Tenants at Home of Broken Balcony and Burnt Walls Offered Measly $200 for One Day Relocation

Tenants at 484 37th Street in Oakland are demanding repairs and relocation payments after the landlord’s contractor started a fire at their apartment building, leaving broken balconies, water-soaked carpeting, holes in walls, and smoke and soot damage, according to the tenant union, Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC).  

The contractor was at the building working on balcony dry rot. Tenants say the contractor’s use of power tools started the fire. Four of the 25 units are seriously affected, including one parent with a newborn baby. While tenants push the landlord to pay for tenants to relocate while repairs are made, the landlord has offered tenants a paltry one-time $200 payment.

“I don’t want to wake up to fire in my building, and I don’t want a fire along with all of the damage that comes with it to be minimized,” said Corinitas Reyes, a tenant at the building. “Fire and water damage does not magically disappear overnight. and there needs to be accountability: This was not an accident, it was negligence.” 

On Wednesday, May 20th, tenants organized an impromptu press conference outside their building, and gave a tour of the damage. The affected apartments smelled of smoke, and the windows were covered in plastic sheeting due to the construction. The carpet of the downstairs unit was damp from the fire department putting out the fire. Current reached out to the property manager at Beacon Properties for comment, but did not receive a response.

 “The fire was basically like a chimney; the stucco was burning so it smelled like plastic,” said Ana, another tenant at the building. 

“There's still so much smoke odor as you enter my bedroom. That’s what I had to sleep in last night. With no way for that smoke to go anywhere because we can’t even open our windows,” said Hitesh, another tenant. “And they’re still trying to tell us that it is totally fine to stay.”

Before the fire, tenants were already organizing, with most of the units on board to officially form a tenants association. Tenants say they faced a pattern of bad communication and lack of repairs. The fire has only galvanized things further. Now, tenants have gotten a majority to sign on to form the tenant association.  

“Many times landlords try to cut corners and pay as little as possible for repairs, and a lot of the times this negligence affects tenants safety even as we pay higher and higher rents,” said Zolsia Bujak, a TANC member. “Tenants deserve dignity, safety and real repairs, but we won’t get that until we collectively organize.” 

While waiting to hear the landlord’s response to their demands, tenants at 484 37th Street have called the City of Oakland asking for an inspector to come view the damage. As it stands, the tenants do not appear ready to back down.