Sinking on Santa Clara
Tenants homeless after water main break
By Bill Lascher 06/28/2007
Residents of a Ventura apartment complex made an early entrance into the city’s tight rental market when their units became uninhabitable after a water main break.
Fifteen units were damaged June 23 after the Santa Clara Apartments at 1381 E. Santa Clara St. in Ventura. Some residents reported cracking and crumbling sounds the previous evening. The extent of the damage was not discovered until Cynthia Trahan, who lives at the complex with her daughter was forced to climb out of her window when she couldn’t open her front door.
By June 25, the damage was readily apparent, and, after a review of the property from the city’s building and safety department, the units — which had already been evacuated — were deemed uninhabitable.
The building is owned by Santa Clara Apartments, LLC, a Los Angeles-based company that has owned the building since 1998. It is managed by Ventura-based Oaktree Property Management. Overall, the complex has about 80 units.
Steven Snyder, Oaktree’s owner, said that engineers and insurance officials for Santa Clara Apartments determined June 26 that a two-inch water main broke at an elbow beneath the central building that sank. He said that it couldn’t be determined how long water was running or the extent the building was undermined, but that the engineers said that there wasn’t further danger of the building collapsing any more.
“We’re trying to work out a plan to separate the building from the other two buildings attached by rooflines and walkways to keep those buildings habitable and to keep those tenants habitable,” Snyder said.
Tenants from the central building will not be able to move back any time soon and must find a new place to live. The building could be demolished or take months to shore up. Meanwhile, tenants from the less damaged connected units will be temporarily displaced. Although they can not move in until the city verifies that their units are safe, they are free to leave without being penalized for breaking their leases, Snyder said.
“This was something that couldn’t have been predicted,” Snyder said. “The building is being maintained just fine we just had this problem. There haven’t been complaints to the city and complaints to this office are always addressed.”
As the owners’ engineers conduct their own assessments, the city will also investigate.
Although only 15 units were closed off, Andrew Stuffler, the chief building official for the city of Ventura, said the building and safety division will inspect all 80 units on the property within 30 days. The inspection comes after city officials responding to the collapse discovered other problems at the complex.
“Today [June 25] we focused our energy on the units that had the most damage,” Stuffler said. “There were substandard dwellings that were not tagged.”
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