Tenants burned out of apartments protest living conditions

More than 100 low-income residents in temporary units accuse the landlord, management of neglect

SAN JOSE >> After a five-alarm fire forced them out of their smokedamaged home in the Summerwind Apartments last month, Yaneth Ayala and her family moved into a temporary unit with another displaced family. With 12 people sharing a threebedroom apartment and only one bathroom, Ayala says she feels like a stranger in her own home.

Meanwhile, the majority of the family's belongings sit untouched in their two-bedroom apartment, with no clear sign of when they'll be cleared to retrieve them. They worry about break-ins.

Fed up with what they say are inhumane living conditions, Ayala and the other 119 displaced residents at Summerwind — the majority of whom are low-income people of color — have accused landlord Richard Gregersen and management of neglect following the April fire.

Tenants affected by the fire presented Gregersen with a letter of demands Friday ahead of a small rally at the complex.

“We have been continuously victimized by your failure to comply with legal obligations concerning our safety and well-being,” the letter said.

They allege Gregersen refused to translate communications about the fire into their native

languages, leaving children to translate legal terms for non-English speaking immigrant parents and gave tenants only a few minutes to vacate their smoke-damaged units to retrieve personal belongings.

They also claim he failed to properly secure the empty smoke-damaged units, which led to multiple break-ins and crammed two to three families into temporary units as management continues to show vacant units to potential new tenants.

The news organization tried to reach Gregerson Thursday and Friday through voicemails and emails to him directly and through his executive assistant, but they did not answer. His Los Gatos-based real estate company, Peninsula

West, owns four apartment complexes in the South Bay, including Summerwind off McLaughlin Avenue and Summerside Drive. Management at Summerwind also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Ayala, who was laid off from her job in February, said Summerwind management showed her a new apartment to move into last week but that they were charging the same $1,995 per month in rent for a smaller space. The family opted to stay where they are.

“I tell my husband we’re living like sardines,” said Ayala, who lives with her mother-in-law, husband and their two young daughters in the master bedroom, while the other family occupies the two smaller rooms. “It’s really frustrating.”

Tenants also had a series of other complains about the rent-stabilized complex, including claims it’s infested with cockroaches and mice, where break-ins are common and homeless people sleep in the hallways, elevators haven’t worked for years and trash piles up for weeks. Activists working with the tenants say it’s part of a troubling housing trend in which landlords take advantage of low-income residents who they know can’t afford to leave. And when they finally do, landlords hike up the rent in those same units, they said.

Mariela Garcia of the San Jose nonprofit, Sacred Heart Community Service, said Summerwind management has offered new units to some of the displaced tenants but doesn’t tell them when they’ll be available and what the terms of the lease are or if they’ll pay the same rent.

“This has been a national trend in the housing crisis,” said Garcia. “You have landlords taking advantage of the fact that people of color lack mobility. Because they’re not able to move out of this complex, they’ve been through a lot. It’s not until stuff like this happens that folks realize that they have a lot of power.”

Garcia said many of the residents are in the process of filing tenant petitions under the city’s Apartment Rent Ordinance, which controls rent increases on designated apartments throughout the city. Tenants may submit a petition for a variety of reasons, including rent increases beyond 5 percent, more than one rent increase in 12 months, housing code violations and general problems with the apartment or the complex. The petitions trigger mediation hearings outside of court.

When the fire broke out in the kitchen of a secondstory unit in the early hours of April 17, a dramatic scene quickly unfolded: As fire burned outside their apartments, blocking their escape through the front doors, about 20 people were trapped on their balconies.

But before anyone needed to jump, San Jose firefighters rescued the trapped residents with ladders. Residents from 36 units were evacuated and it’s unclear when they’ll be able to return to their homes.

City spokeswoman Rosario Neaves said the city has held two community meetings to offer tenants a variety of resources, such as Red Cross assistance and homeless prevention services.

“The property owner is directly responsible for rehousing those residents who were impacted, and our hope is the property owner returns all displaced residents into permanent, safe and affordable housing in a timely manner,” Neaves said in a statement Friday.

Since the fire, the city has held two community meetings with residents to offer information and supportive resources such as American Red Cross assistance and homeless prevention services.

Zenaida Rios, her husband and their 13-yearold daughter are staying in Sunnyvale with family. Summerwind management offered the couple a new unit comparable to what they had before but said they’d “adjust” the rent in three months, which Rios interpreted as a rent increase.

“I didn’t understand what that meant considering we have a lease with them,” she said. “It’s not our fault that the building caught fire.”