Housing conditions/habitability

Help may be on the way for the 80 poor people being evicted from a downtown apartment building Modesto is condemning.

Social service agencies will meet this week with the tenants, and a Bay Area attorney says he expects to sue the landlord on behalf of the tenants. Modesto has declared the two-story building of 27 studio apartments unfit and unsafe for occupancy.

Tenants who rent homes from one of America’s largest corporate landlords are asking the company to stop increasing their rent and address what they say is endemic neglect of the properties.

Two apartment buildings condemned by the city of Merced left 32 people on the street this week, according to advocates.

The 12 units were condemned on June 22 because the “complex is deemed substandard and poses an immediate threat to the health and safety of the occupants,” according to notices placed on the unit doors.

In the displaced group were children, seniors and adults, including two pregnant women, advocates said.

Toxic mold, homes without heat, and rodent infestations are just a sample of the health and safety hazards reported by Oakland tenants last year.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reviewed all 2,019 habitability complaints filed in 2016 and found half involved health and safety violations confirmed by code enforcement officers. Despite city rules requiring landlords to fix those issues in 30 days or less, our investigation found many landlords left tenants in slum-like conditions for months.

To Yountville leaders trying to learn how much local housing is dirty or dilapidated – or being used as illegal tourist getaways – compiling a list of all the town’s rentals has seemed a logical step.

But a proposal to require landlords to register their units with the town has stirred pushback from property owners fearing another part of the plan – mandatory inspections of all units, whether owned by scofflaws or those sticking to the law.