EDITORIAL : GET TOUGH ON SLUMS COMMITTEE SENDS A WAKE-UP CALL TO L.A.

THE report by the Blue Ribbon Committee on Slum Housing confirms what a lot of people had suspected all along: Slum conditions are getting worse, particularly in the San Fernando Valley, and efforts by the city of Los Angeles to reverse the trend have been ineffective.

This is simply intolerable.

If conditions continue to deteriorate, productive residents with the means to do so will move away. Business will stagnate or depart, leaving a shrinking tax and employment base.

Local government services will deteriorate due to rising workloads and the lack of sufficient tax revenues to pay the bills. All of this in turn will tend to accelerate the cycle of deterioration and despair.

And that is exactly what we have seen in the Valley and throughout the city because of our dysfunctional government. Time, energy and the public's money have been wasted for years to the point where the economics of Los Angeles are sinking while our suburban neighbors are thriving. The state of our housing is a prime example.

Reports along the lines of the one released Monday by the city-county committee are, however, a dime a dozen. What's needed, and what so far has been lacking, has been determined leadership downtown to effectively deal with worsening blight.

Fortunately, there is evidence that some people in City Hall are taking the problem seriously, rather than simply going through the motions.

Mayor Richard Riordan said that the city will be hiring 14 additional building inspectors ``whose only job will be to find building code violations and cite the owners.''

Moreover, the fact that the Board of Supervisors nominated some of the members of the committee suggests that the county Department of Health Services may pay more attention to health problems, such as vermin infestations.

But this isn't simply a job for inspectors. The committee found that ``willful and intentional violators face little chance of detection and virtually no chance of punishment.'' If that's true, new laws may be needed to close loopholes exploited by slumlords.

By the same token, landlords aren't always entirely to blame. Bad tenants can be a problem, too. One issue that needs to be explored is whether existing laws needlessly limit the ability of owners to evict destructive tenants.

But most of all, what's needed is a commitment - especially by the City Council - to stop the deterioration before it becomes irreversible.

The council needs to pay attention to the hardships of law-abiding, hard-working people. It must not allow itself to be sidetracked by pseudo-humanitarians who will argue that strict code enforcement, absent costly public subsidy programs, is cruel to poor people who can't afford decent housing.

As we have said before, it isn't humane to perpetuate public health and safety hazards - such as garages illegally converted into fire-trap apartments - simply because some people can't afford anything better.

What we find especially alarming are the committee's findings about worsening conditions in the San Fernando Valley. If one uses overcrowding - which means housing with an average of 1.5 persons per room - as a yardstick, the most rapid growth in slum conditions is occurring in the Valley.

``And it's not just in one area,'' said committee spokesman Bernie Sandoval. ``It's all over the Valley.''

We hope that part of the report will serve as a wake-up call for council members here in the Valley as well as those over the hill to acknowledge that the Valley has urban problems and needs more of the tax dollars generated here to stay here.

The Valley already is alienated from City Hall. The council will only fuel the fires of secession if it neglects the legitimate needs of the Valley in any campaign to stop the growth of slums.

City Hall's failures bear the greatest burden of responsibility for the slumming of the Valley. It is City Hall's responsibility to reverse this trend and start enforcing the law.