Oakland tenants still displaced after storms
Hundreds of residents at an apartment complex next to BART’s Coliseum Station remain displaced nearly a month after torrential rainfall resulted in a flooded parking garage and severe damage to the building’s electrical system.
Dozens of desperate residents at the Coliseum Connections complex, which is built on BART property, called in to the rail agency’s Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, pleading for assistance and answers on when, and if, their apartments would be habitable.
More than 300 people resided at the 110-unit apartment building, which is composed of market-rate and affordable apartments, when they got a notice on New Year’s Day from property manager FPI Management to vacate the complex, the Oaklandside reported.
Since then, many families who lived at the complex, most of them Black and Latino, have resorted to staying in hotels, incurring hefty expenses with no word on when they’ll be able to return home.
In emotional testimony to the BART board, many residents, some in tears, expressed frustration over the lack of communication from FPI and urged agency officials to intervene. They also criticized the neglected condition of the BART Coliseum Station’s parking garage, telling the board that residents have complained for years about its poor upkeep. More than 20 cars at the parking garage were submerged in water.
“It wasn’t a natural disaster, it was negligence by BART and by the developer,” resident Alex Vila told the board. “We’ve been gaslighted. We don’t have any information on what’s going to happen . ... We’ve been forgotten. Please help us. This is a matter of crisis.”
Though BART does not directly oversee the apartment complex, it contracts with the developer and property manager and receives some of the complex’s rent profits. Board directors could not discuss or respond to the tenants’ pleas because the issue was not on the board’s agenda. The board is expected to discuss the issue at its next meeting.
Abby Thorne-Lyman,
BART’s director of real estate and property development, said the flooding at the complex that began on New Year’s Eve “severely damaged the electrical system in the building,” forcing people to vacate. City and county officials are working with the apartment’s developer on a plan to restore electricity, she said, though the timeline remained unclear.
FPI Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Residents said the flooding left the complex in a destitute state with a pungent, moldy smell lingering in the building. Several of them had cars parked in the garage that were damaged beyond repair, and their displacement has already left many residents in a state of tremendous hardship, they told the board.
Will Smith lives in the building with his fiancee — who gave birth to their son at a local hospital during the flooding — and 6-year-old son. The family is living in a hotel room with no stove. The oldest son has missed several days of school, and Smith has missed several days of work as the family navigates the uncertainty.
“It’s just a big tragedy,” Smith told the BART board. “It’s very unacceptable that we even have to deal with something like this.”