Despite signing a 2014 lease making him responsible for most building maintenance, a West Oakland transitional housing provider withheld rent last fall while demanding that the owner help pay for necessary repairs. Nearly six months later, a fire gutted the building, killing four and displacing dozens of residents.
Pastor Jasper Lowery of Urojas Community Services sent a letter to landlord Keith Kim on September 19 saying he wouldn't pay rent at 2551 San Pablo Ave. until infrastructure repairs were addressed, including broken windows, doors, bathroom showers and tubs, toilets, unusable kitchens and community rooms.
By then, he had paid $360,000 in rent over 36 months plus $21,600 in repairs, according to documents provided by Lowery’s attorney, James Cook.
"We are asking for your assistance to absorb some of the cost of running this facility. We are also asking for access to the 3rd floor so we can expand our services to the wider community we serve. This moratorium will allow us to repair, bring up to code and expand our ability to pay our negotiated monthly rate," Lowery wrote in the letter.
Tenants were told in December that the building was under new management by Dignity Housing West, Inc. and that residents would need to sign new agreements. There were allegations of threats and abuse of tenants by people delivering the notices, and at about the same time, the county cut off subsidies Lowery received to operate the housing.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the county paid Lowery thousands of dollars as he was facing eviction in March with the condition that he leave by April 1. But Cook said there was never any contingency for Lowery to leave and that any monies received were back payments of county subsidies that had been cut off.
Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney sent an email on March 14 to Kim, Lowery and Aisha Brown from Supervisor Keith Carson’s office saying that the county had agreed to restore payments to Lowery and that Lowery had agreed to leave, taking some of his clients that he could house elsewhere.
McElhaney said she would then use the building as part of the city’s housing provider network, relocating people from a nearby homeless encampment there.
Lowery shot an email back hours later, saying he hadn’t agreed to any such arrangement. He was given a 30-day notice to vacate on March 17.
Dignity Housing had been the master tenant in the building since 2012 and reached an understanding with Lowery to operate transitional housing. Lowery signed a lease in September 2014 for the first two floors of the building that specified he was responsible for maintaining everything except for the roof or exterior walls, including windows, doors, skylights, sidewalks, the building’s front and the interior walls.
Lowery’s rent started at only $8,000 per month in November 2014, but costs went up over the next 10 months. He received a $2,000 per month discount in May, June and July 2015.
The third floor continued to be leased by Dignity Housing West, but in March when Lowery reported Kim for deferred maintenance, he told city inspectors that it was occupied by squatters. Some of the problems, such as a major plumbing leak, were coming from the third floor, according to city records. Just as with Lowery, Dignity Housing’s lease indicated they were responsible for repairs.
An inspection three days before the fire found numerous safety violations, including problems with fire alarms, sprinklers, a lack of fire extinguishers and extension cords used in place of wall outlets. Email records indicate that the fire department had concerns about safety hazards since at least January and even recommended shutting the building down.
