Landlord Must Join the Cockroaches

A San Jose landlord has been sentenced to walk a mile in her tenants’ shoes. Linda Arciaga has been sentenced to live for two months in one of her own rundown apartments.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William F. Martin ordered Arciaga to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet to make sure she stays there. It is the first time such an unusual punishment has been given in San Jose.

Arciaga drew the sentence for violating an injunction that requires absentee landlords in the city’s Santee neighborhood to maintain safe and clean properties.

Arciaga owns two four-plex apartment buildings and says she has not been given enough time to fix them. The apartment that will be her home, starting on Nov. 1, rents for $1,100 a month. It has a number of problems, including a broken oven and only one working stove burner, a shorted electrical socket and a horde of resident cockroaches.