Angeles, is located in Pacoima. Crime increased in Pacoima in the 1970s. Timothy Williams of the Los Angeles Times said that an "unprecedented wave of activism" countered the crime surge. Residents led by social institutions such as churches, schools, and social service agencies held marches and rallies. Schools remained open on weekends and in evenings to offer recreational and tutoring programs. Residents circulated petitions to try to stop
6150-504: The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. However, according to Gotham (2000), Section 235 of the Housing Act of 1968 encouraged white flight from the inner city, selling suburban properties to whites and inner-city properties to blacks, creating neighborhoods that were racially isolated from others. White flight - white people moving out of neighborhoods that have become more racially or ethnoculturally heterogeneous -
6273-819: The Federal Government currently serves about 4.3 million low-income families, there are about 4 million additional families, most of them very low income, whose housing needs have not been met. We should not divert assistance from those who need it most." The next new era in public housing began in 1992 with the launch of the HOPE VI program by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development . HOPE VI funds were devoted to demolishing poor-quality public housing projects and replacing them with lower-density developments, often of mixed-income. Funds included construction and demolition costs, tenant relocation costs, and subsidies for newly constructed units. HOPE VI has become
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#17328516892736396-585: The Housing Division of the PWA and headed by architect Robert Kohn , the initial, Limited-Dividend Program aimed to provide low-interest loans to public or private groups to fund the construction of low-income housing. Too few qualified applicants stepped forward, and the Limited-Dividend Program funded only seven housing projects nationally. In the spring of 1934, PWA Administrator Harold Ickes directed
6519-412: The Housing Division to undertake the direct construction of public housing, a decisive step that would serve as a precedent for the 1937 Wagner-Steagall Housing Act , and the permanent public housing program in the United States. Kohn stepped down during the reorganization, and between 1934 and 1937 the Housing Division, now headed by Colonel Horatio B. Hackett, constructed fifty-two housing projects across
6642-516: The National Housing Association (NHA) was created to improve housing conditions in urban and suburban neighborhoods through the enactment of better regulation and increased awareness. The NHA was founded by Lawrence Veiller , author of Model Tenement House Law (1910), and consisted of delegates from dozens of cities. Over time, the focus of the housing movement shifted from a focus on proper building typology to community development on
6765-525: The Pacoima Branch Library in Pacoima. By 1958, the City of Los Angeles started negotiations to purchase a site to use as the location of a library in Pacoima. The city was scheduled to ask for bids for the construction of the library in May 1960. The library, scheduled to open on August 23, 1961, was a part of a larger $ 6.4 million library expansion program covering the opening of a total of six libraries in
6888-603: The Pacoima Chamber of Commerce was expected to oppose the recommendation, and that the chamber favored deepening of the existing commercial zones along Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard. The council noted the lack of parking spaces and storefronts that appeared in disrepair or vacant. The report recommended establishing shopping centers in areas outside of the Laurel Canyon-Van Nuys commercial axis. The article stated that some sections of Laurel Canyon were "in
7011-602: The Pacoima Recreation Center on June 1, 1950, was rededicated June 1, 1990. The rededication included a plaque to David M. Gonzales, a soldier in World War II who died in the Battle of Luzon . The center has an auditorium, indoor gymnasium and basketball court. In addition, the center has an outdoor gymnasium with weights, lit baseball diamond, basketball and handball courts and a soccer field. It also features picnic tables,
7134-622: The Seventies was instrumental in crafting new housing legislation the following year. In keeping with Nixon's market-based approach, as demonstrated by EHAP, Nixon also lifted the moratorium on the Section 23 voucher program late in September, allowing for 200,000 new households to be funded. The full moratorium was lifted in the summer of 1974, as Nixon faced impeachment in the wake of Watergate . The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 created
7257-673: The State Senate, and Luz Rivas in the Assembly. The major transportation routes across and through the area are San Fernando Road , Van Nuys Boulevard , and Laurel Canyon Boulevard . California State Route 118 ( Ronald Reagan ) runs through it, and the community is bordered by the I-5 ( Golden State ). The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) operates bus services in Pacoima. Metro operates Metro Rapid line 761 along Van Nuys Boulevard from Sylmar/San Fernando Station to
7380-580: The US Housing Authority to build twenty public housing developments around these private companies to sustain the war effort. There was considerable debate over whether these should be permanent dwellings, furthering reformer goals of establishing a broader public housing effort, or temporary dwellings in keeping with the timeliness of the need. The Defense Housing Division was founded in 1941 and would ultimately construct eight developments of temporary housing, though many ended up as long-term housing after
7503-885: The United States, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Atlanta's Techwood Homes opened on 1 September 1936 and was the first of the fifty-two opened. Based on the residential planning concepts of Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, these fifty-two projects are architecturally cohesive, with composed on one to four story row house and apartment buildings, arranged around open spaces, creating traffic-free play spaces that defined community life. Many of these projects were built on slum land, but land acquisition proved difficult, so abandoned industrial sites and vacant land were also purchased. Lexington's two early projects were constructed on an abandoned horse racing track. At Ickes' direction, many of these projects were also segregated, designed and built for either whites or African-Americans. Race
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#17328516892737626-621: The United States, the federal government provides funding for public housing from two different sources: the Capital Fund and the Operating Fund. According to the HUD, the Capital Fund subsidizes housing authorities to renovate and refurbish public housing developments; meanwhile, the Operating Fund provides funds to housing authorities in order to assist in maintenance and operating costs of public housing. Furthermore, housing projects have also been seen to greatly increase concentrated poverty in
7749-402: The amount of which was determined by a formula focusing on population, given to state and local governments for housing and community development work. The sum could be used as determined by the community, though the legislation also required the development of Housing Assistance Plans (HAP) which required local communities to survey and catalog their available housing stock as well as determine
7872-512: The area during the second wave of the Great Migration since they had been excluded from other neighborhoods due to racially discriminatory covenants. By 1960, almost all of the 10,000 African Americans in the San Fernando Valley lived in Pacoima and Arleta as it became the center of African-American life in the Valley. On January 31, 1957, a Douglas DC- 7B operated by Douglas Aircraft Company
7995-498: The average annual income in 2013 for a resident of a public housing unit is $ 13,730. The same report classifies 68% of residents as Extremely Low Income, with the largest annual income bracket being $ 5,000 to $ 10,000, containing 32% of public housing residents. Trends showing an increase in geographic concentration of poverty became evident by the 1970s as upper and middle-class residents vacated property in U.S. cities. Urban renewal programs led to widespread slum clearance, creating
8118-400: The back alleys." In 1955 Pacoima lacked curbs, paved sidewalks, and paved streets. Pacoima had what Meagher described as "dusty footpaths and rutted dirt roads that in hard rains become beds for angry streams." Meagher added that the 450 houses in the area, with 2,000 inhabitants, "squatted" "within this clutch of residential blight." He described most of the houses as "substandard." Around 1955,
8241-505: The children of the last speakers who remembered a few words and phrases. Scholars have recognized Tataviam as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family, specifically the putative Takic branch. Based on the most thorough and most recent analysis, it is part of the Serran group along with Kitanemuk and Serrano (Munro and Johnson, 2001). An earlier alternative suggestion by some scholars
8364-511: The church. The first governor of California, Pio Pico , leased the lands to Andrés Pico , his brother. In 1845, Pio Pico sold the whole San Fernando Valley to Don Eulogio de Celis for $ 14,000 to raise money for the war between Mexico and the United States, settled by a treaty signed at Campo de Cahuenga in 1845, and by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The Pacoima area became sheep ranches and wheat fields. In 1873, Senator Charles Maclay of Santa Clara purchased 56,000 acres (230 km) in
8487-642: The city began a $ 500,000 project to add 9 mi (14 km) of curbs, sidewalks, and streets. Meagher said that the "neatness and cleanness" [ sic ] of the new infrastructure were "a challenge to homeowners grown apathetic to thoroughfares ankle deep in mud or dust." Some area businessmen established the San Fernando Valley Commercial & Savings Bank in November 1953 to finance area rehabilitation projects after other banks persistently refused to give loans to those projects. In late 1966,
8610-574: The city estimated that the population was 81,318 with a density of approximately 10,510 people per square mile. The 2010 U.S. census counted 103,689 residents in Pacoima's 91331 ZIP Code. The median age was 29.5, and the median yearly household income at that time was $ 49,842. The Los Angeles Police Department operates the Foothill Community Police Station in Pacoima. The Los Angeles Fire Department operates Fire Station 98 in Pacoima. The Los Angeles County Fire Department operates
8733-477: The community and have a stake in it." In 1955 P.M. Gomez, the owner of a grocery store in Pacoima, said in a Los Angeles Times article that most of the homeowners in Pacoima were not interested in moving to the San Fernando Gardens complex that was then under development, since most of the residents wanted to remain homeowners. A 1966 city planning report criticized Pacoima for lacking civic pride, and that
8856-523: The community had no "vital community image, with no apparent nucleus or focal point." In 1994, Timothy Williams of the Los Angeles Times noted how Pacoima was "free of the overt blight found in other low-income neighborhoods is no accident." Cecila Costas, who was the principal of Maclay Middle School during that year, said that Pacoima was "a very poor community, but there's a tremendous amount of pride here. You can be poor, but that doesn't mean you have to grovel or look like you are poor." Williams said that
8979-554: The concentration of poverty, some contended these developments were declared unsuitable for families. One of the most notorious of these developments was the Pruitt-Igoe development in St. Louis, Missouri , constructed in 1955 and 1956. This development posted 2,870 units in thirty-three high rises buildings. By the late 1960s, vacancy rates reached as high as 65%, and the project was demolished between 1972 and 1975. More recent scholarship about
9102-781: The conditions of the slums in New York City, sparking new attention to housing conditions around the country. Early tenement reform was primarily a philanthropic venture, with Model Tenements built as early as the 1870s which attempted to use new architectural and management models to address the physical and social problems of the slums. These attempts were limited by available resources, and early efforts were soon redirected towards building code reform. The New York Tenement Act of 1895 and Tenement Law of 1901 were early attempts to address building codes in New York City, which were then copied in Chicago, Philadelphia, and other American cities. In 1910,
9225-461: The demand side of the housing market rather than the supply side by supplementing a household's rent allowance until they were able to afford market rates. EHAP was designed to test three aspects of the impact of vouchers: Ultimately, new legislation on housing vouchers did not wait for the conclusion of the experiment. When the program concluded over a decade later, it was discovered that the program had minimal impact on surrounding rents, but did have
9348-447: The early 1990s caused residents to lose jobs, reducing the economic base of the neighborhood; many residents left Pacoima as a result. By 1994, Pacoima was the poorest area in the San Fernando Valley. One in three Pacoima residents lived in public housing . The poverty rate hovered between 25% and 40%. In 1994, Williams wrote of Pacoima, "one of the worst off" neighborhoods in Los Angeles "nevertheless hides its poverty well." Williams cited
9471-602: The early developments and activities of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), created by the Housing Act of 1934 . The FHA institutionalized a practice by which it would seek to maintain racially homogenous neighborhoods through racially restrictive covenants - an explicitly discriminatory policy written into the deed of a house. This practice was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1948 in Shelley v. Kraemer because it violates
9594-498: The emerging concerns regarding new public housing developments, the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 attempt to shift the style of housing developments, looking to the Garden Cities model of Ebenezer Howard . The act prohibited the construction of high-rise developments for families with children. The role of high-rises had always been contentious, but with rising rates of vandalism and vacancy and considerable concerns about
9717-485: The establishment of liquor stores . Residents began holding weekly meetings with a gang that, according to Williams, "had long been a neighborhood scourge." Area police officers said, in Williams's words, "although crime in Pacoima remains a major problem", particularly in the area within the empowerment zone proposed by area politicians in the 1990s, "the situation is far improved from the 1980s." Officer Minor Jimenez, who
9840-417: The first decades of projects were built with higher construction standards and a broader range of incomes and same applicants, over time, public housing increasingly became the housing of last resort in many cities. Several reasons have been cited for this negative trend including the failure of Congress to provide sufficient funding, a lowering of standards for occupancy, and mismanagement at the local level. In
9963-550: The funding resources of the G.I. Bill to start a new mortgage. However, there was not enough housing stock to accommodate the demand. As a result, President Truman created the office of Housing Expediter by executive order on January 26, 1946, to be headed by Wilson Wyatt. Through this office, government intervened in the housing market largely through price controls and supply chain restrictions, despite political pressure from some factions to directly construct housing. Efforts moved to focus exclusively on veterans housing, specifically
10086-534: The gap between 25% of a household's income and established fair market rent . Virtually no new project based Section 8 housing has been produced since 1983, but tenant based vouchers are now the primary mechanism of assisted housing. The other main feature of the Act was the creation of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). While not directly tied to public housing, CDBGs were lump sums of money,
10209-604: The heels of the passage of Title I and the Housing Act of 1949. Urban renewal had become, for many cities, a way to eliminate blight, but not a solid vehicle for constructing new housing. For example, in the ten years after the bill was passed, 425,000 units of housing were razed under its auspices, but only 125,000 units were constructed. Between Title I and the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 , entire communities in poorer, urban neighborhoods were demolished to make way for modern developments and transportation needs, often in
10332-434: The home ownership market through the expansion of the FHA. Ginnie Mae was initially established to purchase risky public housing projects and resell them at market rates. In addition, Section 235 originated mortgage subsidies by reducing the interest rate on mortgages for low-income families to a rate more comparable to that of the FHA mortgages. The program suffered from high foreclosure rates and administrative scandal, and
10455-654: The homes was completed. Permanent, federally funded housing came into being in the United States as a part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Title II, Section 202 of the National Industrial Recovery Act , passed June 16, 1933, directed the Public Works Administration (PWA) to develop a program for the "construction, reconstruction, alteration, or repair under public regulation or control of low-cost housing and slum clearance projects ...". Led by
10578-550: The house sustained injuries. In 1966, Los Angeles city planners wrote a 48-page report noting that Pacoima does not have a coherent structure to develop businesses in the central business district , lacks civic pride, and has poor house maintenance. By the late 1960s, immigrants from rural Mexico began to move to Pacoima due to the low housing costs and the neighborhood's proximity to manufacturing jobs. African Americans who were better established began to move out and, in an example of ethnic succession , within less than two decades,
10701-496: The housing projects constructed in the prior two decades. HUD Secretary George Romney declared that the moratorium would encompass all money for Urban Renewal and Model Cities programs, all subsidized housing, and Section 235 and 236 funding. An intensive report was commissioned from the National Housing Policy Review to analyze and assess the federal government's role in housing. This report, entitled Housing in
10824-429: The lack of homeless people on Pacoima's streets, the fact that no vacancies existed in Pacoima's major shopping center, and the presence of "neat" houses and "well-tended" yards. Williams added that in Pacoima "holding a job is no guarantee against being poor." In 1994, Howard Berman , the U.S. Congress representative of an area including Pacoima, and Los Angeles City Council member Richard Alarcon advocated including
10947-422: The land, including Pacoima, as part of ordinance 32192 N.S. on May 22, 1915. During World War II, the rapid expansion of the workforce at Lockheed 's main plant in neighboring Burbank and need for worker housing led to the construction of the San Fernando Gardens housing project . By the 1950s, the rapid suburbanization of the San Fernando Valley arrived in Pacoima, and the area changed almost overnight from
11070-465: The late 1970s and 1980s. Since that time, cities across the country have implemented such programs with varying levels of success. Changes to public housing programs were minor during the 1980s. Under the Reagan administration, household contribution towards Section 8 rents was increased to 30% of household income and fair market rents were lowered. Public assistance for housing efforts was reduced as part of
11193-400: The loss of 2,600 jobs. Timothy Williams of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1994, "For years, those relatively high-paying jobs had provided families with a springboard out of the San Fernando Gardens and Van Nuys Pierce Park Apartments public housing complexes." After the jobs were lost, many longtime Pacoima residents left the area. In the 1990 U.S. Census the unemployment rate in Pacoima
11316-770: The narrative of racially segregated housing in the 20th Century. The rebellion in Detroit in 1967 was a symptom of racial tension that was in part due to unfair housing policies. In July 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a commission, led by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner to determine the causes of the riots. The Kerner Commission clearly articulated that housing inequality was solely determined by explicitly discriminatory policies. It stated that " White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it ". The Kerner Commission blatantly condemned white institutions for creating unequal housing opportunities, specifically highlighting restrictive covenants as
11439-453: The nearest bank to the commercial strip was "several blocks away." In 1994 almost one third of Pacoima's residents lived in public housing complexes. Williams said that the complexes had relatively little graffiti . Many families who were on waiting lists to enter public housing complexes lived in garages and converted tool sheds, which often lacked electricity, heat, and/or running water. Williams said that they lived "out of sight." The area
11562-414: The neighborhood, property values are not likely to fluctuate. However, a review of the literature yielded no definitive conclusions on the impact of public housing on property values, with only two studies lacking methodological flaws that had either mixed results or showed no impact. Others are skeptical of concentrated poverty from public housing being the cause of social pathologies, arguing that such
11685-518: The new structure. In 1939 alone, 50,000 housing units were constructed—more than twice as many as were built during the entire tenure of the PWA Housing Division. Building on the Housing Division's organizational and architectural precedent, the USHA built housing in the build-up to World War II, supported war-production efforts and battled the housing shortage that occurred after the end of the war. In
11808-634: The non-poor and in-migration of the poor were associated with the creation of public housing, such associations disappeared with the introduction of statistical controls, suggesting that migration levels were caused by characteristics of the neighborhood itself rather than the public housing unit. Concentrated poverty from public housing units has effects on the economy of the surrounding area, competing for space with middle class housing. Because of social pathologies incubated by public housing, Husock (2003) states that unit prices in surrounding buildings fall, reducing city revenue from property taxes and giving
11931-431: The north. It covers an area of 7.14 sq mi (18.5 km). Ed Meagher of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1955 that the 110-block area on the north side of San Fernando Road in Pacoima consisted of what he described as a "smear of sagging, leaning shacks and backhouses framed by disintegrating fences and clutter of tin cans, old lumber, stripped automobiles, bottles, rusted water heaters and other bric-a-brac of
12054-690: The northern part of the San Fernando Valley adjacent to the San Fernando Mission and in 1887, Jouett Allen bought 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land between the Pacoima Wash and the Tujunga Wash. The land he purchased was from the Maclay Rancho Water Company, which had taken over Senator Charles Maclay’s holdings in the Valley. Allen retained 500 acres (200 ha) for himself and subdivided the remainder in 1-acre (4,000 m) tracts. It
12177-456: The owners decided to erase graffiti on their properties within 24 hours of reaching the agreement. The owners also stopped the sale of individual cold containers of beer to discourage public consumption of alcohol. Williams said "The activism appears to have paid off." The resident meetings with Latino gang members resulted in a 143-day consecutive period of no drive by shootings . The David M. Gonzales Recreation Center, which originally opened as
12300-524: The populations most in need of assistance. These were submitted as part of the CDBG application. Again in response to the growing discontent with public housing, urban developers began looking for alternate forms of affordable, low-income housing. From this concern sprang the creation of scattered-site housing programs designed to place smaller-scale, better-integrated public housing units in diverse neighborhoods. Scattered-site housing programs became popularized in
12423-416: The potential to tighten the market for low-income housing, and communities were in need of an infusion of additional units. Some therefore argued that public housing was the appropriate model for cost and supply-chain reasons, though vouchers did not appear to overly distort local housing markets. In 1973, President Richard Nixon halted funding for numerous housing projects in the wake of concerns regarding
12546-514: The presently named Pacoima Chamber of Commerce was established as the Pacoima Chamber of Farmers. For many years, the fertile soil produced abundant crops of olives, peaches, apricots, oranges and lemons. The opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct brought a new supply of water to the area. With the new water supply, the number of orchards, farms and poultry ranches greatly increased and thoroughbred horses began to be raised. Los Angeles annexed
12669-561: The price of residential property increased in value, as lots that sold years prior for $ 100 sold for $ 800 in 1955. Between 1950 and 1955, property values on Van Nuys Boulevard increased six times. In late 1952, the Los Angeles City Council allowed the Building and Safety Department to begin a slum clearance project to try to force homeowners who had houses deemed substandard to repair, demolish, or vacate those houses. In early 1955,
12792-507: The primary vehicle for the construction of new federally subsidized units, but it suffered considerable funding cuts in 2004 under President George W. Bush who called for the abolition of the program. In 1998, the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA) was passed and signed by President Bill Clinton . Following the frame of welfare reform , QHWRA developed new programs to transition families out of public housing, developed
12915-523: The projects continue to operate as mutual housing corporations owned by their residents. These projects are among the very few definitive success stories in the history of the US public housing effort. During World War II, construction of homes dramatically decreased as all efforts were directed towards the War. When the veterans returned from overseas, they came ready to start a new life, often with families, and did so with
13038-591: The proximity of public housing units. The study found that "the race-crime relationship is geographically contingent, varying as a function of the distribution of public housing". This suggests that a focus on institutional causes of crime in relation to race is more appropriate than a focus on cultural differences between races being the cause of differing crime rates . Public housing units were often built in predominantly poor and black areas, reinforcing racial and economic differences between neighborhoods. These social patterns are influenced by policies that constructed
13161-430: The railroad station, the large hotel, the big two-story school building and many commercial buildings, most were torn down within a few years as the boom days receded. The early pioneers had frowned upon industry, which eventually resulted in the people moving away from the exclusive suburb which they had set up to establish new homes closer to their employment and Pacoima returned to its rural, agricultural roots. In 1916,
13284-432: The range of types of houses was "unusually narrow for a community of this size." The report also said that the fact had a negative effect on the community that was reflected by a lack of purchasing power. The report added "Substandard home maintenance is widespread and borders on total neglect in some sectors." The report recommended establishing additional apartments in central Pacoima; the Los Angeles Times report said that
13407-535: The recommendation was "clouded" by the presence of "enough apartment-zoned land to last 28 years" in the San Fernando Valley . In 1994, according to Timothy Williams of the Los Angeles Times , there were few boarded-up storefronts along Pacoima's main commercial strip along Van Nuys Boulevard, and no vacancies existed in Pacoima's main shopping center. Williams added that many of the retail outlets in Pacoima consisted of check-cashing outlets, storefront churches, pawn shops, and automobile repair shops. Williams added that
13530-494: The reinforcement of patterns of poverty via the location of the public housing units, and the migration of impoverished individuals towards the public housing, although this effect is relatively small in comparison to the other sources. A study of public housing in Columbus, Ohio , found that public housing has differing effects on the concentration of black poverty versus white poverty. Public housing's effect on concentrated poverty
13653-421: The squalor of the slums. It equips the Federal Government, for the first time, with effective means for aiding cities in the vital task of clearing slums and rebuilding blighted areas. This legislation permits us to take a long step toward increasing the well-being and happiness of millions of our fellow citizens. Let us not delay in fulfilling that high purpose. Discontent with Urban Renewal came fairly swiftly on
13776-455: The story of Pruitt-Igoe, which has often been used as a parable for the failures of large-scale public housing in the United States, has elucidated that the unraveling of the complex had more to do with structural racism, disinvestment in the urban core, white flight, and the diminishing post-industrial incomes of the buildings' residents than with high rise architecture or the nature of publicly owned and -operated housing. The Act also impacted
13899-618: The war. One of the most unusual US public housing initiatives was the development of subsidized middle-class housing during the late New Deal (1940–42) under the auspices of the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division of the Federal Works Agency under the direction of Colonel Lawrence Westbrook . These eight projects were purchased by the residents after the Second World War and as of 2009 seven of
14022-501: Was almost 14%, while the City of Los Angeles had an overall 8.4% overall unemployment rate. Many Pacoima residents who worked made less than $ 14,000 annually: the U.S. government's poverty line for a family of four. Most residents owned their houses. Juicy Couture , an apparel company, was founded here in 1996. In 1955, Ed Meagher of the Los Angeles Times said the "hard-working" low income families of Pacoima were not "indignents [ sic ] or transients", but they "belong to
14145-445: Was considered to be one of the finest on their line. Soon large spacious and expensive two-story homes made their appearance, as the early planners had established building restrictions against anything of a lesser nature. The first concrete sidewalks and curbs were laid and were to remain the only ones in the San Fernando Valley for many years. In 1888, the town's main street, 100 ft (30 m) wide and 8 mi (13 km) long,
14268-526: Was dramatically scaled down in 1974. The Section 236 program subsidized the debt service on private developments which would then be offered at a reduced rates to households below a certain income ceiling. The Housing Act of 1970 established the Experimental Housing Allowance Program (EHAP), a lengthy investigation in the potential market effects of housing vouchers. Vouchers, initially introduced in 1965, were an attempt to subsidize
14391-684: Was first inhabited by the Fernandeño-Tongva and Tataviam people, California Indian Tribes, now known as Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. The original name for the Native American village in this area was actually Pakoinga or Pakɨynga in Fernandeño, but since the "ng" sound (a voiced velar nasal ) did not exist in Spanish, the Spaniards mistook the sound as an "m" and recorded the name as Pacoima , as
14514-500: Was from this that the town of Pacoima was born. The subdivision’s original boundaries were Paxton Street on the north, Herrick Avenue on the east, Pierce Street on the south, & San Fernando Road on the west. The town was built in keeping with the new Southern Pacific railroad station. Shortly after the rail line had been established, the Southern Pacific Railroad chose the site for a large brick passenger station, which
14637-418: Was involved in a mid-air collision and crashed into the schoolyard of Pacoima Middle School, then named Pacoima Junior High School. By February 1, seven people had died, and about 75 had been injured due to the incident. A 12-year-old boy died from multiple injuries from the incident on February 2. On June 10, 1957, a light aircraft hit a house in Pacoima; the four passengers on board died, and eight people in
14760-408: Was laid through the center of the subdivision. The street was first named Taylor Avenue after President Taylor; later it was renamed Pershing Street. Today it is known as Van Nuys Boulevard. Building codes were established, requiring that homes built cost at least USD$ 2,000. The land deed contained a clause that if liquor was sold on this property, it would revert to Jouett Allen or his heirs. But like
14883-504: Was largely determined by the neighborhood surrounding the site, as American residential patterns, in both the North and South, were highly segregated. Coming out of the housing movement at the turn of the century, the 1930s also saw the creation of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), which refinanced loans in order to keep the housing market afloat. The National Housing Act of 1934 created
15006-492: Was the Housing Act of 1949 , which dramatically expanded the role of the federal government in both public and private housing. Part of Truman's Fair Deal , the Act covered three primary areas: (1) It expanded the Federal Housing Administration and federal involvement in mortgage insurance, (2) under Title I, it provided authority and funds for slum clearance and urban renewal , and (3) initiated construction of
15129-404: Was the senior lead police officer in the Pacoima area in 1994 and had been for a 3½ year period leading up to 1994, said that the community involvement was the main reason for the decrease in crime because the residents cooperated with the police and "the bad guys know it." After the activism in the area occurred, major crime was reduced by 6%. Residents reached an agreement with liquor store owners;
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