Tenants Fall Through Cracks in Aid Plan : Renewal: They heard they had to leave a Torrance apartment building slated for demolition. But many left without knowing they could get money to help them relocate.
These are the last days of the old El Roi Tan. Doors to some apartments are padlocked shut. Someone has kicked holes in the foyer’s plaster walls. And the shabby building that has housed scores of Torrance’s working poor is due to be torn down this fall for a $35-million downtown redevelopment project.
But many of the estimated 40 people who still live there say they have been unable to find new apartments they can afford.
“We don’t have a place to go, and we don’t have the money to put on a deposit,” said Antonio Manjarrez Munoz, 23, who shares a cramped $375-a-month, one-room apartment with his brother and a friend. “Somebody’s got to do something, fast.”
What the El Roi Tan tenants knew when the notices to vacate went out in May was that they had to move out by Aug. 1. What they did not know was that tens of thousands of dollars may have been available to help them find new homes.
A consultant hired by the city to advise tenants of their rights and help them move is not scheduled to start work until Aug. 12--nearly two weeks after the initial deadline to vacate.
Last week, the city and the developer said the Aug. 1 deadline was not firm, and that tenants would be given 90-day extensions.
But the 50-unit El Roi Tan is already four-fifths empty. No one knows how many tenants have left, and some of those may have departed with no financial help. Several remaining tenants interviewed in the past week were under the impression that they had to leave by Wednesday.
Many of the residents who remain in about 10 apartments are cooks and dishwashers in local restaurants such as McDonald’s, Sizzler and Souplantation. Most of them speak only Spanish.
At least 14 families have moved to new homes with the help of federal housing vouchers provided by the city; 11 more have qualified for vouchers.
But there is another source of money also available to displaced tenants--up to $5,250 that would be paid in a lump sum by the developer to offset the cost of being forced to move to more expensive quarters.
Torrance city officials concede that they did not fully inform El Roi Tan tenants that such funds were available to them.
The May 14 notice to vacate only advised tenants to call the city housing office for assistance in finding new homes. One legal aid attorney said such a letter was insufficient to inform tenants of all the help that is available under the law.
“It doesn’t advise somebody of their likely eligibility for some very important benefits,” said Dennis Rockway, senior counsel with the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach. “The tenants should not have the responsibility of investigating what remote benefits might be provided to them.”
That responsibility was left to Pacific Relocation Consultants Inc. of Long Beach, the firm hired by the city to advise the tenants about their rights and help them move, city officials say. The firm is not scheduled to start interviewing the remaining tenants until next month.
“Usually (the consultant) is on board right away, at an early stage. They’re supposed to assist them with relocation,” said John Huerta, staff attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty in Los Angeles. Having a consultant start work when most tenants have left, he said, is “sort of useless.”
City officials and the developer, Gascon Mar Ltd. of San Diego, say the consultant was not brought in earlier because of financing delays and uncertainty about whether the redevelopment project would go forward. The three-story building at Torrance Boulevard and El Prado Avenue is scheduled to be demolished to make way for Mediterranean-style condominiums and upscale shops.
“We had no way of knowing it would take as long as it did,” said Damon Gascon, a project manager with Gascon Mar. He said the firm did not acquire the El Roi Tan until July 3.
The developer has since deposited $47,000 into the city-administered fund created to assist displaced tenants. So far, however, only one tenant has applied, according to Michael G. Bihn, senior principal planner with the city.
Bihn acknowledged that Gascon Mar may have saved considerable money because tenants got federal vouchers instead of money from the fund. Tenants who used the vouchers to help pay rent on their new apartments may no longer qualify for the lump-sum payment from the developer, housing experts say.
Bihn said the city’s goal was to move the tenants to safe, affordable housing. “That’s what we’ve been attempting to do in the best way that we could . . . and what we had available to us in May was vouchers.”
The developer said the vouchers are “probably the best vehicle to rehouse” the El Roi Tan tenants. “Is not the goal of the whole relocation plan to find new housing?” asked Allan Mackenzie, a Gascon Mar partner.
At the El Roi Tan, some remaining tenants still are unclear about the aid available to them. Nine residents recently interviewed said they were unaware that they could receive money to help pay their moving expenses. One man noted that nearly all the paperwork he has received from the city is in English. He reads only Spanish.
Meanwhile, living conditions at the doomed El Roi Tan continue to deteriorate.
The tenants who are left fear that the fast-emptying building will attract vandals and burglars. Rats are already homing in on them, drawn to the few remaining apartments that contain people and food.
Juan Rios, 26, a minimum-wage cook who shares a tiny El Roi Tan apartment with his wife, his 6-month-old son and three other adults, has watched the rats multiply.
Rios said: “Now that we are the only ones here, all the rats come and live with us.”
Times staff writers Anthony Millican and George Hatch contributed to this story.
