L.A. to Inspect More Housing

Long before they discovered the decaying body of a woman, the handful of residents at the Orchid Hotel at 8th and Flower streets had other complaints.

With no manager on site, their concerns about leaking pipes and uncollected trash went unanswered, tenants said. So too did their complaints about the strong odor wafting from the second floor.

The new owners of the Orchid had complaints as well. Plans to refurbish the building were stalled because tenants refused to move, though owners had offered relocation money, said Michael Rahimi, of 819 S. Flower LP, owner of the Orchid.

Los Angeles Housing Department inspectors are often in the middle of standoffs like these in apartment buildings, but they had no role at the Orchid: The department did not routinely inspect residential hotels.

Today that will change. Residents of the city’s hotels, like apartment dwellers, will have their rental units regularly inspected by the Housing Department. Until today, the Department of Building and Safety inspected hotels -- and only after a complaint. Housing advocates and city officials hope the changeover will improve conditions for those living in the city’s 16,000 residential hotel units, including skid row hotels.

“It’s a small change ... which we expect will have a tremendous impact on their quality of life,” said Erik Sanjurjo, legislative deputy for Councilman Tom LaBonge, who proposed the measure.

Pete White, executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, said the change meant that long-term residents of hotels would be treated as tenants and that the units would be “looked upon as real units and inspected ... on a long-term basis.”

In a related action, the City Council on Wednesday authorized the city attorney to write an ordinance that would reduce the time it took for a resident to gain the rights and protections of a tenant. Previously under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, tenancy began when a person had been in the residence 60 days. The proposed ordinance would bring the city in line with a state law, which says a resident becomes a tenant after 30 consecutive days in place.

Though “hotel” implies temporary use, the city’s 307 residential hotels actually provide long-term housing, often for the poorest residents, who pay as much as $700 to $800 a month for their rooms.

The change in inspections will affect those residential hotels in which 50% of the units are filled by long-term occupants.

“We are cognizant of the fact that we are entering a part of the city that has had its own dynamic,” said Mercedes Marquez, general manager of the Housing Department. “We want to understand it and become a partner in it.”

The City Council has authorized the department to hire five people to handle the increased load.

The practical implications of the shift will be felt by residents as well as hotel owners.

The Building and Safety Department inspects commercial buildings, checking for whether a structure is sound and its major systems, such as plumbing, work.

Housing Department inspectors go further, checking for “habitability issues” such as smoke detectors, rats, roaches and missing window screens. Its Systematic Code Enforcement Program calls for the department to inspect residential buildings of two or more units once every three years and when there is a complaint.

Since January 2003, inspectors from the building and safety agency and the county Department of Health Services had ordered the Orchid Hotel’s owners to correct numerous problems reported by tenants, including inoperative heating, trash accumulation and roaches.

Rahimi, the owner of the hotel, did not expect to have to deal with such complaints. He planned to launch a makeover that would change the Orchid -- which is across the street from new lofts in the old Southern California Gas Co. building -- into a hotel for travelers and tourists on a budget.

“When we bought it, they did not tell us that there were some people that are living on a month-to-month basis,” he said. A citywide moratorium prevents evictions when a building is being rehabilitated. Some moved. Others stayed.

With no manager on site, lobby doors remained locked, making it difficult for letter carriers to deliver mail.

“I was in Vietnam in the bush, and we still got our mail,” said long-term tenant Robert Brown.

In March, tenants thought uncollected trash was the source of a strange smell in the Orchid. Brown began to suspect another cause and called 911. The victim was a 51-year-old woman who had died in her room of a heart attack, said Mario Sainz of the county coroner’s office.

In April, a Housing Department inspector visited the building after a complaint was made about a problem with water. By then that problem had been resolved. The building was not under the jurisdiction of the department, so no other problems were addressed.

Since then, however, conditions have improved at the hotel, some tenants said.

Some have reached an agreement with the owner. Rahimi has paid relocation assistance; Brown and Alexander are scheduled to move soon.

Rahimi would gladly pay the $5,000 to others, he said, if only they would move.