Neurological Disorder Victim Files Complaint Over Eviction

The victim of a rare neurological disorder that causes her to utter involuntary sounds has been ordered out of her Whittier apartment for making noise that her landlord deems a nuisance.

Yolanda De La Cruz, 41, who has a disorder called Tourette syndrome, was given 30 days to vacate her quarters in a neat two-story house on Painter Ave., according to a notice served by her landlord, Mark Uranga. De La Cruz has lived there since June.

“You are in violation of Article 6A, Noise, and creating a nuisance to other tenants,” Uranga wrote, referring to a rental agreement. “Therefore, I regret to inform you that this is your 30-day notice to vacate the premises.”

Uranga would not elaborate on the notice. But he said in a telephone interview that it was a question of “dollars and cents,” and that he faced prospects of “losing three tenants to save one.”

De La Cruz, a telephone operator at The Times, has since found another apartment and is planning to move as quickly as possible. But she also filed a complaint with the Fair Housing Council of San Gabriel Valley this week, charging Uranga with discriminating against her because she makes sounds over which she has no control.

Initial Reluctance

The council’s program coordinator, Getty Warmsher, said the complaint will be submitted to the State Department of Fair Employment and Housing for evaluation and possible action against Uranga.

“I had thoughts about not dealing with it,” De La Cruz said. “And, then I thought, ‘Why should I let that jerk do something like that because some bigger jerk is going to do it to a person who is far more disabled than I.’ I am capable of working. I have been able to have two healthy children.

“This would educate other people. They’ll say, ‘Oh, Tourette syndrome. Hey, that’s what I have.’ If I can do that, if I can help one person, that’s made it for me, if nothing else.”

Like many others with moderate to severe symptoms of Tourette syndrome, De La Cruz is subject to uncontrollable tics--startling jerks of arms and legs, sharp, brief bursts of sounds and involuntary cursing.

Scientists have not determined what causes the disorder, but the Tourette Syndrome Assn. says that research suggests that it has something to do with “abnormal metabolism of at least one brain chemical called dopamine.” De La Cruz is under treatment with an experimental drug.

“You have no control over” the syndrome, she said. “Good times, bad times, happy, sad times. Any kind of emotion will trigger it.”

At least 100,000 Americans are afflicted with the condition, first described by French physician Gille de La Tourette in 1885, the National Institutes of Health reports, but others suspect that the syndrome is much more widespread than that.

Two City of Hope researchers, Dr. David E. Comings and Dr. Brenda Comings, have estimated that perhaps a million people suffer from various forms of the syndrome in the United States, but t1751480608majority of cases. De La Cruz went undiagnosed for 28 years.

Most people afflicted with Tourette have relatively mild to fairly moderate symptoms, and can live comfortably in society, according to Dennis C. Hirschfelder, the Tourette association’s executive director, headquartered in Bayside, N.Y. He estimates that only about 5% to 10% have severe symptoms.

Face Public Censure

But Hirschfelder says that Tourette is not an easy disorder to deal with and that thousands with severe symptoms face public censure as they grapple with daily living while attending school, working, traveling, going out or living independently.

In her case, De La Cruz, who was born in Maywood and grew up in East Los Angeles, says she has never before encountered problems in housing because of her Tourette’s tics. When she took her present apartment she told Uranga about her condition, she said.

“As far as he was concerned, there wasn’t any problem with it,” De La Cruz said.

Uranga, who lives downstairs, rents out two bachelor apartments on the second floor. De La Cruz moved into one of them, sharing the kitchen with another young woman. Another woman renter lives in a part of the house downstairs.

De La Cruz admitted that she has made involuntary noises since taking the apartment, but she questioned whether they have been sufficient to disturb her closest upstairs tenant. No one other than Uranga has complained to her about them, she said.

Didn’t Hear Anything

A woman who lives in the house next door said in a phone interview that she hasn’t heard any yells, cursing or unusual sounds coming from Uranga’s house.

When Uranga handed her the eviction notice, De La Cruz said he told her she was disturbing others, even neighbors.

“I tried to reason with him,” De La Cruz said. “I tried to tell him to let me educate the people. He seemed a little upset that he had to be put in that position. The thing is he never notified me of this problem until the day I paid the rent, and he gave me notice.

“Oh, if I had my stereo blasting or my TV on or parties or people coming in and out or selling drugs or whatever, I would be foolish to even think I would have a chance, but I feel that I have to make a point for myself and, more importantly, for others.”

De La Cruz grew up, married and had two children without knowing that the blinking that started when she was 7 was a mild symptom of Tourette syndrome. She only learned about her condition six years ago after her tics had gotten progressively worse after her divorce.

“So, for 28 years, I went undiagnosed,” she said. “In all that time I’ve had friends, strangers and relatives accept my condition as it was. And, whether some accepted it or not, they never reproached me about it.”

When she’s at work and feels her tics coming on, De La Cruz puts callers briefly on hold, then responds to their requests. Sometimes when she rasps into the phone, she explains her affliction.

“It’s part of my personality,” she said. “In a sense, it’s putting a label on me, and I’m having difficulty living somewhere because of something I have no control over.”