NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (KGTV) — Residents in National City voiced their concerns over last week's storm and flooding during the city council meeting on Monday.
Councilmember Jose Rodriguez joined residents of Highland View Apartments who were threatened with being evicted due to the flooding.
“Within 20 minutes, I kid you not, the water was already up to here. Hip high,” Highland View Apartment resident Jocelyn Lopez said.
Another Highland View Apartment resident, Celeste De La Cruz, said she received her eviction notice from her complex. he letter from the complex said she had 10 days before eviction.
“It’s traumatizing, depressing, stressful; I think I’m going to have to live downstairs with the homeless people now,” De La Cruz said.
A neighbor at the Highland View Apartment complex showed us a copy of their letter with a copy of a notice from the City of National City.
Rodriguez told ABC 10News he knows 24 people in the complex who received the letter.
It was dated last Friday, Jan. 26. It stated the City inspected the building and issued a notice and order to vacate and repair or demolish the property due to flood damage.
The letter adds that it could take several months to do repairs, the complex cannot provide housing, and people need to look for long-term alternatives.
The complex’s letter included hotel accommodations for residents covered until the end of the month – which it added it covered nights for those impacted by the initial flooding – and it included that rent would be credited from the day of the storm until the end of the month.
The letter also adds, per the City’s notice, which includes requirements per code from the state, that they’d get two months' rent along with their security deposit within 10 days.
ABC 10News contacted the property manager of the Highland View Apartment Complex regarding the letter sent to residents. We haven’t heard back from them at this time.
Nonetheless, it’s still a shocking situation after losing seemingly everything.
“We were like, how can this be? You know we don’t have nowhere to go. Our hotel’s going to be up on the first. So it’s like where are we going to go?” De La Cruz said.
Rodriguez told ABC 10News, when asked to provide clarity regarding the Highland View Apartment Complex letter with an attached City notice, that it is a standard notice for uninhabitable buildings in the City.
He mentioned the letter is causing a stir among some people.
“The rumor from the apartment was what they were mentioning to the residents was that the City was indeed making sure people were evicted, which was frustrating, to say the least,” Rodriguez said.
When it comes to the City notice itself, he says it’s one thing to evict someone but another for the city to ask a landlord to make the building habitable again.
“We are willing to do everything possible to help them through that process," Rodriguez said. "But that does not mean that folks would be permanently evicted from the places that they live in. It may be a three- or four-week fix while their apartments are renovated quickly...”
For De La Cruz, more answers as to what’s next is what they want.
“We’re in the air right now. We don’t know. We’re stuck. We don’t know if we’re going to be homeless. We don’t know if we’re going to have somewhere to live,” De La Cruz said.
On Monday, after a press conference of those calling for action, the City declared a state of emergency following the storm’s fallout.
Rodriguez asked the mayor of National City if an eviction moratorium is something that can be discussed at next week’s city council meeting which it can.
“We need to pass some kind of eviction moratorium for those families that have been impacted by this. Along with that, we need to make sure that we give them a chance to get back on their feet so their rents do not increase during this time,” Rodriguez said.
