They’ve Had It : Fed-Up Tenants of Slum Hotel Withhold Rent to Get Repairs

The commercials for toothpaste and disinfectant on John Alexander’s old black-and-white television set were filled with praises for “fresh” and “clean,” the cheery sound track clashing with the stink and filth around him in the Edward Hotel on Skid Row.

In the rank hallway outside Alexander’s little room, 4-year-old Jasmine Adkisson showed three other children who live in the hotel where a rat bit her right shoulder. On the door behind her, some sarcastic resident had posted a sign with an arrow pointing out a window and the words:

“Complaint Department 6,342 miles.”

In the hallways around them, Jasmine’s mother, Alexander and other residents told reporters Thursday that they were launching a rent strike to protest that the hotel is uninhabitable and in violation of many health, building and fire laws.

The Slum Housing Task Force of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office confirmed their complaints, saying that inspectors from the county Department of Health Services, the city Department of Building and Safety and the city Fire Department have found a long list of violations at the 39-room hotel on East 7th Street.

The owners have until June 16 to correct the health and building code conditions, or the task force will begin action leading to criminal charges, said Deputy City Atty. William C. Cullen.

The owners of the building are listed as Sang In Kim and Hyung Ouk Han, Cullen said.

Kim and Han--who use the hotel as a legal address but do not live there--could not be reached for comment.

Fire Inspector Willis Martin said he has been unable to find the owners to serve notice of fire code violations.

Madeline Janis, an attorney for the Inner City Law Center, which is aiding the rent strike, said 20 to 30 people are believed to live in the hotel, paying from $150 to $280 a month.

As is authorized by state law in the case of uninhabitable buildings, the residents will suspend rent payments until the conditions are corrected, Janis said. Instead, and to protect themselves from eviction, they will make payments to a trust account set up by the law center, which specializes in representing Skid Row dwellers.

The number of residents is unclear, because some people simply force their way into unoccupied rooms and sleep there without paying, residents said. Sometimes, non-residents take command of the steep wooden steps that lead to the second and third floors and charge drug addicts a fee to use any available room to get high in, said resident Carita Waterford.

There are platter-sized holes in the walls. All but one of the four bathrooms have been nailed shut. In the halls, urine lies pooled under clouds of flies.

Workers for the Law Center showed reporters a tray containing seven dead rodents that they said had been collected in the building only the night before.

Jasmine’s mother, Stephanie Hoard, and Hoard’s two other children, Joe Adkisson, 3, and Jackie Haggens, 2, live in a room measuring about 12 feet by 8 feet. They sleep on a fold-out couch and a bunk bed. The room also contains an electric hot plate for cooking and a small bathtub, encrusted with dried, backed-up sewage.

Frank MacIntyre, senior environmental health officer for the Department of Health Services, said the owners have been notified to correct “a general vermin infestation--cockroaches, mice and rats--deteriorated walls and ceilings, broken windows, worn out flooring and floor covering, inoperable plumbing and electrical systems and worn out and defective mattresses and bedding.”

“If we don’t start seeing dust flying (from rehabilitation work) in 30 days,” Tom Pope, a senior city building inspector, said, “we will start gathering evidence for a criminal prosecution.”