California Hotel in West Oakland has a nearly 100-year history, but the iconic structure has fallen on hard times, according to those living there.
In 2014, the hotel completed a $43 million renovation and opened to low-income residents whose rents are publicly subsidized, with 135 living there today. In recent years, however, the property, operated by the Oakland-based affordable housing nonprofit East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, has become a nightmare for some residents, The Mercury News reported.
One trash collection room allegedly often overflows with garbage and human waste, becoming a natural breeding ground for rats and cockroaches. Resident Yolanda Washington took it upon herself to clean the room for months as she said management ignored issues like this.
Washington, like many others in the building, don’t have many other options for housing.
“She doesn’t have anywhere else,” her daughter Tonika Allen told the Mercury News. “If this does not pan out for her, she will end up homeless.”
Earl Fleming, an 84-year-old resident, echoed a similar sentiment.
“I don’t have any place else to go, but I wish I could move somewhere else,” he said, calling his studio apartment a “box.”
The elevators in the building are usually out of service, leaving residents — many of whom have disabilities — to climb the stairs of the six-floor hotel, residents say. Even when the main elevator is operational, some people have used it as a bathroom.
In response to questions about the building’s condition and management neglect, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation’s communications director told the publication that the nonprofit is “an anchor in developing and managing affordable housing in Oakland and the East Bay.”
The lack of on-site support for residents and long-term mismanagement of the hotel could force some people out. Management recently notified at least 40 residents that they owe rent, but many like Fleming and Washington did in fact pay their rent and had to search for paper proof to back up their claims, the Mercury News said.
The Oakland Housing Authority is in charge of the hotel’s subsidies and conducting inspections. The agency is “planning to send a team to the building ASAP to deal with tenant complaints,” a spokesperson for the Housing Authority told the Mercury News.