Tenants sue non-profit over infestations

Tenants sue non-profit over infestations
Historic landmark hotel overun with rats and bed bugs

By Lynda Carson August 5, 2005

Oakland - Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite, has been an old saying, as far as saying's go, but some Oakland tenants have learned that this is more than just an old fable or mere folklore that has been passed down through the years.

"I've heard the old saying about bed bugs since I was a child, but I never knew they were real until moving here," said 47 year old Frank Benavidez. "The bed bugs are drinking my blood and eating me alive."

On Tuesday August 2 2005, 43 residential tenants of the historic landmark California Hotel in Oakland, filed a lawsuit at the Alameda County Superior Court House against Oakland Community Housing Inc, (OCHI), a non-profit housing developer.

Mostly occupied by elderly disabled African-Americans, each of the 43 tenants listed in the lawsuit are seeking $50,000 in damages over rat infestations, bed bugs, cock roaches and other health and safety issues.

Backing the horrific claims of the tenants is a July 22 2005, letter from the Alameda County Health Services (vector control), stating that the procedures being utilized by OCHI to control the bed bugs are inadequate. In addition, Vector Biologist David K. James writes, "A severe Norway rat infestation exists within these premises, and it appears that it's a long established and large population."

Frank Benavidez says, "I can hear the rats scratching around in my ceiling at night and the noise keeps me from sleeping."

Built in 1929 and presently valued at $4,853,722 , OCHI bought the historic 150 unit California Hotel in 1990 for as little as $1,910,000.

The tenants reside in Single Room Occupancy units (SROs), and pay their rent by the month. "We are charged either $395.00 for a basic room per month or as much as $466.00 a month for kitchenettes without a sink," said 3 year tenant Lisa Glorias, "but they charge us an extra $7.50 a night if we have a guest stay over."

The filed complaint/lawsuit also details such problems as inadequate and defective electrical systems and outlets, plus exposed wiring, defective plumbing, infestation of vermin, roaches and insects, in addition to other dangerous uninhabitable conditions.

"I believe that OCHI and this property is being run by slumlords, and they are sucking the system dry," said tenant activist Linda Stephens, who started the tenant rebellion at the property after contacting local attorney John Murcko for assistance.

"These guys are really raking in the dough from plenty of HUD funding, because tenants normally pay $395.00 a month, but when they move in tenants from the Shelter Plus Program which is subsidized by local housing authorities using HUD funding, OCHI then charges $795.00 a month for the same unit," said Stephens.

According to the Lead Desk Clerk of the California Hotel, Rashid Mohammed states that they are currently accepting applications and are presently asking $622.00 per month for some units and $645.00 a month for larger units.

Eleanor Piez, Director of Community Relations for OCHI said, "We know there are some serious problems with rats and bed bugs, and we have faced some difficult repairs lately while installing a new sprinkler system."

"If the tenants had communicated closer with management about these problems instead of going to the courts or the media, our problems would not be as severe as they currently are. Now it's totally adversarial and very tense," said Piez. "We have 120 tenants and 150 units, and believe that the infestations became worse due to moving the tenants around to different rooms while the repairs have been going on lately."

Indeed, bed bugs have made a big comeback in recent years and are increasingly found in shelters, apartments and hotels. Bed bugs are active at night while sucking the blood of sleeping humans and they like to hide during the daylight hours close to where people usually sleep at night. Once they pierce the skin of their victim with an elongated beak through which they can suck the blood of their prey, they feed for around 3 to 10 minutes until full.

Repeated efforts to reach Dwight Dickerson, Executive Director of OCHI, have not been successful, but records show that while his tenants at the California Hotel have been plagued by rats and bed bugs, Dickerson himself is raking in well over $80,000 a year from his salery, plus extras.

Records show that from 1999 through 2002, OCHI received $745,642 in gifts, grants and contributions.

With nearly 1,000 rental units under their control, records also show that from 2002 through 2003, OCHI has profited by as much as $2,203,920 for services performed, merchandise, gifts and other related activities of the non-profit housing organization.

"I first became aware of the problems at the California Hotel on July 15 2005," said local attorney John Murcko. "Linda Stephens was the first to come in to tell me about the horrible conditions. It's a terrible situation with fleas, rats, bed bugs, and bad odors coming from the vents and the floors. It's the worst infestation I have seen in the last 20 years as an attorney. OCHI received a notice last November from vector control and nothing was done," said Murcko.

"A few months back, we had a deadman here for 12 days in his room before the body was discovered, and the smell of dead rats in the walls were so strong that we could not make the distinction between the deadman's body and the dead rats in the walls," said Linda Stephens.

"Now they are spreading lime around the building to kill the stench of all the dead rats in the walls. This is a national historic building with Black Heritage, and it really angers me to see how OCHI has exploited and sucked up every last dime they can get out of this building," said Stephens.

"Many of us residing here are the working class poor, " said Stephens, "but efforts by Dwight Dickerson and the management staff of OCHI are trying to paint most of us as being mentally challenged, in an effort to divert attention away from the slumlike conditions that they have had us residing in."

Oakland Community Housing Inc, (OCHI), an Oakland non-profit housing developer was formed in 1973 and records show that it has 9 board members, between 21 to 100 full-time employees at any given time, with 11 to 20 part-time employees, and around 6 to 10 volunteers.

The OCHI website claims they have developed over 1,000 units of affordable housing since the organization first began, and that they manage over 900 units for themselves and other non-profits.

Lynda Carson may be reached at; tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com