Apartment Collapse Suggests New Standards
On Good Friday in 1986, parishioners of St. Vincent Church took part in a prayer vigil in front of an apartment building at 2141 Estrella Ave. in South-Central Los Angeles.
The conditions in this apartment were deplorable: broken toilets, no hot water, leaky roof, rodent and cockroach infestation. Residents had met with the manager about complaints and had only received empty promises about repairs.
The tenants, united in their concerns, came to St. Vincent and asked for our support. We planned a march and prayer vigil after the Good Friday services to express concerns about the conditions of the building and urge the manager to make these critical repairs.
There were no repairs made. The building continued to deteriorate.
In 1986, there was no systematic code inspection and enforcement for slum buildings. Today there is. Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, founded in 1989, was able to purchase four slum buildings on Estrella Avenue in 1998. The rebuilding of the housing stock, block by block, is one of the components of the ECHC housing strategy being implemented in this neighborhood.
The good news is that ECHC held its grand opening of the 2141 Estrella building on Saturday. Twelve families from the surrounding neighborhood will move into two- and three-bedroom renovated units.
The sad news is that the day before, Dec. 8, a 24-unit Echo Park apartment building collapsed, killing one man and injuring 36 people. The building, constructed in 1924, was cited for a damaged foundation in 1998.
Last March, the city Housing Crisis Task Force strongly recommended mandatory certification for resident managers. State law requires that rental properties with 16 or more units must have a resident manager on site, but there is no requirement for the manager to be certified in rental and fair housing laws.
There is also great difficulty in determining the legally responsible owner of a slum building. Arizona and Kansas City, Kan. have passed landlord registration laws or ordinances requiring that owners of apartment buildings must file registration statements with local authorities to identify themselves.
There is a crisis in the availability of affordable housing for low-income workers in Los Angeles. The lack of specific standards of accountability for periodic inspections and code enforcement results in noncompliance.
There are actions that can be taken to prevent tragedies such as the one in Echo Park from happening in the future. Mandatory certification for resident managers and local registration of owners of apartment buildings is a first step for the city to take now.
