After the flames, a family struggles to find a place
Santa Clarita mother says group is still displaced after a fire ravaged her apartment in Canyon Country last week
Alot of people struggle to make ends meet in the Santa Clarita Valley, but few share the enormity of Carmen Navarro’s struggle – forced from her home by fire Friday, behind in the rent, now displaced and homeless with two young sons, one suffering from muscular dystrophy.
The woman, her husband who works landscaping, and her sons Diego, 7, and Jesus, 10, who’s confined for the most part to a wheelchair, have been staying at a motel since Friday.
On Friday afternoon, fire broke out in the garage of the family’s apartment at the Park Sierra Apartments on the 27300 block of Rock Rose Lane in Canyon Country, Fire Specialist Randall Wright told The Signal.
Firefighters responding to the fire reported seeing smoke and flames coming from the downstairs garage of the Navarro’s apartment. They extinguished the fire within 15 minutes and stopped the fire from extending into the living quarters.
Water damage to the apartment from firefighters’ efforts, however, has made the apartment uninhabitable.
Displaced by the damage, members of the local Red Cross put up the family of four in the Travelodge motel on Sierra Highway.
The $900 given to the family by the Red Cross
for food, shelter and clothing, according to Navarro, was whittled down to $130 by Tuesday.
Repairs to the Navarro apartment are expected to be completed in 60 days, leaving the family homeless until then.
“The only damage is the water damage,” Carmen Navarro told The Signal on Tuesday. “When I asked about moving to another rental unit, the manager said ‘I have bad news. Your apartment won’t be ready for 60 days.’
“I need a place to live,” Navarro said, adding she needs special accommodations her son’s powered wheelchair.
Her oldest son, Jesus, suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is caused by a mutation in a gene on the X-chromosome that prevents the production of dystrophin, a normal protein in muscle. It mainly affects boys, rarely girls. Those with the ailment experience weakness in the pelvis and upper limbs, resulting in frequent falling, an unusual gait and general weakness.
Normally, a specially equipped school bus takes Jesus and his power chair to and from Valley View Community School. Now left with a manual wheelchair, Carmen Navarro struggles to get her son in and out of the electric wheelchair, she said.
To make matters worse, Jesus, broke his leg with a fall in August, adding to the difficulty of helping him.
And, while a 60-day wait to move back home is difficult, Navarro said she’s not certain her family will be permitted back after having received a notice for a late rental payment in November.
When contacted for word on help extended to the family beyond Tuesday, a spokesman for the Red Cross said: “Because of HIPAA confidentiality laws we cannot disclose any information.”
Privacy laws were spelled out in 1996 with the introduction of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act which set standards for the electronic exchange, privacy and security of health information. Those standards prevents the release of information to the news media.
Navarro isn’t sure of when she’ll find another, more permanent place that will work for the family, and she’s been unsure of the future status of the water-damaged unit the family once occupied.
Calls to the Park Sierra Apartment management regarding apartment repairs and the prospect of the Navarro family returning were referred to the complex’s corporate office.
Two messages were left with a woman with whom Carmen Navarro was speaking to regarding the situation, but they were not returned Tuesday.