South L.A. complex's residents say they haven't had hot water in months

July 16, 2024 3 AM PT

Daviell McKinley and her neighbors say they have not had hot water in months at their building in South L.A.

There is mold in the bathrooms and bedrooms. Rats freely roam in the shared kitchen, which is dotted with droppings. Cockroaches have settled in holes in the kitchen table.

Most residents of the more than 30 units at 5700 S. Hoover St. use shared facilities. There are only two working communal bathrooms for residents, one of which does not have an operable light, and only two communal showers.

Months ago, with conditions deteriorating, McKinley began searching the internet. She reached out to city officials, filed complaints and sought advice.

As she searched the building’s address, she was startled to learn that this isn’t the first time that residents here have faced slum-like conditions.

Peeling drywall in a bathroom at a squalid apartment building in South Los Angeles.

1. Peeling drywall in a bathroom. 2. A hole made in a kitchen cabinet. 3. A clogged sink in a community bathroom. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Ten years ago, the city vacated tenants from the building amid similar complaints that it had become squalid and dangerous. At the time, residents said officials should have acted sooner to get them out.

Now, residents say, it’s happening all over again.

“I don’t know who to call for help,” McKinley said. “I’ve tried the health department. The mayor’s office. ... There’s got to be somebody that knows that this building should never have been reopened. How is it that it was reopened and people were allowed to establish residency here?”

City officials said they are aware of the situation and have been working to find a solution with the property owner, 5700 Hoover Partners, an entity affiliated with Soul Housing, which provides temporary housing for homeless residents in L.A. County.

Eric Schames, chief operating officer of Soul Housing, said the company is committed to relocating residents after purchasing the property from its previous owner in a bankruptcy sale, unaware that there were dozens of people living inside. He said he knows the building is in bad shape. The hot water has been working intermittently over the last few months and has been on since last week, when a plumber made some repairs, he said.

“It’s broken a few times, and we brought back plumbers,” he said. (Residents said Monday that the hot water was still not working.)

In a statement, City Councilmember Curren Price said his office has reported numerous violations to the Los Angeles Housing Department and the Department of Building and Safety.

“My office has strongly urged the property owner to immediately rectify this situation and pay the relocation fees assessed by the Housing Department. We have made it abundantly clear that if they fail to fulfill these obligations, the city will have no choice but to take appropriate action, which would result in placing a lien on the property,” Price said in a statement.

After that initial response to questions from The Times about the property and its condition, Price’s office sent a follow-up statement Friday saying that it had negotiated a settlement with the property owner to provide tenants with relocation fees totaling about $500,000 so they can permanently leave the building.

Sharon Sandow, a spokesperson for the Housing Department, said the agency had no records of referrals or complaints about a lack of hot water at the property.

One woman holds a bucket and another holds a pot in a room.

Sandow said the Department of Building and Safety could answer questions from The Times about other issues, but officials there did not respond.

“LAHD last had contact with the owner February 2024 and advised the owner of basic information regarding relocation assistance which may be available to the tenants,” Sandow said in a statement.

The dark brown building, which looks like an aging office complex with a small courtyard in the center, was once a hospital. Later, it was converted to offices before eventually being turned to residential use.

In October 2013, city officials declared it “substandard” and said it was being illegally occupied. They ordered the owner to stop using it for residential purposes, The Times reported. But it wasn’t until March of the following year that the Fire Department ordered the building vacated. City officials at the time said the delay was because of due process procedures, according to the Times report.

In 2015, the building was issued a certificate of occupancy that changed its use from offices to a “philanthropic institution” and allowed up to 17 bedrooms, according to online building and safety records.

In July 2018, a city inspector again declared the building substandard “due to illegal occupancy as residential,” according to records. Soon after, it was found to be in compliance. In 2021 and 2022, the city received six complaints saying that the building had again been converted to a use beyond its permit.

Then in March, inspectors yet again found the building “substandard,” this time due to hazardous plumbing and a lack of “hot/cold running water,” according to records. Inspectors also found missing or disabled carbon monoxide alarms, unpermitted work and “unapproved occupancy” because the building had 33 bedrooms rather than 17.

A woman raises her hand to point to something in a hallway.

Residents say the building had been declining for some time and got worse in recent months. Online property records show that the building was purchased in 2019 by Megna Real Estate Investments Inc., which sold it in November to 5700 Hoover Partners.

Schames said the company bought the building believing there were nine squatters living inside.

“We got there and there were over 50 people,” he said. As a housing provider, “the last thing we want to do is displace them.”

After fixing the building, he plans to use it for patients who get discharged from hospitals and don’t have a place to go.

“The intent was always to do a major renovation,” he said.

Last week, he said, the company learned about the Housing Department’s determination that 41 people should be paid relocation fees — about $13,000 for individuals and nearly $25,000 for families. Within hours, the company agreed to do so, he said.

“To this day, we don’t have a single piece of documentation that anyone there is entitled to be there, but we’re taking the word of the Housing Department,” he said. “Our goal and our mission has always been to house those that need housing.”

Several residents told The Times that they have lived in the building for years. Some shared photos of the building dating back years. Others shared documents, including a lease from 2019 and a rent relief application from the pandemic.

On a recent afternoon, Tarhjia Easterly, 54, who lives in one room with her daughter and 4-year-old grandson, was boiling water for the boy’s bath. Easterly, a former caterer who has not been able to work due to epilepsy, has set up a makeshift kitchen outside their room, with a portable electric cooktop on a plastic table, because the shared kitchen is so unsanitary, she said.

The building is no place for anyone, let alone a child, she said. Yet several children besides her grandson live there.

McKinley, who works as a security guard, said she moved into the building in 2021, when she was desperate for a roof over her head. She had fled domestic violence and was homeless. She paid $650 a month for her room. Since then, she has watched in despair as conditions went from bad to worse.

Residents haven’t paid rent since the new owner arrived, and they haven’t been asked to, McKinley said. They previously paid several hundred dollars to nearly $1,000 a month, depending on the amenities — a small number of rooms have bathrooms, and some have showers.

On Monday, McKinley said she had not heard from city officials about the $500,000 settlement with the owner. She questioned whether the amount would be enough.

“To leave and start over to get an apartment with the cost of living here in Los Angeles?” she said. “It’s not going to get you in a place.”