Evictions served at the Inn

On Wednesday afternoon when several of these tenants returned home, they found large evacuation notices attached to their doors. They also found a team of building inspectors, a Fire Marshall and a zoning official instructing them to leave immediately. They were given no warning and little direction as to where to go. It has been reported that they were not even given time to gather their belongings. But according to San Mateo Fire Marshall Paul Olkowski, public safety was the chief motive of the building's inspection. The tower is so structurally damaged that officials were unable to conduct an evaluation of the structure.

"They need to fix that tower," Olkowski said. It was a surprise to him as well as the building inspector and zoning officials that a property owner would have allowed a structure to deteriorate to the point that the tower has.

"We need an expert, a structural engineer to conduct an investigation to determine whether it's even safe enough to have a contractor go up there and make repairs," Olkowski said.

The floor is missing planks, the windows are broken out and the roof is damaged as well. In addition to these visible problems with the building are other structural damages, according to Olkowski.

"One of the main supports was hit by a vehicle or something causing it to be bent. And there are chipped window fragments that could just fall out onto the parking lot or the street. That alone could kill someone," Olkowski said.

Everyone seems to agree, including Cheryl Beaver, the manager of the Inn, that the tower does need repair. But the question appears to be whether it is really imposing such a threat as to warrant the displacement of ten tenants.

According to Olkowski, the duty of the fire department is to determine the safety of the building, not to worry about where the tenants will go if they are turned out of an unsafe situation. The tenants' housing needs were not the purpose of the inspection, according to Olkowski.

"It was deemed an immediate danger. It's like saying how much time we give out to people if there's a fire. There were planks missing from the floor. I don't know when it's going to fall," Olkowski added.

The tenants were immediately instructed to leave, according Beaver.

Beaver would not give out the name of the out-of-state business that owns the property, but did say she had been in contact with the company's lawyer and that the Hillsdale Inn is doing all that it can to solve the problems posed by the tower.

"The problem is, it's two days after Christmas. I've called six different structural engineers already and I haven't gotten anyone," Beaver added.

The random inspection came as a surprise to Beaver as well as the tenants of the Hillsdale Inn. It was caused by the fact that someone, unnamed by the Fire Department, happened to drive by and see that there were planks missing from the floor of the tower.

Beaver said that no notice at all was given to her tenants. Hillsdale Inn often works as a residential hotel. Many of the tenants who were evacuated from the hotel have been using the Hillsdale Inn as a long-term residence for as many as five years, according to Beaver.

"They are all nice people. They don't cause trouble. They pay their rent on time. And I think it's just terrible to tell them they have to leave in five minutes." Beaver said. "We are working on getting a structural engineer out here to fix the problems, and it's just terrible to make people homeless in the interim."

But according to Olkowski, the fire department has located other local hotels which can take in many of the displaced tenants. The most probable place for the people to go is the Avalon Motel on Bayshore Highway.

"Our duty is to do an inspection. It wasn't the fire department that created the situation. It was the property owner for not maintaining the property," Olkowski said.

Olkowski rejected any notion that the Fire Department must bear the burden of displacing the Hillsdale Inn tenants. He stated that if the tenants wanted to blame someone or be upset with some that they should be upset with the owners of the Hillsdale Inn property, "who are taking their money and not providing them with safe living conditions."

"If they would have been diligent and responsible in maintaining their property we never would have been there," Olkowski added.

There have been various news stories nationwide that involve the falling apart of unsafe buildings. The most recent scenario was in Los Angeles where an apartment building collapsed, even after it had passed safety codes.

Olkowski did not make a direct connection between some of these situations and the sudden decision made by the Fire and Zoning Departments to post the evacuation notices. But he did remark about the recurrence of situations such as Los Angeles and asked whose fault it would be if something like that was to happen in San Mateo.

"Our department is so busy, we don't go out looking for things. But if we would have walked away and something would have happened, then what?" Olkowski added.

All hotels are required to undergo an annual inspection by the city and the fire department. At this time, it is unknown why the dilapidated condition of the tower was not addressed before now, or during one of those inspections. "Well it hasn't been used for almost twenty years. I guess it's kind of like out of sight, out of mind. But now, it had started to deteriorate. And even having it there, even though no one uses it, is posing a threat," Olkowski said.

The final determination to evacuate the units which are directly under the tower was made by code enforcement. According to Olkowski, the tenants may return as soon as a structural engineer inspects the tower and assures the city there is no immediate danger of it falling onto the structure below.<