ANTONOVICH BACKS DOWN ON GROUP HOMES.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich says he no longer will push for the County of Los Angeles to reopen two youth group homes in Van Nuys that were closed last year after complaints of mismanagement, poor supervision, drug use, rioting and sex among residents.

Van Nuys residents and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes the community, were opposed to reopening the site.

``The community there is opposed to it,'' Antonovich said. ``We're going to work with Supervisor Yaroslavsky to find other sites in the county.''

Yaroslavsky said the priority right now has to be correcting major problems at MacLaren Children's Center in El Monte, before going out to find new sites. But nixing Pride House and Lion's Gate is important.

``You don't have to put this right in the heart of a neighborhood,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``There are inappropriate sites and appropriate sites.''

Van Nuys residents told the Board of Supervisors last week that the group homes were a menace to their neighborhoods because the youths housed there were allowed to roam the neighborhood in search of drugs and sex.

Antonovich pulled a motion he had been planning to introduce at the supervisors meeting this week. In it he asked that the supervisors start negotiating to buy or lease Pride House and Lion's Gate from the state.

``It's a tremendous relief for the neighborhood,'' said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association.

Last week, Yaroslavsky came out strongly against the proposal after complaints from residents. Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs and representatives of the Van Nuys Division of the Los Angeles Police Department were also against the proposal.

If Antonovich decided to continue pushing for Pride House and Lion's Gate, he would have had to go against the wishes of the supervisorial district where the group homes are located.

Antonovich suggested using Pride House and Lion's Gate because county officials are trying to come up with ways to relieve overcrowding at MacLaren. MacLaren serves as the county's home of last resort for children who have been taken from unfit parents, mentally ill children and juvenile offenders.

Peter Digre, director of the Department of Children and Family Services, studied the issue at the request of Antonovich and suggested the homes could be used to care for mentally ill adolescents. While the combined homes have a 180-bed capacity, Digre suggested capping the total population at 40.

Residents who live nearby were relieved when the site was closed down, contending the children were allowed to roam their neighborhoods and caused plenty of problems.

The two group homes are located in two buildings on opposite sides of a three-acre, 180-bed ``Children's Campus'' on Saticoy Street, just west of Sepulveda Boulevard.

Built in 1991, Pride House and Lion's Gate were constructed as part of an ambitious $12 million project, in which the county partnered with a private developer and a nonprofit company.

It was built in the first place to ease overcrowding at the MacLaren Children's Center.