New owner, new problems: Elderly in high-rise apartment complex feeling pushed out

“We are renovating vacants, updating kitchens and baths to improve the units and the property overall,” McKenna said.

With only a handful of high-rise apartment complexes in the area, 55 West Fifth offers views of the Peninsula that few others have.

But some of the building’s longtime tenants, especially the older ones, told the Daily Journal that Equity wants them to leave and many have already. Some of the younger tenants have started to take notice and started to ask questions.

Some of the ones who remain have already had their rent increase 15 percent and have had $165 worth of utility bills added onto their monthly rents, which Westlake previously paid for. Equity closed on the property in August 2012.

“The minute this outfit took over, the rents went right up,” said Larry Graubert, 82.

But the rent increase and monthly fees fall down the ladder of complaints compared to all the construction activity taking place in the building.

Equity has pulled building permits with San Mateo to remodel 87 kitchens, 154 bathrooms and the construction of new closets and plumbing systems for new combination washers and dryers in every unit.

The washer and dryer installation is causing residents the biggest headache, they say, since construction is taking place on every floor and eventually every unit.

Some of the residents, however, have challenged the assertion that the work is necessary based on the language of their leases and have tried to refuse the installation.

But Equity responded that the work will go on.

“Every apartment home will be modified to accommodate the washer and dryer, however, it will be your decision, as to whether or not you would like to have the appliance installed,” Equity wrote in a letter to tenants.

But resident Jerome Miller, a younger tenant, wrote Equity that he and his wife were happy with the current laundry facility in place and would consider any reduction of closet space to diminish the value of the apartment.

Equity also warned that the apartments contain asbestos and special methods would be used abate it during the washer/dryer installations.

Miller, 43, expressed concern with the asbestos abatement as being potentially life-threatening.

“Please let me know on what legal basis you intend to enter our unit for this project,” Miller wrote to Equity in a response letter.

But Equity responded to Miller that the work will go on and that he and his wife would have to vacate the unit on the first day of work.

Miller, upset with Equity, came to learn that he was not the only one with concerns — other tenants, many of them in their 80s and 90s, were also upset with the mandatory construction project.

‘Intimidating’

Equity told the tenants it would take up to 14 days per unit to complete the plumbing work.

Beverly Murr, 80, has lived at the complex for 13 years and was opposed to the installation but cannot do anything about it now because the work has already begun in her 16th floor apartment.

“It was intimidating. They just announced it and now they have a key and they can come in whenever they want,” Murr said about Equity and the workers doing the installation. “I was intimidated. I felt like I didn’t have a choice and I’m not sure if I have a choice so I acquiesced.”

The water has also been turned off routinely during all hours of the day and week, said Shirley Rich, 93, who has lived at the complex for 17 years.

Rich has a two-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms but said she was unable to use the master bedroom bathroom for at least nine months after Equity bought the building and that she has been scalded a few times now that the hot water is running even hotter.

“When you mention anything — the staff is condescending and say ‘you’re lucky to live here,’” Rich said.

Shirley’s sister, Pauline, used to lead a holiday decorating brigade for the lobby in past Decembers but Equity staff tore it down this past season, many of the tenants told the Daily Journal.

“The Equity culture is so depressing,” Graubert said. “I’m so angry.”

‘Unlivable’

One man who lives in the building, however, may have it worse than any other tenant.

Workers came into Hin Wing Li’s apartment May 22 to install a closet and plumbing for the washer and dryer and still have not left.

The washer and dryer is being installed in his bedroom, and workers pulled Li’s bed into the cramped living room where he has been sleeping since. The workers also rearranged furniture throughout the apartment to make it essentially unlivable, he said.

Li, 88, contends he has lost a third of his living space.

“How can they justify charging the same rent? When I ask questions they never have answers,” Li told the Daily Journal.

Resident Rick Da Silva, a tech worker in his 40s, first contacted the Daily Journal about this situation because of the way the elderly tenants in the building have been treated.

“Their goal is clearly to make this property a destination spot for the ever growing tech market in Silicon Valley. I myself, working for one of the largest of these companies, was initially glad to find housing in this tough rental market. I’ve since been saddened by what I’ve overheard and observed in regards to the treatment of the longtime tenants who have been here before me,” Da Silva wrote the Daily Journal in an email.

Rent increases

Equity is also charging tenants $35 a month if they accept the washer and dryer unit now or $75 a month after their lease expires and they renew it.

Some tenants, such as 87-year-old Deborah Dahut feel like they have been coerced into signing lease extensions after being told of huge rent increases if they stay on month-to-month.

Dahut’s lawyer son, Henry, said his mother was taken advantage of by scaring her into signing a new lease.

“She was bullied into a lease after Equity threatened her with an absurdly high month-to-month rate — which they ended up automatically deducting from her checking account — and which they claim said auto-deduction was a mistake. After learning more about them on the Internet it seems this episode involving my mother was more likely a unfair business tactic perpetrated against an elderly women who they knew was vulnerable and frightened about her future,” Henry Dahut wrote the Daily Journal in an email.

Mayor David Lim, who is about to start a remodel on his home, went to 55 West Fifth with his family a couple of months ago to check on leasing a unit while work is being done on their home.

“We noticed a lot of construction and they were very vague on how long the work would take place. I was not impressed,” Lim told the Daily Journal. He did not identify himself as the mayor either and visited the complex as a “regular person,” he told the Daily Journal.

The pool was also filthy, he said.

Some of the tenants in the building have started a Facebook page to express their concerns about living there.

For four-year tenant Miller, he has no problems with Equity trying to get the most money it can out of the property. His concern is how the current residents, especially the most vulnerable ones, are being treated.

But even he has had his rent increase substantially from $2,125 when he first moved in to $2,620 today.

“That’s a lot of money for us,” he said.

To learn more go to: www.facebook.com/#!/55WestFifthTenantsAssociation?fref=ts

silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106