22 MORE HOUSING INSPECTORS TO BE HIRED; COMPLAINT-BASED PROGRAM TO RESUME.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

Acting to plug a gaping hole in Los Angeles' housing inspection program, a City Council committee Wednesday recommended hiring 22 inspectors to respond solely to complaints about slum-housing conditions.

When the city imposed a $1 monthly tax on apartment dwellers nearly a year ago to check conditions in all units, 23 other inspector positions for response to complaints of slum housing were removed. The $4 million raised through the tax was used to pay for systematic inspections.

The council committee recommended that $500,000 from other city funds be used to hire 22 inspectors to make up for the 23 positions lost.

The breakdown was only recently discovered by the mayor's office, which began to take steps to supplement the city's 53 housing inspectors.

The systematic housing inspection program is intended to spot slum-housing problems before they pose a health or safety hazard.

The committee recommended that the council create a multifamily code enforcement unit, including inspectors, supervisors and support staff to respond to immediate complaints of unsafe or hazardous housing. And it recommended a contingency of four more inspector positions that could be added later if needed.

``It is really intolerable that anybody live with no heat, no hot water, rats or holes in the wall,'' said Councilman Mike Feuer. ``Things that none of us would tolerate for a second are part of daily life for a third of the residents of this city. And that is not right.''

The decision was made before an audience of more than 150 tenant activists, which so overflowed the committee room that the meeting was moved to the full council chamber.

Tenants rights activists said they were pleased by the decision, but not fully satisfied.

``It was great,'' said Maria Quezada, of Inquilinos Unidos, a renters' rights group. ``We got what we came for. We're still going to need more. But we have to go little by little.''

The question of how the complaint-based housing inspection system disappeared by default is still unanswered.

Deputy mayors Jennifer Roth and Noelia Rodriguez said the Mayor's Office, which initiated the systematic inspection system, was assured last summer that complaint-based inspections would continue.

``It was our understanding that it was a full and complete package,'' Rodriguez said.

However, they could not say whether they received detailed accounts of how many inspectors were employed in each branch of inspections, or for which department they worked.

Once the Mayor's Office learned of the problem, officials said they worked to bring on more inspectors.

Gary Blasi, a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Slum Housing, said the committee immediately recognized the problem and alerted city officials, but got no response until officials recently discovered that the complaint-based inspection program had disappeared.

``We noticed right away that it was missing,'' Blasi said. ``We were told it would be fixed. It wasn't.''

Since the agency took over inspections, it has received 58 housing complaints per day, with a total of 6,082 complaints between July 1 and March 9. It has a backlog of 1,127 complaints, Jones said.