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Tenants’ nightmare

Patricia McDowell, 57, cleans up a storage area connected to her apartment in what was once office space that was converted into apartments at 5700 S. Hoover St. in Los Angeles. McDowell and her neighbors were told on short notice that they must vacate the building because of safety hazards.

Patricia McDowell, 57, cleans up a storage area connected to her apartment in what was once office space that was converted into apartments at 5700 S. Hoover St. in Los Angeles. McDowell and her neighbors were told on short notice that they must vacate the building because of safety hazards.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Residents say the city ignored complaints about the poor condition of a South L.A. apartment complex on South Hoover Street that they are now being forced to leave.

Tenants' nightmare

Dozens of tenants are being forced to vacate this South Los Angeles building amid complaints that the city should have acted sooner to help people relocate from the squalid and dangerous apartments.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Extensive damage

Yolanda Davis, 42, lives beneath a water heater which leaked and flooded her roof, causing the ceiling to cave in. Mold and mildew forced her to sleep in the hallway of the converted South L.A. building she now must leave.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Conversion

Roxaura Sandoval sits in a hall of the 5700 South Hoover St. building while visiting family members. Tony Lavan, right, has lived in his apartment at the former commercial building for a year and pays $600 a month, but now must move out due to structural hazards.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Yard sale

Before the tenants learned they could stay in the South Hoover Street building a bit longer, some set up yard sales to scrape together cash to relocate. The Inner City Law Center has been trying to get relocation payments for the building’s residents, but the payments will require City Council approval.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Cramped quarters, with pests

Allen Langston, 62, a former factory worker who collects Social Security, sits in his apartment at the Hoover Street building. He has lived here for two years and said he has been bitten by bed bugs, roaches and water bugs.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Apartments for rent

Garry Webb holds an advertisement for the apartment building where he has been living for more than two years. Citing “unsafe buildings” and “structural hazards,” the L.A. Fire Department has ordered all tenants out of the building.   (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Relocating costs

Possessions belonging to Yolanda Davis (not pictured) are for sale outside the South Hoover Street building in Los Angeles. Davis hoped to drum up some cash to help her relocate.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Starting over

Garry Webb, 41, visits with his neighbor Patricia McDowell, 57, in her apartment in the South Hoover Street building they must vacate. McDowell will be staying with her brother, and Webb and his wife are weighing their options. When McDowell found out she had to leave, “I knew I had to start all over again,” she said.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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