Survivors of Collapsed Apartments Denounce Landlord

Survivors of the collapsed Northridge apartments that killed 16 people met with a city building official Saturday--and denounced the owner of their building, saying that he has added insult to injury by preventing the salvage of their remaining possessions.

In a chaotic and emotional meeting at a local church, survivors of the Northridge Meadows collapse--the deadliest single incident of Monday’s 6.6 temblor--demanded to know when their former landlord would arrange the outside inspection of the wreckage needed before they can search for their goods.

Many of the survivors said they are living in local shelters without money, identification, a car or even a change of clothes, and expressed outrage that even five days after the quake they are not allowed to sift for belongings.

“If they don’t let us in within the next two days, I’m telling you, we’re going to bust in there,” said Erik Pearson, 27, who lived on the third floor. “We’ve been going out of our minds.”

“I’m trying to be logical about this, but I’m losing my patience,” said Josephine Winans, who was rescued from Apartment 128 by other residents after the roof collapsed. “I have nothing, and I at least need to take a picture of my apartment to show that I was under the rubble for insurance purposes.”

Cary Erdman, who lived in Apartment 112, was upset that several people managed to gain access and retrieve possessions, while he and others who had obeyed the law were still without their things.

“It just hasn’t been fair, and no one really understands what is going on,” he said. “There is a lot of confusion about when people are going to be let in.”

A spokesman for owner Shashikant Jogani, one of Los Angeles’ biggest residential landlords, said an engineer is expected to examine the building sometime next week.

“We have to wait,” said Bill Banker, a Jogani spokesman. “Who could live with that on their conscience if more people died?”

Nevertheless, some survivors were near panic, begging to be allowed inside and fearful that the building would be razed before they could go on salvage missions.

No one will be allowed to enter the condemned building until it is inspected by outside engineers, according to officials from the city’s Department of Building and Safety.

Art Johnson, a building official, said the city has condemned the apartment, prohibiting entry, until the owner decides what to do with the structure.

“It’s the responsibility of the owner, at that point, to determine . . . whether he thinks the building is stable enough for people to go in, or whether he thinks the structure needs to be raised,” Johnson said.

Using a crane, Building and Safety workers retrieved some survivors’ cars from the top floor of the apartment complex’s parking garage Saturday, but most residents were less than satisfied with that development.

Like other survivors, Pearson was furious at his landlord.

“Firefighters told me that that building was not retrofitted, and that it was built after the ’71 quake,” Pearson said. “Look at the disaster and great loss of life in this building compared to the other buildings around here. There’s a reason. I think there are a lot of smoke screens going on.”

Warren O’Brien of the city’s Department of Building and Safety said he had spoken with Jogani personally.

“He had a complete misunderstanding of the problem and how to relieve it,” O’Brien said, adding that Jogani seemed traumatized by what had happened to his building, and did not realize it had to be inspected.

Jogani could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Last month, he was one of the defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by the NAACP and two civil rights law firms accusing several San Fernando Valley apartment owners with discriminating against African Americans.