Torrance Retirement Home Residents Gain a Reprieve : Housing: The Planning Commission had voted to revoke the facility’s operating permit because of code violations, but postpones implementing its decision for six months.
The 27 residents of a Torrance retirement home are held captive by uncertainty.
They do not know where they will live six months from now. In coming months, the Engracia Avenue residence they now call home may be sold or demolished.
This week the threat of an immediate closure faded. The city Planning Commission voted to revoke the operating permit of the Torrance Retirement Residence because of building code violations but postponed the revocation for six months to allow the owners to do the repairs required.
City officials have long complained about fire and plumbing violations at the 1920s Spanish-style building. They also said some rooms lack the required bathrooms and showers.
But the owners cannot afford to pay for the long list of repairs, said Peter H. Yu, administrator. Meanwhile, a health-care corporation is considering buying the former hospital building, located near the city’s Old Downtown. The uncertainty goes on.
Gertrude Wark, 89, said she cannot imagine where else she could go. She pays $450 a month for room and board, and her monthly income is $724, she said.
“Every one of us is concerned. Would you blame us?” Wark said. “I hope they don’t throw us out, put us out. . . . I want to stay here. I love it here.”
Another resident, Rose Rangey, 75, pays $700 a month. If the building is sold, she fears residents would be forced to leave. And in the South Bay, she said, low-cost housing for senior citizens is scarce.
“Why don’t they build more places for people like us?” she lamented. “They don’t have places like it in Torrance.”
The Torrance Retirement Residence offers low-income senior citizen housing, Yu said. The average room rent is $595 a month, including three meals a day, he added. The building, the former Torrance Memorial Hospital, was built in 1925. Vera and Victor Zimmerhakl bought it in 1976 and turned it into a retirement home.
Over the years the Zimmerhakls have sparred with city officials over conditions at the home. City records reviewed by the Planning Commission, dating to 1978, include repeated city complaints.
The city’s building and safety staff recommended June 12 that the residence’s operating permit be revoked.
Monte McElroy, environmental quality administrator, said efforts to enforce the codes at the Torrance Retirement Residence have been stymied.
“We can’t cure something and keep it cured. We can’t even get the building codes complied with,” McElroy said. She added that she supports the concept of housing senior citizens-- “but . . . I want those people to be safe.”
The Planning Commission on Wednesday night voted 5 to 2 to revoke the permit in six months unless the building is sold or repaired to meet permit requirements--or city officials change those requirements.
Yu said he is relieved by the delay. But he said the Zimmerhakls still need two things: to obtain a low-interest loan to finance renovations and to persuade the city to soften its standards. Specifically, he wants the city to allow the rental of rooms without showers. Adding showers could be prohibitively expensive, he said.
“If the city doesn’t back down on the current (operating) permit, we’re just as dead as we were,” Yu said. He told the commission the residence was losing $12,000 a month.
Vera Zimmerhakl, 77, told commissioners that she and her husband have had problems keeping the building filled. “We’ve not been able to make a success of it, because we’ve not been able to fill the building,” she said.
The Zimmerhakls are seeking a buyer for the 22,849-square-foot building, with a listed sale price of $3 million. One potential buyer is Country Villa Service Corp. of Culver City, which owns and manages 16 nursing-care homes and other facilities in the Los Angeles area.
The project still needs financing, and renovation alone could cost $4 million to $6 million, said Phil Chase, vice president for corporate development for Country Villa.
Monthly rates for residential homes in the South Bay range from $800 to $1,000, Chase said. Asked if current residents could stay, Chase said: “As long as they’re long-term residents, we’ll make every effort to accommodate them.”
Several developers have expressed interest in demolishing the building to make way for condominiums, said Leona Hopps of Prudential California Realty, which represents the Zimmerhakls.
Just minutes after the Wednesday vote, resident Wark was already counting the months until the next deadline.
“It’s six months we can stay, anyway,” she said.
