Tenants Living in Condemned Building Evicted : Housing: A Pasadena man is suspected of posing as a landlord and bootlegging electricity to collect rent from low-income residents.
A Pasadena man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly posing as the landlord of a condemned Pasadena apartment building and illegally recruiting low-income tenants to live there, but prosecutors said Wednesday they do not have enough evidence to file charges against him.
City officials say Anthony Banks, 32, bootlegged electricity and water services from city systems to supply the two-story building, then collected several hundred dollars a month in rent from each of about 15 families, some of whom said they had been living there as long as six months.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Barbara Murphy said charges were not filed against Banks on Wednesday because police presented no evidence that he knew the building was not approved for occupancy. Police said their investigation will continue.
No matter the legal outcome, the approximately 35 people living in the building--mostly women and children--no longer have a home.
They were put up by the city in a motel on Tuesday and Wednesday as officials scrambled to find them permanent housing.
On Wednesday the displaced tenants returned to the building to pack up their belongings.
“We’re all out on the street with our babies,” said Penny Gibson, who said she and her three children--ages 5, 3, and 2--lived in the building for 3 1/2 months.
The 27-unit complex in the 800 block of North Orange Grove Boulevard was declared unfit for occupancy in November, 1991. At the time, city officials ordered the premises vacated, said Patsy Lane, director of Pasadena’s Human Services Department.
Lane said the bootlegged electrical system discovered in the building was unsafe and posed a “major fire hazard.”
Lane said Banks used to work for the building’s former owner. About a year and a half ago, the former owner, Ray Jones, defaulted on his mortgage and Broadway Federal Savings and Loan foreclosed, she said.
Phil Tweedy, a property manager working with Broadway Federal, said that until last month, the lending institution had allowed Jones to continue to run the property and “had no contact” with the matter.
Jones declined to comment and Banks could not be reached.
Most of the tenants said they learned of the inexpensive apartment complex from friends who lived there.
Marshell Mitchell, 27, who was living with friends in an apartment in the building, said Banks told her he was the owner. She said he promised her a month of free rent if she gave him $400 for repairs on a run-down unit that had no sink or bathtub. Mitchell said she gave Banks the money, expecting to move in on Oct. 1, but no work was ever done on the apartment.
“It sounded too good to be true,” she said.
Lane said she and other city officials will try to determine who is accountable for the scam and help tenants recover their money.
“Where (is) these people’s money? How do we get it back for them?” Lane asked.
