Ground Broken for Huge Housing Project in Watts

When Major Dixon, his wife, Carol Jackson, and their three children moved from Louisiana to Los Angeles last April, they hoped for a better future.

They found it a more expensive one. Their drab two-bedroom home--which would rent for $100 a month in the land of gumbo--commands $575 a month here. True, that is low by Los Angeles standards, but it is fairly typical for Watts. And it also is fairly typical that the rent devours more than half of the family’s income.

That is why Dixon and Jackson were happy to join with community leaders Tuesday in a celebration inside a big white tent on a giant vacant lot across from their home. The Westminster Neighborhood Assn., one of Watts’ leading community service groups, staged a ground-breaking for the $100-million, 130-unit Westminster Park Plaza. Upon its completion, scheduled for the spring of 1990, it will be the largest affordable housing development in Watts since the 1965 riots.

For the Dixon-Jackson family, if successful in becoming tenants, it will be an opportunity to put the two daughters and one son into separate bedrooms. “I need at least three bedrooms. We’re really crowded,” Jackson said. And Dixon, who earns $5.40 an hour as a night janitor at a hotel, hopes to catch a day job in construction on the development.

For Dr. E. Grace Payne, executive director of the Westminster group, the project will be the culmination of a 5-year-old dream. That is how long it took the group to swing the complicated deal that involved two private development partners, a property purchase from Southern Pacific railroad, a $5-million low-interest loan from the Community Redevelopment Agency, and loans from Wells Fargo Bank and Citicorp Savings.

Westminster Park Plaza is to offer apartments ranging from one bedroom for seniors to family housing ranging from two to five bedrooms. The Dixon-Jackson family would probably qualify for the lowest rent scale, estimated now at $404 per month for a three-bedroom apartment.

The vision is of a gated, landscaped 7-acre community of handsome townhouses that “will set a new standard for the revitalization of Watts,” said Sharon Morris, who chaired Westminster’s housing committee. There will also be a child-care facility open to the entire community.

A series of community leaders touched on such problems as skeptical lenders and absentee landlords in praising the project. An ice cream truck chimed in the background as Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores addressed the gathering.

“Can you believe it? Ten million dollars for housing in Watts! It almost seems impossible,” Flores said. She added that, referring to the Westminister group, the project will be under “the management and loving care of someone who cares about the community. . . . It’s so nice to know the landlord you’ll have is somebody . . . you’ll be able to find.”

In an interview, Payne said that political friends such as Flores and Mayor Tom Bradley helped persuade Southern Pacific to sell the 7-acre site. To gain funding, the Westminster group engaged the Williams, Greer Development Group as partners, and they in turn brought in David Adams. Adams is receiving tax credits for his investment.