Where Hope Lives

For years, Blythe Street’s problems with gangs and crime gave it a reputation as the worst address in the San Fernando Valley. That’s how it was known in 1993 when the nonprofit social services group Immaculate Heart Community moved in and made Blythe Street the address of Casa Esperanza, or House of Hope.

A story in Tuesday’s Valley edition of The Times made clear how hopeless the task seemed. Social services agencies were not exactly knocking down the door to get into this tough Panorama City neighborhood, but there was Margaret Rose Welch, Casa Esperanza’s first director, knocking on doors and asking families what they needed.

Today about 55 residents a week come by Casa Esperanza’s Blythe Street apartment for services. Kids come for academic tutoring or sports, adults to ask where to find a job, a doctor or a meal. But what sets Casa Esperanza apart is its programs for mothers. Its women’s groups talk about everything from food safety to domestic violence--which some women in this poor, mostly Latino neighborhood believe just comes with being married. Casa Esperanza teaches them otherwise.

Because women play such a central role in the lives of their families, targeting them has far-reaching effects. From the moms’ first steps toward taking charge of their own and their family’s well-being comes the notion that they can also take control of their neighborhood. Take the transformation of Blythe Street Park.

It was a park in name only, littered with syringes and broken glass, unfit for kids. A group of women got fed up and turned to Maritza Artan, Casa Esperanza’s new director. She called the city Department of Recreation and Parks, which installed an irrigation control system and a fence. A nearby Home Depot store donated and laid sod and planted flowers. Now neighborhood kids have a real playground.

Granted, Blythe Street isn’t all roses, and what changes have occurred there are not solely because of the prodding of groups like Casa Esperanza. The Los Angeles city attorney’s office pioneered its tactic of filing injunctions against gangs on Blythe Street in 1993 and police stepped up patrols.

But what Casa Esperanza has accomplished, and it is considerable, is an example of what can be done when a wide array of resources--police, city and social services--are brought to bear on troubled neighborhoods. What was planted in Blythe Street Park was not just flowers but hope.