Tenants who spent weeks without electricity or hot water after a fire damaged their East Oakland apartment building are now suing their landlord and property manager.
While electricity has mostly been restored since the Jan. 5 basement blaze in the San Antonio neighborhood property, four units are still being powered by a loud generator, and renters say they incurred large expenses during the weeks when their fridges and lights weren’t working.
“All families deserve to have dignity, health, and safety in their homes,” said Jackie Zaneri, managing attorney with Movement Legal, speaking outside of the 26th Avenue building at a press conference Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges landlords Victor and Amy Louie and the Oakland-based management company Selborne Properties violated several city and state tenant laws on habitability and relocation assistance. It describes numerous concerns with conditions in the building, both resulting from the fire and preexisting, including mold, broken fixtures, and cockroaches.
Victor Louie told The Oaklandside that he’s been working as fast as he can to get power fully restored and address the range of habitability issues tenants brought to his attention after the fire. He wasn’t aware that the tenants had filed the lawsuit or held a press conference until we reached him by phone Wednesday afternoon.
“Ever since the incident happened, myself and my property management company, we responded as quickly as possible to resolve all the issues,” Louie said. “Everything’s being blown out of proportion.”
When the electrical fire started in the locked basement on Jan. 5, no alarm went off, tenants said. Instead, they smelled smoke and scrambled to get out of the building with their children.
Nobody was hurt, and the fire didn’t scorch the residences. But the Oakland Fire Department cut power to the entire building as a cautionary step, and the Red Cross gave the renters cash for a few nights in a hotel.
When those funds ran out, some tenants returned to their building to live in the pitch-black cold. Others paid for extended hotel and Airbnb stays or went to live with family. One tenant even flew across the country with her cat to stay with relatives in New Jersey. Later on, the advocacy group Moms 4 Housing put up money for more nights in a hotel for tenants.
On Jan. 24, Selborne sent a text message to all renters announcing that electricity had been restored to 14 of the 18 units, but that hot water was still off.
“Please continue to seek alternate lodging,” the message said. “You will be reimbursed for the cost of the lodging.”
Oakland’s Code Compliance Relocation Program says property owners are required to reimburse “actual moving and temporary housing expenses the tenant household will incur or has incurred as a result of the displacement.”
Some of the 18 studios and one-bedroom apartments in the 26th Avenue building house large, overcrowded families. Several of the tenants are monolingual Spanish speakers. One had a baby shortly after the fire and another was pregnant.
Tenants said they spent thousands of dollars on takeout, transportation, and other necessities in addition to lodging.
There are conflicting reports of what’s been reimbursed so far. Louie said he’s covered all the lodging requests he’s received. Tenants and their lawyers said he covered Moms 4 Housing’s payments, and provided a credit for rent already paid in January, but that several households are still waiting to hear back on their requests for hotel coverage. For the other non-housing costs renters have submitted, Louie said he’s sent those to his insurance company for review.
Sydney Lester, the renter who left her powerless apartment for New Jersey with her cat Scallywag in January, returned in February to find the heat had been running in her unit for days. “I came into another fire hazard,” said Lester, who later received a hefty PG&E bill. She said she receives treatment for an autoimmune disorder in San Francisco, but couldn’t find somewhere to stay locally.
Ana Bolaños, another tenant, lost a fridge full of perishable food. (Another lost breastmilk she had frozen, the lawsuit alleges.) Bolaños’ family had to seek temporary housing immediately because her son’s medication must be refrigerated, she said. They first stayed with her mother, in a house already full of children, then later at a hotel.
“Five kids in one hotel room—it was chaos,” Bolaños said. Restaurant receipts started piling up.
They’re back at home now, where the family shares a room, with five children sleeping on bunk beds. The generator rumbles right outside their window throughout the whole day. Bolaños said the noise aggravates them and the fumes are bad for her son’s health. Two of her children have asthma. She’s also concerned it could start another fire, like the one that broke out in the basement right below her unit.
Louie said he’s trying to get rid of the generator and bring power back to the four apartments that lack it. The city is requiring him to replace the entire building’s electrical panel, he said. The city confirmed this.
City records show that the landlord has filed for permits to put in a new panel, and Louie said he’s awaiting word from PG&E too.
“They know it’s a priority,” he said. “Having that generator there is temporary, and that is the only way to supply power to those four units. The only alternative would be permanent relocation.”
Louie said many of the recent complaints about conditions in the building are news to him.
“Before this happened, when a tenant reported an issue, we’d look into it and resolve it,” he said. “I’ve never declined any repairs.”
The lawsuit claims it often took significant time for repairs to be addressed before the incident. According to tenants, there was no option for assistance in Spanish until the fire, and they said they often can’t reach anyone on a 24-hour hotline offered by property management.
With the assistance of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, or ACCE, a nonprofit housing advocacy group, the renters and their supporters Wednesday called on the city to adopt a proactive rental inspection program—sending officers out to regularly check up on conditions in buildings instead of waiting to respond to complaints.
ACCE representatives and the tenants said they’ve been asking for a meeting with their landlord since the fire. They went to his San Francisco home last week to demand a sit-down. Louie agreed but told The Oaklandside he felt “harassed and coerced” by them showing up at his home.
This story was updated shortly after publication with additional details from the lawsuit.
