Sacramento renters lived with broken A/C in heat wave. Will county crack down on landlord?
Lourdes Diaz Gomez and her two young grandchildren have been baking in their south Sacramento apartment.
They lived with a broken air conditioner in an apartment managed by Stanford Properties for over three months, including last week’s record-breaking heat wave.
That isn’t the only problem at Hampton Park Apartments, according to tenant activists with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.
The group held a press conference last week where tenants and activists said dozens of families at the Franklin Boulevard apartment complex are dealing with serious issues, such as cockroaches, mold, doors without locks, and sinking floors.
In addition to Gomez, at least five other families told the tenant activist group they were without air conditioning.
“Even when I do turn on my A/C, water comes down and leaks into my apartment,” said one woman who lives in the complex with her young child during a press conference Thursday. The woman spoke in Spanish and declined to share her name due to fear of harassment by the landlord. “Three years ago, I reported the floor on my apartment is breaking and it’s falling, and could fall apart at any minute. It’s been three years and they still haven’t come to fix it.”
San-Jose based Stanford Properties did not return requests seeking comment after the press conference.
It was the renter group’s third press conference in Sacramento this summer, part of a statewide increase in tenant activism. Some tenants, like those at Hampton Park, say their landlord will not fix health and safety issues, while others say they are being illegally threatened with eviction or dealing with big rent hikes.
Sacramento supervisor visits apartments
The renters at Hampton Park are getting some help from Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, who represents the south Sacramento neighborhood where the complex is located. After the tenants reached out to him, the county’s code enforcement division in late August sent a letter to Stanford Properties ordering them to fix the list of alleged violations.
But the county will not be able to inspect the units until Sept. 29, because the county is required to give the owner 30 days from the date of the letter, Kennedy said.
When Kennedy last week visited Gomez’s apartment, he said he observed a floor that was caving in, inoperable showers, a broken staircase railing, and not a single smoke or carbon monoxide detector. Despite the conditions, Gomez is paying $1,500 a month in rent, Kennedy said.
“I was completely appalled at the conditions,” Kennedy said. “It’s really a case of classic slumlord.”
Kennedy contacted the landlord. He said he spoke with a representative from Stanford Properties who said there were no problems at the complex.
“I informed them if they were not going to cooperate, the county was going to come down on them hard and heavy,” Kennedy said. “We will take every legal remedy we have available.”
Potential code violations
If the county code inspectors find violations, the county could charge Stanford Properties up to $22,000 in fines, county spokeswoman Kim Nava said. The amount will depend on the severity of the violations and how many units are affected.
Most of the tenants of the complex are especially vulnerable because they do not speak English and have young children, said Jovana Fajardo of the renter advocacy group.
“They take advantage of people that are vulnerable,” Kennedy said. “When I see cases like this, it makes my blood boil.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2022 at 5:25 AM.
