COMMUNITY LEADERS SEEK HELP FOR NORTH HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

After a stray bullet shattered the window of her first-floor apartment at 4 a.m. about a month ago, there was little that Vicki Rivera could do except move her family to a rear unit.

Now the 46-year-old mother of two says she fears less for the safety of her children, at least when they come home to their cozy two-bedroom apartment.

But once her son, Emilio, 10, and daughter, Ana, 15, step out onto Orion Street, Rivera says they enter a neighborhood infested with gang members, drug dealers and prostitutes - a world Rivera calls ``a mother's nightmare.''

``I try to make my kids stay at home as much as possible,'' said Rivera. ``It is possible they go out and never return.''

The Riveras live in a neighborhood bordered by Parthenia Street, Orion Avenue, Nordhoff Street and Burnet Avenue, an area that a city housing official said Thursday is on the brink of falling into a state of hopeless decay.

Home to an estimated 19,000 residents, the community was ravaged by the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake.

Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council, said more than 40 apartment buildings and other residences suffered serious damage, causing community leaders to declare the neighborhood one of the city's worst ``Ghost Towns'' when repair work stalled.

About half a dozen buildings still have not been fixed and have become hotbeds for squatters, gang members, drug peddlers and prostitutes, slowing the neighborhood's attempts to fight urban decline, residents say.

But City Councilman Richard Alarcon said the gritty neighborhood's troubles date back to before the temblor.

Apartments have long been too small for the large families that occupy them. Drug dealers made the neighborhood their haven years ago, causing the city in 1989 to set up barricades at key intersections to deter cruising.

``This is one of the areas with the highest crime in the San Fernando Valley,'' said Alarcon, adding that the barriers were later taken down.

On a recent weekday, a 42-year-old transient, who identified herself only as ``Rachel,'' was moving into one of the unrepaired apartment buildings in the 8900 block of Orion Street.

Although Rachel said she knew inhabiting the building was illegal and a sore point among neighborhood residents, she said she had no choice.

``If they want me to move out of here, than ask them if I can move in with them,'' said Rachel, in a room lit only by candles.

Despite the many problems, residents and community leaders said they are doing what they can to make their neighborhood more livable.

``There are many good families who live here,'' said Coleman, as he drove through the neighborhood in his aging Volkswagen van. ``But you have to clean out all the drug dealers and fix the bad housing. Otherwise, there will be no recovery.''

Coleman and other neighborhood activists have been at the forefront of pushing the city to speed up the help effort for this struggling community in the shadow of the San Diego Freeway.

Coleman said he has focused a lot of energy on trying to get the Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development organization that received $6 million in city loans for repair work to finish fixing four buildings in the area.

``These buildings need a lot of work and they're just sitting there,'' Coleman said, pointing to a two-story apartment complex on Orion Street with peeling plaster and bombed-out windows.

Alarcon, who has ties to the organization, blames the delay on the city's Housing Department, saying officials cut the budget that the organization needed to do the work.

``If the original budgets that were recommended by NEED were approved, these projects would be done by now,'' Alarcon said.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, map

PHOTO (1) Children receive English tutoring at United Methodist Church of Sepulveda, near troubled Orion Street.

(2) Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council, warns a transient to vacate an abandoned building.

(3) North Hills community group leader Harry Coleman surveys an abandoned apartment in the distressed Orion Street neighborhood.

David Sprague/Daily News

Map: Blighted neighborhood