Volunteers will clean up city’s vacated apartments

CALIFORNIA CITY — The City Council, at its Jan. 10 meeting, cleared the way for volunteers to clean up vacated apartments at the city’s Desert Jade senior housing complex to prepare them for new residents.

Conditions at the affordable housing complex have been a regular topic of discussion for months, following reports that there are several vacant units, despite a lengthy waiting list for residents. The issue has been a lack of staffing to clean units that have been vacated.

Councilmember Ron Smith formally proposed the volunteer effort, with a budget of $500 per unit to cover costs for cleaning, shampooing carpets and repainting where necessary.

“This is a big deal,” he said. “Our city has a very good history of volunteers getting together to do stuff.”

Volunteers have been seeking to help with the manpower for months, he said. The congregations of at least four local churches are among those willing to help.

“The two most vulnerable people in this community are kids and our seniors,” Pastor James Robinson of First Baptist Church said, noting his church has a close relationship with the residents of Desert Jade. “I am confident that the resources are there to take care of it, but the inaction over the past year-plus has caused harm to our community, our seniors.

“We are willing to step up and help.”

Councilmember Jim Creighton asked if the units have been inspected to see if any require more work than cleaning and painting, which would increase the cost and complexity.

Work has been done on some of the vacant units since the Council last discussed it, Human Resources Generalist Serina Rodarte said.

Four should be rented by the first week of February.

However, a plan is still needed for those apartments that have furniture and goods left behind by former tenants, she said.

“That’s an ordinary trash out,” Mayor Kelly Kulikoff said.

“I think it’s doable to use volunteers to get this done,” he said. “I think we shouldn’t drag on the seniors’ hope that something’s going to happen and we should make something happen.”

The use of volunteers on city property must still be cleared through the city attorney to avoid any violation of labor regulations before any work proceeds.