COMPLEX CHANGES; SHERMAN OAKS RESIDENTS SURPRISED TO HEAR APARTMENTS BEING TORN DOWN FOR SENIOR HOUSING.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

About 100 low-income families are being evicted from a modest Vesper Avenue apartment complex by a San Diego company that will demolish and replace it with one of the largest senior citizen housing complexes built recently in the San Fernando Valley.

The plans by Senior Resource Group LLC have proceeded with little public attention, but the company expects to start construction by Oct. 1. The $35 million project will be three stories tall, have underground parking and 249 apartment units for senior citizens with a variety of health-care needs.

Currently, the 4.5-acre parcel has 98 units in a series of two-story buildings. The site is in the 5400 block of Vesper Avenue across the street from Van Nuys Middle School.

Several Van Nuys Boulevard auto dealerships are at the rear of the property.

Officials with Senior Resource Group, which closed escrow on the parcel a few months ago, point out that the Park Village Apartment complex was built in the 1940s and what is coming will blend in better with the neighborhood.

Rents for the new units will range from $2,000 a month to more than $3,000 a month, depending on the tenant's care needs.

``This is essentially a mini-campus. We are going to have everything from a swimming pool to sort of a gym to a high-end, upscale dining room,'' said Michael Grust, president of Senior Resource Group. ``This is going to be an opportunity for seniors to stay in a secure environment and remain as independent as they want to, but we are there if they need us.''

Plans to convert the complex to senior housing date back to 1993, when the former owner received approval to build condominiums.

Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, said that this project would be one of the largest of its kind in the Valley.

``When the public learns about it we'll see if there is concern in the area. The association will want to look into the project to determine if it might have a detrimental affect on the community,'' he said.

The development is in the Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski's district. Her planning deputy had the day off and could not be reached for comment but an aide to the councilwoman said the project dates back to former councilman Marvin Braude's tenure.

Close said he would like to have the association and the developer co-host a community meeting on the plan.

``I'm not saying this is a bad project. This is a project of sufficient size that the neighborhood should have some review before they start construction,'' Close said. ``Right now, this is just being discussed in the back rooms and this is not how development should occur in the city of Los Angeles.''

Nevertheless, the project is bad news for the families at the time-worn apartment complex. They knew that a new owner with big plans and an eviction notice was in their future.

They wanted time to save up the money it will take to move. Instead, Senior Resources posted eviction notices on July 1 throughout the collection of pale gray and green buildings that take up the east side of Vesper Avenue between Clark and Albers streets in Sherman Oaks.

Now families like Ignacia Rodriguez, her husband Hugo and their two children have at the most 45 days to stretch their income to cover moving expenses.

If they get out by the deadline - Aug. 15 - they don't have to pay rent for August and their $550 July rent for the two-bedroom, one-bath apartment will be refunded. It's not much, but its a start.

``We've been here for three years and we weren't planning on moving,'' Ignacia Rodriguez said Wednesday as her two children played in the complex's scruffy courtyard. Her husband works on the maintenance crew in a local factory and she is a teaching assistant at Kester Avenue School. Since it's summer vacation, she is not drawing a paycheck. Cash flow is always a problem.

The family will be looking for an apartment in the $600 range. ``We can afford $600, but I don't know if we can pay any more,'' she said.

Steve Carter, a screenwriter and former music video and film producer, also wishes the company had given tenants more time to find other housing. Times are tough and he knows that he's lucky his ex-wife took him in.

``I'm struggling, as you can tell, but I'm chasing the dream, right?'' he said. ``It's not that we want to stay here. We're willing to move. The problem is getting the first and last and deposit scraped up.''

Arely Franco and her husband Juan, a mechanic, have lived in the building for two-and-a-half years. They have a one-bedroom apartment, with the water heater next to the kitchen stove, a constantly dripping faucet and a small dinning nook. Arely Franco spent $600 to paint her home's walls a pale peach, put down shiny blue linoleum in the dining and kitchen area, patch the concrete in the back yard and hang a new back door. And she also painted the hallway outside her first-floor unit.

Call it pride of rentership.

``It's really upsetting to have to move. We moved here because my husband works right around the corner. We've got to buy another car now so it's going to be tough,'' she said.

Since the conversion plans predates their move-in date, most of the renters are not eligible for financial assistance under terms of the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

But Rita Robinson, director of the Rent Stabilization Division, said that Senior Resources Group will pay about $102,000 in relocation expenses to tenants who do qualify for this assistance.

Senior Resource Group executives said that covers about 25 percent of the tenants now living at the complex. The company will also provide assistance to other tenants, such as help finding a new apartment, a moving truck and packing supplies.

``Some people have been there for some time and we want to make sure the experience is as painless as possible,'' Grust said. ``It is never easy to move but we are working very hard to find people comparable if not better housing.''

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PHOTO (1--2--Color) Above, Ignacia Rodriguez follows her daughter, Lindsay Lopez (on the tricycle), and two neighborhood kids on the walkway at the apartment building in Van Nuys. At left, Steve Carter works on a screenplay on the computer in his apartment.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News