Volunteers to Work at Public Housing Site

More than 4,000 volunteers will team up today for L.A. Works Day ‘97, a massive, one-day drive to help revitalize Los Angeles’ public housing developments, schools and community centers.

Mayor Richard Riordan and actor Richard Dreyfuss will help kick off the event at 8 a.m. at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. Volunteers will then fan out to 14 public housing sites around Los Angeles County--including Pacoima--where from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. they will work side by side with local residents to clean, paint, plant trees and flowers, and perform other much-needed renovations, administrators said.

The 448-unit San Fernando Gardens apartment complex in Pacoima is the only Valley site involved in the event, which is being co-sponsored by the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles and L.A. Works, a nonprofit organization established in 1991 by a coalition entertainment executives and other business leaders.

“We know that revitalizing the city requires starting with a strong foundation, that’s why it’s so important that we start with our neighborhoods,” said Ozie B. Gonzaque of the Housing Authority’s board of commissioners.

Among the thousands of volunteers giving up part of their Saturday for the project, administrators said, will be dozens of Housing Authority employees.

“Banding together in such numbers, I think it shows the great heart that our employees have for our city and its lower-income residents,” said Don Smith, the Housing Authority’s executive director.