City Council Hears Plight of Stranded Families, Isolated in Shuttered Pasadena Apartment Complex

Editor’s Note — The original story published today stated that the remaining tenants has not been “offered any guidance or assistance from Fuller” and omitted the qualifying phrase, “in recent weeks.” A representative of Fuller said in a phone call that in fact the tenants have been offered guidance and assistance from Fuller and that a timeline and description of that assistance is being documented for release to the media. The story below has therefore been corrected.

 

[Updated Tuesday, July 14, 2015 | 4:41 p.m.]   With doors to empty apartments swinging open in the breeze, fear and isolation set in for the three families and individuals still living inside the Koinonia apartment complex on North Los Robles Avenue, four days past the day they were told to leave.

Security workers moved through the facilities last Friday, past the families still living there, shutting off electricity to some units, chaining shut gates and buildings, and changing security codes to prevent anyone from getting back into the complex.

The families have lived in these apartments as a part of the extended Fuller Theological Seminary community.

Fuller Theological Seminary Issues Statement About Tenants Remaining Past Mandatory Vacancy Deadline at Koinonia Apartments

The Seminary traditionally made low-cost housing available to both its students and former students, and to faculty and staff. Two years ago, when Fuller sold the 190 unit apartment complex at 260 North Los Robles to a development firm called Carmel Partners, Fuller announced it would only offer low-cost housing to its full time students going forward.

The tenants in the Koinonia apartment buildings were told to leave by July 9.

Some families have struggled to find alternative housing they could afford or qualify for right up until the July 9 deadline, leaving three or more stragglers behind.

“It is beyond bad now. The few that are remaining here that want to fight, I’ll be there for them. As meager as their chances are, I’ll still try. This should have been prevented,” local attorney Phillip Koebel said.

During public comment at Monday’s City Council meeting Michelle White of Affordable Housing Services spoke on behalf of the families who have been locked out of the complex.

White asked for help from the City Attorney’s Office and for the city to investigate if the families are entitled to relocation benefits.

White said that the actions taken on the property have been done without “resorting to Landlord Tenant Laws and protections.”

“We need to get Carmel [Partners] to comply with the law. Carmel is going to be asking for a density bonus, and the fact that they are not complying with the law ought to be taken into account,” White said.

Councilmember John Kennedy responded to White’s comments by asking City Manager Michael Beck if the city’s housing department is moving quickly to take actions necessary to help the stranded families.

“As it relates to the two families that [White] addressed in her comments, Michael, I would simply ask that we do a quick analysis to see if there’s a role for city government to play, making sure that the families receive whatever benefits that they are entitled to,” Kennedy said.

City Manager Michael Beck said they would do so “very quickly.”

Kidon Eom’s family of four remains isolated in their apartment. Eom, a Fuller graduate who is now an associate pastor, has been unable to find an alternate housing location. Read Kidon’s full story.

Pasadena Now staff visited Eom’s apartment on Friday to document what happened to the family. Opening the door, Eom’s wife, Jisu Lee burst into tears, clutching the hands of her two children.

“The gate is locked so we cannot go out. We are waiting for Kidon to come home. He is out searching apartments,” Lee said.

Two security staff wearing shirts emblazoned with a Carmel emblem moved through the property, changing the security gate codes at the entrances to the four complexes on the property.

Lee and a former resident checking for mail both said the code to enter at the 265 North Oakland Avenue gate had been changed and their keys to the gate would no longer open the door or the parking lot entrance.

“The door is locked so we park on the street,” Eom said in a later text.

Resident Dillon Conklin has chosen to stay in what he calls his “home” until he is pushed out of the complex.

At 4:27 p.m. last Thursday, his electricity was turned off.

Upon leaving the apartments on Friday at 4:30 p.m. to get to a class, Conklin found a large chain held the main security gate closed. He resorted to climbing over the fence to get out of the complex.

The chain was removed about one hour later.

On Monday at 4:15 p.m. Conklin received a phone call shortly followed by the resurgence of electricity in his apartment. He said that a representative of Carmel Partners told him they would be responsible for the power bills of the remaining tenants.

“We lined up additional groups to secure the building to ensure that there were no issues when it went off line, including notifying the utility companies a lot in advance of the date we wanted it cut. Obviously to our surprise, we have concerns that there’s still at least one person left in there,” Neils Cotter, Vice President of Development at Carmel Partners said.

Cotter said the July 9 deadline had been selected one year in advance.

“What we’ve done today is personally we activated the utilities so that that tenant at least has access to utilities,” Cotters said.

California State law protects tenants from being evicted without a due process of the property owner filing an “unlawful detainer” lawsuit at the court. In the meantime, the landlord is subject to Civil Code 789.3 which prevents the landlord from evicting the tenant by means of lockouts, turning off utilities, removing property, removing windows or doors and more.

“Any folks within the building have tenant rights. If Carmel wanted to follow through with a formal eviction process, they would have to go through the legal court requirements,” David Reyes, Deputy Director for the City’s planning department said. “It’s not like after July 9, they can say that everyone has to leave without a due process.”

Cotter said that he thought “obviously” some of the tenants were confused.

“Well it’s really unfortunate to be honest. We take these types of situation very seriously and want to make sure that [Fuller] is working and taking care of it and hopefully that all of the communication has been done as it should have been,” Cotter said by phone.

Security staff began removing the locks from the doors at the Koinonia apartments on Friday. The doors freely swung open into the one, two and three bedroom apartments.

City staff said unsecured property poses a problem in the city.

“Sites that are not secured become attractive not only for homeless, but also for drug users, adventure seekers, bored youth ect. The City’s Code enforcement department works with property owners that has such nuisance properties that require them to board up the units, fence them, or whatever the case may be,” James Wong of the City Housing Department said.

City planning staff said Monday they are looking into whether city municipal codes have been violated and if any of the city departments have a role to play in the situation.

Vacant buildings are subject to Pasadena’s Municipal Code 14.70 and 8.24.040 which address how to properly secure the buildings and specify not to keep the building open with easy access to trespassers.

“There has been no discussion by Carmel to board the building up. They have to comply with all our property maintenance standards,” Reyes said.

On Monday Carmel Partners declined to comment about the future of the property. Cotter said he was waiting to hear back from Fuller on what to do with the remaining families.

“We are strongly urging as much as possible that Fuller handle the situation as quickly as possible being respectful to the existing tenants. We’re waiting to talk to them to see exactly what they’re going to do about this, how they are going to proceed. My thought is that they also see this as an issue and will be handling this as quickly as possible,” Cotter said.