Upgrades to Watt Complex Bring
Feelings of Relief to Long-Time Resident
For Antoinette Morrison, a 15-year resident of Westminster Park Plaza, recent improvements to the seven-acre Watts complex brought welcome relief.
“No one had been taking care of it, a lot of things fell apart and, after awhile, it looked run down,” Morrison said of the Westminster buildings. “When the new management came through and CRA/LA got more involved, they rehabilitated the whole complex and made it more beautiful.”
But for Morrison, new landscaping, repairs and energy-efficient changes pale in comparison to the newly built, 2,000-square-foot community center. With eight computer work stations and an after-school tutoring program, the community center can help keep youngsters and teens engaged and active within the complex, Morrison and other tenants believe.
Morrison knows first-hand the risks some young men face. Her adult son, Neville Kennedy, died in 2005, the victim, police said, of either mistaken identity or a random, gang-initiation shooting. Now, with her youngest son, Aswan, living with her and full of 13-year-old energy, Morrison hopes the community center will occupy his time and interest.
“The community center is something we residents always wanted,” Morrison said.
Westminster Park Plaza was originally built in 1990 with assistance that included a $5 million, CRA/LA construction loan. Westminster’s 130-units are laid out in town houses over seven acres along the 9200 to 94100 blocks of Maie Avenue in CRA/LA’s Watts Redevelopment Project Area.
When the need arose for upgrades to the complex, the financing was restructured. A $23-million refinance yielded, among other items, $4 million for repairs, $2.6 million to CRA/LA as repayment toward the original loan and an increase to $6.4-million of the original CRA/LA loan. The complex’ new owners: Housing and Community Synergy Inc; Valued Housing II, LLC; and CharterMac Capital Solutions, the tax-credit investor, then began changes to the complex.
General building and unit repairs included new stoves, refrigerators, lighting and bathroom fixtures, windows and patio doors. New landscaping, irrigation and rehabilitation of eight children’s play areas were also done, plus 50 shade trees planted, donated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as part of Mayor Villaraigosa’s Million Trees LA’ program.
Morrison, who spoke at ceremonies celebrating the makeover, told how Westminster residents had felt like step children for so long, promised repairs that never came. A Los Angeles native, Morrison, 54, moved into the complex in 1994, paying market-rate rents. Five years later, after being diagnosed with lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease, she ended her career in health care but was able to remain in Westminster under the affordable housing category.
She lives there now with her 27-year-old daughter, Tiffany, and Aswan. Her other son, Frank, 34, lives in Los Angeles and has given Morrison a granddaughter and grandson. She volunteers at Aswan’s school and was vice president and secretary for a time in Westminster’s tenant association until the group disbanded years ago. Now, Morrison hopes the upgrades will spark a revival of the group.
“My hope is to have a nice, cohesive group where everybody is on the same page and we’re headed in a direction that benefits our community,” she said.
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