Tenants Protest Blighted Conditions in Apartments

Tenants living in a Pacoima apartment complex infested with rats and roaches and equipped with leaky sinks and toilets angrily protested their living conditions Tuesday, demanding immediate repairs and a new building manager.

About 100 residents gathered on the sidewalk in front of the dilapidated, 60-unit Loma Vista Apartments to complain that they are being forced to pay exorbitant rent to live in the squalor. State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) addressed the rally, which was organized by residents and ACORN, an advocacy group for tenants.

Carrying signs that read, “Danger: Rats and Roaches,” “No More Evictions” and “Repairs to Apartments Now,” residents demanded smaller rent increases and immediate repairs at the complex in the 12500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard.

They also urged passage of five proposed state housing bills and a state constitutional amendment that would strengthen building code enforcement, prohibit tenant harassment by landlords, add regulations on security deposits and fund construction of quality affordable housing.

An overflowing sink in an upstairs apartment damaged Emma Rios’ bathroom ceiling and floor in her first-floor unit. She is concerned that the sodden drywall and plywood could aggravate the health of her 3-year-old son, Alejandro, who has asthma.

“I asked them to fix the ceiling and the floor 18 days ago, but they still haven’t fixed it,” she said, looking at the bare floor and stained ceiling. She said she is particularly angry that the building owner intends to raise her monthly rent from $658 to $825 on June 1.

Rosa Gonzalez said her two-bedroom unit is overrun with cockroaches and ants that come through broken bathroom floorboards. “They tell me that they are going to spray, but they haven’t,” she said. “Then they told me to buy the spray.”

Alarcon said that Tuesday’s rally served to put all negligent property owners on notice that tenants would not tolerate substandard living conditions because of a shortage in available housing.

“This event today is larger than the problems in Pacoima,” he said. “It’s about a crisis, a shortage of housing in California. What we are featuring is a situation created where there is a shortage and a landlord is taking advantage of it.”

Public records list 12544 Loma Vista Apartments of Santa Monica as the property owner and Marc S. Barmazel as the company’s registered agent, trustee and senior vice president. Neither Barmazel nor Angie Diaz, the apartment manager, could be reached for comment Tuesday.

As the demonstrators raised their concerns, a few workers painted apartments, repaired air vents to keep vermin out and patched stucco walls. Residents said the workers showed up after word spread about the rally.

Even so, Patrocina Contreras waited for workers to get to her second-floor apartment to repair torn carpeting, damaged electrical outlets and a hole in a terrace door where rats, cockroaches and a bird entered the unit.

“Many times I have asked them to come,” she said, “but no one comes.”