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Fair Housing Director Is Ordered to Fix Duplex

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Acting on complaints from tenants, building inspectors have found rotted floors and windows, exposed wiring and other apparent housing-code violations in a duplex owned by the head of the Orange County Fair Housing Council, officials said Monday.

The duplex, in the 300 block of East Truslow Avenue, is owned by David T. Quezada, executive director of the publicly funded, nonprofit agency that lobbies on behalf of tenants in cases of housing discrimination and landlord-tenant disputes.

City officials were surprised when they discovered Quezada’s position with the Fair Housing Council, said Fullerton code-enforcement officer Kitty Jaramillo.

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“We thought, ‘Oh my God, he should know better,’ ” she said. “We were really disheartened because we refer people to the Orange County Fair Housing Council, and these are the very problems tenants have and go over there to get help for.”

Quezada, 40, could not be reached for comment.

Jaramillo inspected the duplex May 17 and May 24 after a tenant complained about conditions and a lack of response from Quezada. A check of city records found that a third rental unit was added to the back of the duplex in about 1978 and was built without city permission in apparent violation of zoning laws, she said.

On May 23, city officials notified Quezada that apparent violations had been discovered and that another inspection would soon follow.

Last week, Jaramillo said, Quezada moved the tenants from the third unit into one of the front units, tore down the walls and rebuilt the duplex back into its original two units.

On Monday, officials from the Orange County Health Department, the city Fire Department and the Building Department conducted a joint inspection and began preparing a formal list of substandard housing conditions, Jaramillo said.

In addition to rotted floors and windows, the inspectors reported finding holes in walls, cracked windows and windows that wouldn’t open, Jaramillo said.

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An inspection report will be given to Quezada in about a week, Jaramillo said, along with a notice demanding the necessary repairs. Property owners who violate city and state housing codes can be prosecuted under criminal misdemeanor statutes, she said.

Jaramillo said Quezada has been cooperative in making repairs to the duplex.

The Fair Housing Council is a private organization that receives federal Community Development Block Grant funds from several Orange County cities, including Fullerton, and from the county to provide its landlord-tenant services.

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