Evicted Under City’s Overcrowding Law, Two Families Leave With No Place to Go

Pedro and Margarita Sanchez and their three children, who lost an eviction battle to stay in their one-bedroom apartment in Santa Ana, packed their belongings Wednesday and left the building that was their home for three years.

“I don’t know where we’re going to live. We don’t have another place yet,” said Margarita Sanchez, who accused the city and landlord Joseph DeCarlo of discriminating against poor people with large families in enforcing the city’s overcrowding law.

“We’re not a big family,” she said. “Look, it’s just my husband and our three children. That’s big?”

The Sanchezes were one of two families who peacefully left their one-bedroom apartments at 1107 W. Highland Ave. The other family, Victor and Maria Quintero and their two children, had lived in the building six years. They said they intend to sleep in their car until they find a place to live. The Sanchezes and the Quinteros were the last families of more than three people who were ordered to leave the building.

The 10-unit building was briefly included last year in a rent strike organized to protest neglected repairs.

Formula at Issue

At issue is the formula the city uses to define overcrowding. Under the formula, an apartment must have at least 70 square feet of bedroom space for every two people and an additional 50 square feet of space for every person, said George Gragg, city preservation program manager.

The bedrooms in the Highland Avenue building are 120 square feet in apartments that are 475 square feet and include a living room, dining room and kitchen, according to floor plans on file with the city.

Tenants unsuccessfully argued in court that the city’s formula is arbitrary and that a living room should be counted as available sleeping space.

Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Judith Ryan rejected their argument, saying the city had authority to impose the ordinance.

Gragg denied Margarita Sanchez’s discrimination accusation, maintaining that the city is concerned that safety, health and structural problems can develop when a building is overcrowded.

‘Campaign’ Denied

“Even if you counted a living room as another sleeping room,” Gragg said, “you still don’t have enough footage for more than three individuals inside these apartments.

“This is not a city campaign to go out and conduct a head count in every poor section of town,” Gragg said. “If the building is well maintained, we’re not going to be there.”

He acknowledged that occupancy in some houses and other apartments in the city may exceed the city’s limits.

Gragg said the city will not deliberately cite apartments where large poor families live “unless there’s a problem, like when we have a run-down building and overcrowding is part of that problem.”

About 70% of the tenants at the Highland Avenue building organized a rent rebellion in April, 1985, after the the city Housing Department declared the building substandard. At the time, city inspectors reported finding rats, insect infestation and poor plumbing. DeCarlo first tried to evict the striking tenants, said Richard Spix, an attorney with the immigrants’ rights organization Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, then agreed to freeze rents after the tenants filed a countersuit. Meanwhile, DeCarlo made extensive repairs, bringing the building up to city codes, but the city refused final approval, saying the building was overcrowded.

Further Action Considered

DeCarlo sought evictions again and the tenants resisted in legal actions that resulted in Judge Ryan’s denial.

Spix said the group may file a discrimination suit against the city and DeCarlo. Such a suit would offer little solace to the Sanchez and Quintero families, however.

“My son Juanito goes to school at Martin (Elementary), and now, well, we’re trying to get him enrolled in Anaheim where some of my relatives live. He’s going to lose all his friends,” Margarita Sanchez said.

Spix said Hermandad members collected about $200 to help the two families. Although some members offered their homes, it was uncertain where the families would spend the night.

Although tenant organizers have said tenants would go to jail rather than move, they decided against any confrontation Wednesday, Spix said.

Speaking at a news conference at the Highland Avenue building, Hermandad spokeswoman Maria Thompson said: “The City of Santa Ana refuses to recognize and respect the size of our families, which almost always number more than four. We have the right to have our family size respected.”

Thompson said the organization will take action to stop the city’s “discriminatory law” because it is unfair to poor families and will result in mass evictions.

DeCarlo could not be reached for comment Wednesday.