City leaders see substandard housing

Deirdre Newman

Guillermina Mote moved into a two-bedroom apartment on Placentia

Avenue at the beginning of the month. She wasn’t able to see it

before she moved in because another family was living there, she

said. So sight unseen, she gave an $800 security deposit on the

$1,200-a-month apartment to landlord Robert Brown.

What she saw the day she moved in floored her.

The cabinets above the stove were falling apart. The vent above

the stove was missing. The stove top was rusty.

When she tried to get her security deposit back, Brown refused,

she said.

On Friday, residents and city leaders from Costa Mesa, Anaheim,

Santa Ana and other cities got a firsthand view of Mote’s apartment

troubles on a housing tour set up by the Orange County Congregation

Community Organizations.

The goal of the tour was to motivate city leaders to be more

proactive in implementing their city’s housing vision, said Alma

Marquez, senior organizer with the community organizations.

City Councilman Mike Scheafer said he was dismayed by the state of

disrepair in Mote’s apartment and said more should be done to help

alleviate such conditions.

“I think it’s kind of indicative of what a lot of folks have to

live in,” Scheafer said. “I think we need some stepped-up code

enforcement. We need to be proactive in looking at some of the

conditions these folks have to live in.”

The community organizations is a grass-roots, faith-based

community group that comprises 15 congregations from four cities. The

tour included visits to Moto’s multifamily complex; an affordable

housing multifamily complex, also in Costa Mesa; an affordable

housing project for seniors in Orange; and an affordable housing site

in Santa Ana Heights.

The visit to Mote’s apartment was designed to show a “substandard”

complex. Brown said he had no idea the group was coming. He said he

has invested about $150,000 into the 20-unit complex since he bought

it a year ago. He has evicted a number of people living in the

complex because there were about 160 tenants when he took over. The

maximum capacity is about 85, he said. He has also been renovating

the apartments one-by-one, including installing new tiles,

countertops and stoves.

The second stop on the tour -- Costa Mesa Family Village on West

20th Street -- was designed to show a two-bedroom apartment in much

better shape.

The village, owned by Topa Management, provides apartments to

those with affordable housing vouchers. It has a bond agreement with

the city, which means it has to comply with city codes, said Paty

Madueno, the complex manager. It also has a 24-hour maintenance

service. And Madueno said she is a professionally trained manager.

After the tour, Bill Pavao, deputy director of the California

Housing and Community Development Office in Sacramento, spoke about

funding opportunities for local projects from Proposition 46, which

provides $2.1 billion for affordable housing.

“I would hope that there are folks out there that would take

advantage of [these funds] because [the Costa Mesa Family Village]

was really terrific,” Scheafer said.

The community organizations, along with St. Joachim Catholic

Church, are working on creating standards that landlords would have

to adhere to when renting out apartments to help eliminate

substandard conditions.