149 City of Oakland Bldg Dept - Inspectors issued hand written notices rather than issue official violations

2 Investigates: New complaints, enforcement questions about troubled East Bay hotel
April 2015

http://www.ktvu.com/news/4277269-story

2 Investigates found records where an inspector chose to issue "hand written" notices to the hotel's manager, rather than issue an official violation, but Oakland's Director of Building and Planning, Rachel Flynn, defended her inspector's actions.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - People who live at the Empyrean Towers in downtown Oakland say problems threatening their health and safety continue to plague the hotel after a KTVU investigation in February and numerous visits from city code enforcement inspectors since then.

The conditions have some housing advocates calling for Oakland to take legal action against the owners of the property.

In February, attorneys with the non-profit Eviction Defense Center documented a number of problems at the Empyrean Towers with cell phone video of broken doors in the common bathrooms, cracked windows, faulty plumbing and incomplete repair jobs. 

One of the videos revealed the doors to some vacant rooms at the hotel had been nailed shut.

Attorney Amy Sekany, who's representing a number of tenants at the Empyrean Towers, returned to the hotel after 2 Investigates documented unsafe and unsanitary conditions in January.

"To come back and to find out that just walking the building myself, there are all these terrible conditions still in place?  It's just really disturbing," said Sekany.

Some of the problems found by KTVU, including holes in the walls and garbage in the hallways, have been fixed, but tenants say many other issues remain.

Notices of violation

Oakland code enforcement issued 20 notices of violation, or NOV's, to the Empyrean Towers over a couple of days in late February, according to documents obtained by KTVU through the California Public Records Act. 

Inspectors documented damaged smoke detectors, broken faucets, cracked windows and more than 90 other violations.

Those NOV's start a clock, giving a property owner 30 days to make repairs before facing fines. In some cases, code enforcement officials say Empyrean Towers managers fixed the problems, but others issues have yet to be resolved.

2 Investigates found records where an inspector chose to issue "hand written" notices to the hotel's manager, rather than issue an official violation, but Oakland's Director of Building and Planning, Rachel Flynn, defended her inspector's actions.

"They're going in, apartment by apartment, to get everything up to code and it's actually working," said Flynn.  "So, this is one of those success stories where it came to our attention, we have knowledge about how to get a building up to code and maintain it properly and we have a cooperative owner who's allowing us in."

The owner, identified by the city as Alice Tse, refused to speak with KTVU when first contacted her in January. Her attorney has not returned several phone calls and emails requesting comment since then.

Records show the city issued only four violation notices to the hotel in all of 2014.  Complaint logs indicate inspectors sometimes chose not to write up official notices when they found violations.

"If  we send a notice of violation, or NOV, they have 30 days to address it.  So, if we have someone who's cooperative and they're going to address it in a week or two, why send an NOV?" said Flynn.

Tenants frustrated

Maria Anast and her husband, Don, are among the tenants who have been most vocal about ongoing problems at the Empyrean Towers. Despite managers making some repairs to their room, such as fixing a broken window, Anast isn't satisfied with the city's response to her complaints.

"I would like to see one fine for one room?  [The inspector has] been in this room at least ten times.  No fines. Nothing's done," said Anast.

Code enforcement inspectors could not tell KTVU whether any fines have been issued to the owner of the hotel.

Tenants told KTVU some of the repairs that have been made were incomplete or poorly done.

"It's like putting a band aid over a gash," said single mom, Kia'Ora Henson.

Henson and her son, Nehemiah, say they've been living in a small room at the hotel about seven months. They showed 2 Investigates how they have to use a can to prop open a broken window frame.

The seven story hotel's elevator also remains off limits to tenants, causing the most trouble for elderly residents such as 81 year-old Katherine Bergman, who lives on the fourth floor.

"I fell!" said Bergman. "I fell three weeks ago. I was sore for three weeks."

The frustration tenants are feeling is nothing new. In 2011, federal authorities arrested the hotel's former owner, Richard Singer, who later admitted to paying someone to try to burn down the building, which was already the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits.

Inspections continue

An inspector returned to the Empyrean Towers on March 27. The inspector, Gene Martinelli, declined an interview, but told KTVU's Eric Rasmussen he was following up on complaints and that he had "an entire floor" to inspect.  

Rasmussen asked why no fines had been issued to the hotel owners, despite repeated violations.  "There's reasons for it and they're good reasons," said Martinelli, who did not elaborate.

After the inspection, which lasted more than two hours, Martinelli told KTVU the hotel managers are "moving in the right direction."

Some tenants are not convinced.

"They're just doing enough to get by," said Anast.  "To satisfy [the inspector]."

Sekany wants to see the city take over the building.

"We would like to see is a receivership put in place here, so a third party could step in and help facilitate the repairs, take control of the building," said Sekany.

Code enforcement managers warn, the situation is "complicated."


"Say we condemn the building," said Flynn.  "Where are those families going to go?  Then we hear about that. 'City puts 50 families on the street.'  And we don't want to do that."

141 City of Oakland - A's purchase SRO after low-income tenants evicted

Oakland A's Minority Owners Purchase Downtown SRO After Previous Landlord Evicted Low-Income Tenants 

June 09, 2017

New owners include an investor group known for operating boutique hotels and student dorms in
high-end markets.

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oakland-as-minority-owners-purchase-downtown-oakland-sro-after-previous-landlord-evicted-low-income-tenants/Content?oid=7301511


The Sutter Hotel, one of Oakland’s dwindling number of single-room occupancy hotels, was sold today to an investor group that includes two minority owners of the Oakland Athletics. These new investors are known for operating boutique hotels and student dorms in high-end markets — not affordable housing — and it’s unclear what they intend to do with the 102-room low-income housing property.

This morning, a former Sutter resident told the Express that the hotel’s sale was contingent on the eviction of long-term, low-income tenants.

“There was a concerted effort to remove people,” explained Michael Wiehl, who lived in the Sutter from 2013 until last year, when he was evicted.

In early 2016, Wiehl said that one of the hotel’s front-desk managers told him “they’re selling the hotel to somebody,” and that he would have to “accept the deal because that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Wiehl said the hotel’s previous owner, Raj Singh, at first bought-out some of the permanent residents, and even helped others move to the nearby Empyrean Towers SRO. But he also evicted Wiehl and several hold-outs. Former residents told the Express that all of the permanent residents who were protected by Oakland’s rent control and just-cause eviction laws are now gone.

Wiehl left in October 2016. Court records indicate that six other tenants were evicted through court actions last year, and two were evicted through the courts in 2015.

“You’re dealing with a lot of powerful people who are trying to get to that Uber money and the Airbnb billions,” Weihl speculated about the sale.

Laura Lane, an attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center, represented a different Sutter tenant in an eviction case last year. Lane said she noticed the previous owner paying rent-control-protected tenants to move out. “I know at the end of last year that [the landlord] had paid to relocate some people out of the hotel,” she said.

City officials were reportedly in talks with Singh to try to purchase the Sutter, or use it on an interim basis as transitional housing for homeless people. But no deal was ever struck. City officials didn't respond to emails seeking more information about this effort.

Singh didn’t return several messages, which were left with the front-desk staff at the hotel. But a person working the desk confirmed today that the hotel was sold, and that the new owners are immediately taking over.

“We’re doing a big transition,” explained the individual, who did not identify themselves. They declined to name the new owners or elaborate.

But county records indicate that a company called 584 14th Street LLC purchased the building today for approximately $12 million. The LLC was incorporated by Hawkins Way Capital, a Los Angeles real estate investment company run by Ross Walker.

According to its website, Hawkins Way makes “value added and opportunistic investments” in real estate “targeting attractive risk adjusted returns.”

Walker is part of the ownership group of the Oakland A’s baseball club, according to his biography on his company’s website. He also works closely with his former boss Lew Wolff, one of the more prominent minority owners of the A’s.

Last year, Wolff stepped down as the managing partner of the A’s and sold off most of his shares in the team. But he retains a small ownership stake, and the title of chairman emeritus. For years he was the public face of team's ownership group.

Wolff’s company, Wolff Urban Development, shares office space in the same L.A. building as Hawkins Way Capital, and Wolff Urban is an investor in Hawkins Way's real-estate deals.

Today, Walker wrote in an email to the Express that it’s too early to share plans about what his company intends to do with the Sutter.

The Express asked Wolff if he was involved in the purchase of the Sutter Hotel, to which he deferred to Walker. Wolff also wrote in the same email that his involvement in real-estate deals in downtown Oakland is limited to a proposal to build a new Marriott Hotel at 1431 Jefferson Street, which is across the street from the Sutter.

Hawkins Way Capital owns boutique hotels and student-housing properties across the United States. For example, last year, the company bought Hollywood’s Mark Twain SRO hotel and converted it to market-rate housing.

Hawkins Way also set up the Live Learn Properties Fund, which invests in student dormitories. Both Walker and Wolff are managers of the Live Learn fund, according to securities records.

In the past year, the City of Oakland has been trying to preserve its SROs, because they are often the residences of last resort for people who would otherwise become homeless. In January, City Council passed a moratorium to prevent converting SROs into other uses. The moratorium lasts until December 2018.

Oakland has lost almost half of its total stock of SRO housing units in the past twelve years. According to a September 2015 city report, Oakland had 31 SRO hotels with 2,285 rooms in 2004. Since, some were demolished to make way for new developments and others were converted to different uses, leaving only 1,311 SRO units in Oakland today.

Last year, the Hotel Travelers and a smaller SRO building on 8th Street were both purchased by investors who plan to convert the buildings into market-rate properties.

126 City of Oakland - Inspectors need to be held accountable

April 5, 2017 - East Bay Times
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/05/editorial-too-many-fire-deaths-its-about-time-mayor-schaaf-got-mad/

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf says she “went through the roof” when she heard last week about emails showing the fire department knew for at least 2 1/2 months about safety problems at the site of last week’s fire that killed four.

Well, it’s about time she got angry. Ever since the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship inferno that claimed 36 lives, the mayor has sent mixed messages about priorities and about holding public employees accountable.

She and her administration have been reactive to a steady drip of public records disclosures rather than aggressively proactive to ensure timely release of documents.
It’s time for full disclosure. It’s time for placing building safety above competing concerns. It’s time to insist every city employee does his or her part to protect residents. It’s time for a crackdown on unsafe buildings.

For four months now, we’ve watched the Schaaf administration try — unsuccessfully — to manage the message. The reality is that the city’s fire safety inspection system is dysfunctional and requires a top-to-bottom overhaul.

To be sure, Schaaf inherited a fire chief who was in over her head, who had received multiple warnings, including from the Alameda County civil grand jury, of a broken system in dire need of repair.

Yet, Chief Teresa Deloach Reed did nothing and then lashed out at her critics. Fortunately, she eventually got the message that she wasn’t cutting it, went on leave and announced her retirement in May.

But even with a new strong chief, the situation won’t change without clear direction that safety is the top priority. As long as the mayor insists on equally weighting keeping people housed with keeping them safe, inspectors will be reluctant to shut down buildings that should be closed.

We understand that no one wants to eliminate housing in a community that already has a shortage. But safety must come first. Forty people have died in four months in fires that were preventable. It’s time to unequivocally put safety first.

That message must be loud and clear. That means hiring adequate numbers of inspectors and then backing them up when they make the tough calls.

And that means holding accountable those workers — police, firefighters, building inspectors or any other city workers — who fail to report dangerous living conditions or fail to follow through.

Soon after the Ghost Ship fire, Schaaf declared, “We will not scapegoat city employees in the wake of this disaster.” She’s right. No one should be unfairly blamed.

But everyone should be held accountable, starting with the mayor. We’re glad to see she’s angry. So are we. And so should every Oakland resident. Too many people have lost their lives.


http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/05/editorial-too-many-fire-deaths-its-about-time-mayor-schaaf-got-mad/

125 City of Oakland - Oakland's Housing of Last Resort

OAKLAND — People in the industry call it “housing of last resort.”
East Bay Times
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/05/housing-of-last-resort-stuck-between-a-firetrap-and-the-streets/

Scattered throughout Alameda County, there are perhaps 200 to 300 such facilities — some in the form of single-family homes tucked into quiet residential neighborhoods or single-room occupancy hotels dotting downtown Oakland, Hayward, Berkeley and Alameda. Still others are nondescript apartment buildings lining main streets in East and West Oakland. The one thing most have in common is the people living there have few other options.

When a four-alarm fire ripped through a transitional living facility in West Oakland last week, killing four people and displacing more than 80 others, it exposed the difficult position in which many city and county regulators and homeless advocates find themselves when it comes to this type of housing: a choice between safety or the streets.

Elissa Dennis, an affordable housing finance consultant with Community Economics, called it a “catastrophe.”

“We are in an impossible situation of deciding whether the most vulnerable among us are more safe and secure in a tent or are more safe and secure in a firetrap,” she said. “That’s not a good choice to make.”

Like Urojas Community Services, which operated the transitional residential facility at the San Pablo Avenue building that burned on Mar. 27, many of these types of facilities are not licensed by the state because they don’t provide direct care or supervision for tenants, though they often provide meals. The independent living facilities, as they often are called, frequently advertise with a label: sober living residences, substance abuse recovery homes, housing for formerly homeless, for people coming out of incarceration, for indigent women with children, for veterans or people with mental health conditions, said Robert Ratner, the housing services director for Alameda County’s Health Care Services agency. .

“The labels are more about targeting specific populations,” he said. “People are renting out rooms with varying levels of support on site.”

And they are often located in parts of the county where it is difficult for the property owner to rent rooms to higher-paying tenants, Ratner said. So it’s no surprise that most of these facilities are concentrated in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty and blight. Nor do many of the operators receive public dollars — whether from the county or the federal government in the form of Section 8. Rather, they take in clients who receive Social Security income, or are able to get their rent paid by the probation department or other service agencies. Ratner described it as “a step above homelessness.”

But for Charles Hutson, at least, it’s been a godsend. Hutson moved into an East Oakland home run by Tower of Faith Ministry roughly one month ago. The two-story building houses between 10 to 12 people at any given time, said Pastor Roosevelt Taylor, who oversees the home. The kitchens and bathrooms are clean and well-maintained, and there is fresh paint on the outside walls.

“When I keep the house decent, then (the residents) will take care of it,” Taylor said. “If they see things hanging off the walls and all this stuff, then they won’t do anything, and who can blame them?”

Before he moved into the home, Hutson had been homeless for five years, he said, bouncing between shelters, couch-surfing and sleeping on the bus when he could find no other place to stay. A 2010 drug conviction for possession with the intent to sell marijuana made it extremely difficult to find a landlord willing to rent to him when he was released in 2011. He was not eligible for public housing.

Moving from shelter to shelter every 30 to 120 days made it hard for him to get or keep a job, he said, and sleeping in the shelter was like sleeping at a “circus.”

“It was just wild. It’s just dealing with other people and their problems and their drug habits,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s hard to go to sleep because there would be like people talking and off their drugs and stuff.”

Tower of Faith’s home stands in stark contrast to the burned building at 2551 San Pablo Ave., which had dozens of complaints filed against it over the past five years for all sorts of issues, from bugs, garbage and water leaks to critical fire safety concerns. Gail Harbin, a tenant in the building, described cockroaches and rodents constantly scuttling through the halls, holes in the walls and a leaking roof. She credited Pastor Jasper Lowery, the Urojas founder, with trying to do the best he could to repair what he could afford to fix, but she said it was difficult to live in those conditions.

“It feels like you’re being put on the lowest level of the human ladder,” she said in an interview a week before the fire. “You’re nothing. You’re nobody. It makes you feel like they don’t care about you and how you live.”

As the housing market tightens, Jung Pham, an attorney and investigator with Disability Rights California, said he is seeing more and more people squeezed into independent living facilities because they can’t find affordable housing anywhere else. For people with disabilities, that can be especially challenging, he said.

“A low-income person with a disability who may have a hard time pulling together resources for rents, they are disincentivized to report these facilities because they are afraid of getting kicked out,” Pham said.

At the same time, the number of adult residential facilities, which are licensed by the state and provide 24-hour services for residents, is declining, in part because of legislation that made it more onerous for licensed facilities to operate in the state, Pham and Ratner said. They pointed to an incident at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley three and half years ago when more than a dozen bedridden residents were left alone for two days to fend for themselves after the state shut the facility down, but failed to implement a relocation plan for the residents.

The public outcry spurred legislators to introduce new laws heightening the requirements for licensed facilities and increasing the fines for violating those requirements, among other changes, Pham said.

“It became more onerous for folks running these licensed homes,” Pham said. “(The operators) can, in effect, do the same thing in unlicensed homes as long as nobody complains.”

It’s unclear how many service providers have transitioned from licensed residential facilities to unlicensed ones, because the state does not keep that data. But county and state officials, along with advocates, are working on ways to curb unsafe living conditions for the region’s most vulnerable residents. Ratner said county officials are drawing on a model San Diego implemented in 2012, called the Independent Living Association (ILA), to bring greater transparency and accountability to unlicensed residential homes.

Faced with many of the same challenges as the Bay Area, independent living service providers began banding together, said May Devera, a founding member of the ILA who operates her own facility. A few years later the county provided a three-year, $1.5 million grant to formalize the program, said ILA Executive Director Melanie Briones.

To join the association, operators agree to certain housing quality standards, along with annual inspections, Briones said. Once they are certified to join, members are added to a database the county uses for referrals, and they get extra points when applying for public funds. Operators also receive training from the ILA and other perks. So far, Briones said it’s working.

“We are in a housing crisis like you all are, and we are doing the best we can to augment the high quality housing stock for this incredibly vulnerable population,” she said.

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/05/housing-of-last-resort-stuck-between-a-firetrap-and-the-streets/

124 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - Fire Captain recommended 2551 San Pablo be shut down months before fire

April 3, 2017 -  Insurance Journal
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2017/04/03/446653.htm

Oakland Fire Captain Recommended Building Be Shut Down in January

An Oakland fire captain recommended in January that a building that burned this week, killing four people, should be shut down immediately for safety reasons, but department officials opted to take less drastic measures, records released Friday show.

In an email dated Jan. 8 and titled “Fire Safety Hazard,” Fire Captain Richard Chew reported that a fire alarm had been pulled and not reset and there were open piles of garbage on the third floor of the building and a padlock on the door to the fire escape.

He recommended officials consider shutting the building down immediately “due to the danger to life safety.”

The records show Battalion Chief Geoff Hunter ordered Chew to cut the padlock and other officials to contact the building’s owner to fix the alarm and remove trash.

Acting Assistant Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini, head of the fire prevention bureau, responded that it was appropriate to give the owner 30 days to make repairs.

Oakland became the site of the deadliest structure fire in the U.S. in a decade when 36 people died in a December blaze at a warehouse known as the Ghost Ship that had been illegally converted into live and work spaces for artists. Officials then vowed to crack down on substandard housing and conduct more inspections.

A Jan. 9 email by another fire captain regarding the building that burned Monday reported there were no fire extinguishers in the building. Fire Lt. Steve Padgett reported in a Feb. 25 email that the address is a “known fire hazard.”

“There are no fire extinguishers. Storage in the hallways. Faulty or unmaintained smoke detectors,” he wrote. “This building is dangerous! Please let Station 15 know what we can do to get this place shut down, updated and repaired.”

The city disclosed the emails as Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced Friday she was ordering an overhaul of fire safety inspection services.

Schaaf told The Associated Press this week that new streamlined communications she put in place after the Ghost Ship fire to keep problem buildings from slipping through the cracks seem to have improved and worked in this case.

She said firefighters answering a call in February at the building reported possible problems, which prompted an inspection last week.

Yet the emails appear to contradict Schaaf’s account, showing that Chew raised concerns in January, and possibly earlier, though officials did not release emails from before January.

She said the city didn’t have the authority to immediately shut down the property, which requires a declaration that a building is unsafe for human habitation.

The building’s owner, Keith Kim, has not responded to repeated messages, including ones left Friday, and his attorney also has not responded to calls and emails.

Kim was in the process of evicting Urojas Community Services, the tenant that leased two of the three floors. Urojas provided services to low-income people recovering from addiction or who had been recently homeless.

The emails released Friday show mounting concerns  and growing frustration by fire officials.

In a March 18 email, Fire Lt. Frank Mui listed “what appears to be household extension cords used to supply electricity to different units in the building,” including between the second and third floors via the central stairway. Rats had chewed through the insulation on one extension cord, he wrote.

Minutes later, Battalion Chief Jeff Hunter shot off an email to Sabatini, of the fire prevention bureau. He wrote that the problems “still exist and seem to be getting worse” and that “this building appears to be hazardous to both our public and our firefighters.”

Inspectors finally conducted an annual inspection on March 24. They again found multiple fire code violations, including inoperable sprinklers and alarms. Officials also noted a lack of fire extinguishers and overloaded electrical cords during the inspection.

“This is the beginning of a coordinated effort along with Building Services to address the issues at this location,” Sabatini wrote.

The owner was given 30 days to correct the problems.

Three days later, the fire broke out.

The nonprofit organization also said they called on the landlord to make necessary repairs. Residents complained of serious rodent infestations, plumbing and electrical problems, garbage-strewn hallways and an unusable kitchen on the first floor.

Jasper Lowery, the founder of Urojas Community Services that sub-leased rooms to about 40 residents, said the landlord ignored his pleas for repairs. Instead, Lowery said he was served eviction papers, alleging Urojas owed thousands of dollars in past-due rent.

The eviction process was still underway when the fire started Monday.

“We are grieving and heartbroken,” said Aurea Lewis, Lowery’s partner at Urojas. Lewis said her brother Ed Anderson, 64, was one of those residents who died in the fire.

Lewis said her brother was a U.S. Air Force veteran and one of 11 siblings who grew up in Oakland.

“If you only knew how devastating this is for our family,” she said.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2017/04/03/446653.htm

123 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - Threatened with lawsuit over refusal to turn over Ghost Ship records

Oakland city officials must end their stonewalling over the release of records pertaining to the Ghost Ship warehouse fire.

It’s been more than two months since the tragic inferno that killed 36 people. Despite Mayor Libby Schaaf’s promise of transparency, her administration has failed to release critical public documents.
The mayor and City Attorney Barbara Parker have a choice: They can follow the law or they can become the political symbols of a cover-up of the nation’s deadliest fire since 2003.


And if they choose cover-up, we’ll meet them in court. We served notice with a front-page article on Friday and in a letter from our attorneys the day before. City officials have one week to produce the records we’ve been seeking for two months or we will file a lawsuit to compel them.

We’re tired of waiting. The public deserves answers about what city workers and officials knew about the dangerous conditions inside the warehouse in the years leading up to the fire.

What makes this particularly disturbing is that Schaaf knows – indeed she has publicly acknowledged – that, under the law, the records from before the fire are disclosable public documents.
There should be no hassling over whether they’re confidential. All pre-fire records about the warehouse were public documents then and they remain so today.

It’s past time for the city to produce them, along with the other documents we seek. Yet city officials have ignored our request for records about fire inspections, calls to the Police Department for service and the 911 tapes from the night of the tragedy.

Most of what the public has learned about the months and years leading up to the fire has come from investigative journalism. Records are often the key to that. They’re often the best documentation of who knew what and when.

While Schaaf has promised her own “very thorough and methodical investigation so we can discern what in fact happened,” that’s not a substitute for public access to records.

Especially when Schaaf has hedged her promise by declaring “we will not scapegoat city employees in the wake of this disaster.” No one is looking to unfairly blame workers for the fault of others, but those responsible should be held accountable.

Our job is to hold them accountable, to report on what went wrong and who is responsible. Right now, city officials are blocking that and ignoring the public’s legal right of access.

It’s time for the transparency the mayor promised. Now.

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/04/editorial-oakland-must-turn-over-ghost-ship-records-now/

122 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - Senior Officials ignored life/safety issues at 2551 San Pablo

March 31, 2017

The Associated Press reports that inspectors have discovered that an apartment building in a California neighborhood (2551 San Pablo Ave Oakland, CA) , lacked fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in every apartment, along with a working sprinkler system just three days before a blaze erupted and killed three (four) residents. During an inspection on Friday, officials uncovered the multiple fire code violations, and ordered the owner of the Oakland building to immediately fix the fire alarm and sprinkler systems.


Oakland firefighters urged senior fire officials in January to consider immediately shutting down the West Oakland halfway house that burned Monday, killing four people, because of safety problems, newly released city emails show

The emails show that firefighters who responded to medical calls in January and February at the three-story building reported seeing dangerous conditions — trash, exposed electrical wires, a locked door to a fire escape — that posed a danger to “life safety.” They urged fire inspectors to shut down the building.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-firefighters-wanted-halfway-house-shut-11042357.php

Sabatini was a fire department arson investigator before she was brought over to the Fire Prevention Bureau starting Jan. 3 to help with inspections in the wake of the infamous Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people.

She was part of a 2 1/2-month string of email communications about the San Pablo Avenue boarding house that began Jan. 8, after firefighters responded to a medical call at the building.

“I recommend that we consider shutting this building down immediately due to the danger to life safety,” wrote Capt. Richard Chew. But Sabatini overruled him and directed the property owner be given 30 days to fix the problems.

Sabatini said Tuesday that she later accompanied two fire inspectors into the building on Friday March 24. The inspection report from the visit detailed 11 deficiencies, which have been widely reported since the fire.

Sabatini said none of them were considered life-threatening. “I don’t want people to think we left a building that we thought was an imminent danger,” she said.


http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/04/inspectors-requirement-might-have-led-to-fatal-oakland-fire/

121 Oakland Police Dept (OPD) - Visited Ghost Ship 35 times in 2 years. Yet no enforcement.

Feb 16, 2017 - East Bay Times
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/16/editorial-ghost-ship-fire-killed-36-but-its-not-their-department/

Thirty-six people died in Oakland’s infamous Ghost Ship fire. Police had seen and had been told almost two years earlier that people were living there illegally. Yet they did nothing.


Why? Because it’s not their department.

It would be merely a bureaucratic cliché if the outcome hadn’t been so tragic. Amazingly, Mayor Libby Schaaf endorses this shameful denial of responsibility. It’s political pandering at its worst.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks at a press conference regarding the deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire at the Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday, Dec. 7,2016, in

“Our police officers are trained to identify criminal activity, they are not trained in code enforcement,” Schaaf told our reporters. Well, Madame Mayor, maybe it’s time to train them, like other cities do and Oakland has in the past.

We’re not talking about the intricacies of wiring for 240-volt outlets or the required dimensions of a landing outside a doorway. We’re talking about recognizing obvious hazards and showing enough initiative to alert experts in other city departments.

Newly released records, turned over only after this newspaper’s threat of litigation,  reveal that police had visited the building and associated properties 35 times between mid-2014 and the Dec. 2 fire.


http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/16/editorial-ghost-ship-fire-killed-36-but-its-not-their-department/

120 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - 2551 San Pablo Ave was reported as unsafe in 2015 - and nothing was done.

April 4, 2017 - Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/04/oakland-halfway-house-fire-firefighter-botched-2015-inspection-referral/

New emails and correspondence from Oakland officials show confusion dating back to 2015 involving a firefighter’s attempted referral on the 2551 San Pablo Ave. building that burned last week. 

In September 2015, a Station 5 firefighter found an alarming situation at a halfway house on San Pablo Avenue and sent a referral to inspectors to visit the three-story building.

Or so he thought.

In fact, the dangerously unsafe building would not be brought to the fire prevention bureau’s attention until 16 months later. An inspection was finally completed March 24 — finding a number of serious violations in the transitional housing facility — and three days later four people were killed in a predawn fire that broke out in a room lit by a candle, according to the preliminary fire investigation.

In another example of the city’s failure to respond appropriately to fire safety issues, the firefighter in September 2015 checked the “referred” box on the department’s inspection software OneStep, but made the critical mistake of not also phoning or emailing the Fire Protection Bureau to alert them that an inspection was needed. That mistake, which has been an issue in the department, according to exclusive emails obtained by this news organization, sent the referral falling through the cracks.

“Clicking that doesn’t do anything on the other end” to send an alert, said Mark Hoffmann, co-acting fire chief, referring to the “referred” box in OneStep. A spokeswoman for Mayor Libby Schaaf confirmed the referral procedure was not followed.

In an exclusive interview with this newspaper Tuesday, Assistant Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini found ample problems when they finally walked through the building on March 24 and ordered extension cords and other wiring removed from the second-floor room where the fire originated, raising the possibility that the resident in that room was using a candle because electricity was no longer available.

“That might have been the case,” Sabatini said, referring to the need to use a candle that apparently started the fire. That question and whether the extension cord was later disconnected will probably be part of the ongoing investigation into the fire, she said.

Tuesday’s revelations show further confusion between the city’s firefighters and the civilian inspectors who have split responsibilities on monitoring fire safety issues inside Oakland’s buildings.

Fire inspection data shows that firefighter Charles Gresher on Sept. 17, 2015, attempted to refer problems at 2551 San Pablo Ave. to the Fire Prevention Bureau. Gresher declined to comment Tuesday and a request for comment from the firefighter’s union was not immediately returned.

On Jan. 11, 2017, Fire Capt. Sean Laffan emailed Sabatini, other inspectors and firefighters, reminding them that the halfway house had been referred to inspectors in 2015 because firefighters believed it was a care facility, needing state-mandated annual inspections by civilian inspectors. Laffan remarked in the email that the building “far exceeds the level of training for a company officer.”

Sabatini, who only moved to her fire marshal role in January after serving for years as an arson investigator, responded the next day to Laffan and a battalion chief, reminding them of firefighter lapses in how referrals are made.

“I’ve learned some (firefighters) think that when the ‘referred’ tab is clicked in OneStep, that an inspector is automatically notified. (This is not true),” she wrote. “Do you think it means someone picked up the phone and called the (Fire Protection Bureau), or sent an email? Not looking to hang anyone here, just really trying to figure out how to smooth this out.”

In the missive she explained the frantic atmosphere in the inspection bureau post-Ghost Ship, and said she had trouble even talking to Fire Marshal Miguel Trujillo because they were so busy and overwhelmed.

“I’m serious … it is crazy busy here,” she wrote. “They are not able to keep up with their own assignments and on top of that, everyday a batch of notices like this situation with 2551 San Pablo comes in.”

The city also provided a timeline by Inspector Flanoy Garrett and his five attempts between Feb. 25 and March 24 to get the building owner or nonprofit tenant to accompany them for an inspection of the three-story apartment building. Finally, part-owner Monsa Nitoto joined them for the inspection March 24.

“When the inspector was finally able to have the reluctant owner appear for the site visit, he was presented with violations to mitigate immediately, and informed that an inspector would return after the weekend to evaluate the progress,” Sabatini wrote in an email Tuesday to city spokeswoman Karen Boyd, obtained by this newspaper. “As part of the inspection we knocked on doors and entered several individual rooms to look for candles and other imminent fire hazards. We entered the room where the fire eventually started, and we spoke with the occupant. There were no candles or careless use of smoking materials observed in any of the rooms.

“I know this awful tragedy cannot be undone but I hope that there might be some awareness that despite a tremendous shortage of inspectors, corrective action was taking place in an attempt to address the safety issues,” she continued.

Also on Tuesday, city officials finally released the December National Fire Protection Association report on the Ghost Ship fire which this newspaper had requested repeatedly since the agency met with Oakland officials a week after the Fruitvale fire in which 36 people died.

The NFPA recommended the city conduct a survey of all occupied buildings and log each one into a centralized database that can be accessed by multiple city departments. The city should use that database to identify the highest-risk properties, set a schedule for inspections and staff the city’s Fire Prevention Bureau appropriately, the group suggested.

The recommendations also encourage the city to identify how property data maintained by different city agencies can be shared and made interactive so employees can more readily access information from other departments.

Last week, the city announced it would be roughly doubling the fire inspection staff, which currently stands at five, and taking steps to enhance their training. The announcement followed the release of emails showing that firefighters — on at least three occasions since the start of this year — urged their bosses to contact the Fire Prevention Bureau and shut down a San Pablo Avenue property.

When it comes to figuring out what to do with known problem properties, however, the recommendations are less clear. The NFPA suggested the city work with city and county staff, along with community members, to develop a policy to assess and address hazardous buildings and also conduct a workshop on how to identify, prevent and intervene in unpermitted social gatherings.

Finally, the NFPA recommended the city do a better job of communicating with just about everyone, from elected officials to city staff and from property owners to the public.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/04/oakland-halfway-house-fire-firefighter-botched-2015-inspection-referral/

119 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) Another fatal fire highlights Oakland inspection dysfunction

March 28, 2017 - East Bay Times
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/28/editorial-another-fatal-fire-highlights-oakland-inspection-dysfunction/

Forty deaths in four months. How many more people will die due to Oakland’s dysfunctional fire- and code-inspection system?


Thirty-six people were killed late last year in the Ghost Ship warehouse inferno in the Fruitvale District. Then on Monday, four perished and four were injured after an early morning blaze destroyed a West Oakland residential building that housed 80-100 people.

Both tragedies were preventable. If only Oakland’s inspection systems had worked the way they should have. If only warning signs had been heeded and aggressively responded to.
Start with Ghost Ship: At first, officials said that before the fire no city workers had been inside the warehouse, which was filled with furniture and turned out to have no sprinklers or fire alarms, only one obvious exit, cords strung to provide electricity and a makeshift stairwell built out of wood pallets.

But city records turned over last month after this newspaper’s threat of litigation revealed that police had visited the building and associated properties 35 times between mid-2014 and the Dec. 2 fire.

The records showed that at least two police officers who had been called to the site noticed problems, with one reporting an “illegal rave with drug and alcohol sales” and the other reporting that “this is a warehouse that is also an illegal shared housing.”

After Ghost Ship, we were told steps were taken to improve communications between departments and ensure such tragedies were avoided.

Then came Monday. As bad as it was, it could have been much worse. In addition to the fatalities, other residents were rescued from inside and from fire escapes of the three-story building on San Pablo Avenue.

This time, no one can claim city inspectors were unaware of the dangers. Planning and Building Department records show 20 code enforcement complaints for the residential building over the last 10 years.

Records show the building was unstable, had electrical issues, lacked hot water and heat, and had mold and rodent infestation and leaking roofs and pipes throughout the building.

Meanwhile, the fire department, which under state law should have inspected the building annually, apparently failed to do so. Records show fire inspectors visited the site in 2010 and 2012. But it took referrals from other city workers for them to visit again in 2015 and finally again last week. (To the extent there’s any good news, it’s that there was communication this time, unlike in the case of Ghost Ship.)

On last week’s visit, fire inspectors found inadequate fire alarms, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems; a lack of fire extinguishers; extension cords in lieu of electrical outlets; and a lack of adequate emergency lighting, exit signs and evacuation maps.

Three days later the building burned.

If only code enforcement officers had warned fire inspectors or, if they did, fire inspectors had heeded the warning. If only they had shown up sooner, as they should have.

If only.


http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/28/editorial-another-fatal-fire-highlights-oakland-inspection-dysfunction/

118 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - 2551 San Pablo Ave and the history of owner Keith Kim

March 29, 2017 - Mercury Times
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/29/keith-kim-oakland-fire-landlords-rollercoaster-past/

OAKLAND — More than two decades before four people died in Monday’s four-alarm San Pablo Avenue inferno, landlord Keith Kim was a rising star in Oakland, saving a storied potato chip company, a beloved bakery and hundreds of jobs.

“Keith Kim may be one of the best investments Oakland ever made,” glowed a 1996 article in one Bay Area newspaper.

But a series of failures and bad business decisions would later tarnish his Robin Hood image.

The feds indicted him in an odd insider trading case. His much ballyhooed Granny Goose venture turned stale and hundreds of jobs were lost. Under his leadership, the Merritt Bakery floundered. He owed millions of dollars in unpaid income taxes. A foray into the dot-com boom, after some initial success, brought more financial trouble. Years later he would go bankrupt.

After quietly operating development deals for several years, Kim, 55, was thrust back into Oakland’s spotlight Monday when his three-story, multi-unit residential building at 2551 San Pablo Ave. went up in flames. Low-income tenants, many renting from various nonprofits aligned with the building, shimmied down fire escapes, climbing from sheets tied together and hung from windows, and were plucked out of the burning building by firefighters.

Three days before the massive blaze, a fire inspector toured the building and found numerous fire-safety violations, including a lack of fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers and clearly marked exits in all areas of the building, and smoke detectors in all living spaces. City records show 18 complaints filed against Kim’s property within the past five years, including deferred maintenance, rodent infestation, electrical issues, structural deficits and a lack of heat. A tenant called it a “death trap.”

Residents filed multiple restraining orders against Kim and his associates claiming they bullied residents and sent thugs into the property to evict them.

Kim, who has not spoken publicly since the fire and did not return calls Wednesday, earlier told this newspaper that he decided to evict his tenants after learning of the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship tragedy, where 36 people died in a fire in a warehouse with its own code issues.

Councilman Noel Gallo said several property owners, including Kim, have ignored building, fire and safety codes, putting residents at risk.

“It’s a catch-me-if-you-can attitude, from East Oakland to West Oakland,” Gallo said. “He should’ve known better based on all the properties he owns, his years in Oakland, his experience with development. There’s no excuse for that behavior.”

Golden Goose

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim came to the United States as a 10-year-old with his mother and two brothers, according to a 1994 article in the Oakland Tribune. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in economics, Kim moved to Sacramento in 1985 to take an insurance job. It was there that he bought his first house and launched his real estate career in 1989.

He came to Oakland and started a construction company to work with his real estate firm, building homes and developing small apartment buildings, according to the Stanford alumni magazine.

Kim purchased the San Pablo Avenue property in 1991 for $525,000, and started turning heads.

In 1994, at age 32, Kim purchased Oakland’s Merritt Bakery and Restaurant, saving 80 jobs and keeping the local institution from bankruptcy. However, the already-struggling business failed to thrive under his leadership, and he eventually sold the bakery back to its original owner 19 months later. The bakery was damaged in a fire in 2013.

In 1995, Granny Goose announced it was closing the Oakland potato chip plant, costing the city between 350 and 400 union jobs. With the help of a $2.25 million loan from the city, Kim kept it open, buying the parent company for $4.75 million.

“I don’t want to be hypocritical,” Kim told a newspaper at the time. “I’ve made a ton of money out of this. But is that my only motivation? No. There are 600 jobs, and that means 600 families. That’s a tremendous responsibility.”

It was around that time that Kim met Simon Cho, a property owner and developer in Oakland. Kim impressed him immediately, Cho said.

“He was a very bright young man, very business oriented,” Cho said. “I liked him.”

Cho said he encouraged Kim to aim his ambitions high: “Set your goal for the mayor of Oakland or governor of California,” Cho recalled telling him. “I always encouraged him in that way.”

And local politicians took notice. Former Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente sang Kim’s praises over the potato chip deal.

“It’s a message that the local city government and small businesses can create a partnership for the benefit of both,” De La Fuente said at the time.

Kim’s rescue of Merritt Bakery and Granny Goose were heralded in March 1996 when he was named businessman of the year by the San Francisco Korean Chamber of Commerce for saving jobs and boosting the regional economy. But, in fact, Kim’s troubles had already begun.

Federal charges

By 2000, the celebrated Granny Goose deal was cooked. The company owed $37 million, including $2.2 million to the city of Oakland, and was insolvent, but Kim faced bigger problems.

The year before, Kim attended a Colorado retreat hosted by the Young President’s Club, an exclusive organization for the nation’s top young executives. He learned that one participant couldn’t make the meeting because her company, Meridian Data, was about to merge with Quantum Corp. The club rules required members to keep such business discussions confidential, but Kim left the meeting and bought stock in Meridian. He made $832,000 when the deal closed two months later.

Kim was indicted in 2001 and convicted the next year by a federal jury for making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was probing the deal.

Also during 2000 and 2001, Kim shorted the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board more than $12.2 million in income taxes, bankruptcy records show.

Dot-Com

As the dot-com bubble grew, Kim joined internet incubator Brainrush. The company, now defunct, assisted new websites, including MySimon.com.

Kim pitched the business venture to his childhood friend, Michael Chung, and convinced Chung to invest $1 million, according to court records. When CNET bought mySimon in 2001 for $700 million, Chung asked for his money. He alleged in a lawsuit that Kim lied to him and told him the sale lost money. Chung claimed that Kim actually used the proceeds to pay back a personal loan to the Brainrush majority shareholder.

As the bubble burst, Kim returned to real estate. In 2003, Kim partnered with Cho to acquire two acres, which they hoped to turn into 154 condos with 10,000 square feet of retail space in Koreatown. The project fizzled after a third partner joined the deal. They eventually sold part of that land last year, Cho said.

Councilman Larry Reid remembers Kim being a City Hall presence in the mid to late 1990s, when he owned Granny Goose.

“Keith kind of disappeared then he resurfaced” recently with a West Oakland development, Reid said.

Kim as a tenant

From August 2009 to February 2010, Kim and his family rented a Piedmont home. Landlord Justin Sterling sued the family in April 2010 claiming they failed to maintain the Sierra Avenue property, pay for utilities or even set up trash service. Sterling also alleged that Kim hid his criminal conviction and financial status when filling out the rental application.

The Kims countersued, saying the house lacked heat, had inadequate plumbing and electrical wiring, and had bad odors and trash piling up. Kim claimed the landlord sent a large tattooed man to evict his family.

In September 2011, with lawsuits and tax debt mounting, Kim and his wife, Janice, filed for bankruptcy, claiming only $45,000 in assets, while accumulating more than $13.7 million in debt. The father of four claimed he was making $6,200 a month as a consultant. No real estate was claimed on the bankruptcy filing.

In 2013, Kim’s business, Mead Avenue Housing Associates, took out a $2.9 million bank loan against the dilapidated San Pablo Avenue property.

That same year, Kim partnered with Jabari Herbert to develop a 417-unit apartment complex at 500 Kirkham St. in West Oakland. On Tuesday, the day after the San Pablo Avenue fire, the Oakland council voted to transfer those development rights to Panoramic Interests, LLC.

On Wednesday, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who recently participated in a special hearing on affordable housing safety issues in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire, condemned Kim.

“Unfortunately, this tragedy once again highlights a circumstance where building owners are aware of the derelict condition of a property,” she said, “and despite complaints did not take remedial action to ensure safe and habitable conditions for their residents.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/29/keith-kim-oakland-fire-landlords-rollercoaster-past/

116 Oakland Bldg Dept (OBD) - Inspections and some enforcement but no abatement 2551 San Pablo

Residents: No alarms or sprinklers worked during deadly Oakland fire

Days after the December warehouse fire, the owner of the building that burned Monday sent an eviction notice to Urojas Community Center, which occupies the first two floors of the building, said James Cook, an attorney for the center.

The center assists about 60 people with transitional housing and services, Cook said. He had complained to the city about clogged toilets and disgusting bathrooms, exposed wires and water an inch thick on the ground floor, he said. 

“It’s like Ghost Ship, but worse,” Cook said.

Residents included a 9 year old boy who escaped in his underwear and socks. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fire-in-oakland-building/


Over the last decade, the city has received 20 complaints about pest infestation, electrical issues, mold, trash, graffiti, floors caving in, roof leaks and other blight issues.

Eighteen of those complaints occurred within the last five years, including the master tenant Urojas Community Services’ request on March 2 for an inspection of the facility by code enforcement for “alleged deferred maintenance by landlord.” The city verified the violation, according to city records.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/27/oakland-fire-landlord-moved-to-evict-tenants-after-ghost-ship-blaze/

Oakland Building Inspectors make REPEATED trips to the same building, but don't involve the Fire Inspectors to ensure other safety issues aren't being ignored? 

There are items listed from 2014 that are still 'pending investigation'.  How long does it take Oakland Building Inspectors to 'investigate' a substandard building?

"Hole in floor. Unable to lock door = unactionable"  If the City won't take 'action' - who will?

	Filed Date	Record Number	Record Type	Address	Description	Project Name	Status	Short Notes
	03/02/2017	1700865	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Master tenant Urojas request inspection of the facility; alleged deferred maintenance by landlord.		Violation Verified
	02/23/2017	1700743	Blight - Facility Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Large amount of trash and debris, building materials, furniture in back of property. Neighbor will provide access in order to verify.		Notice of Violation Sent
	12/29/2016	1604844	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	No working heat throughout the building, electrical issues and a large pest infestation		Open
	11/10/2016	1604339	Blight - Facility Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Possible insufficient garbage service at property.		No Violation Found
	09/07/2016	1603446	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Unit 321: Pipe in the kitchen sink is missing causing water leakage and mold and the floor is caving in. The toilet is not working properly.		Re-Activated
	05/16/2016	1601760	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, UNIT #117, Oakland CA 94612	UNIT #117: Lack of hot water		Violation Verified
	04/11/2016	1601257	Blight - Facility Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Bags of garbage and household items are piling up against side yard fencing and in rear yard also.		Abated
	03/08/2016	1600785	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, UNIT 222, Oakland CA 94612	Hole in floor of kitchen, can't lock door		Non-Actionable
	01/29/2016	1600358	Blight - Facility Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	NO ELECTRICITY IN UNIT, NO HOT WATER, MOLD IN UNIT #113		Closed
	09/23/2015	1503413	Blight Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Inadequate garbage service - Trash all over		Abated

'

	04/15/2015	1501269	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	Unit #216: Holes in walls from rodent infestation; mold and mildew from water leak in shower.		Pending Investigation	Unit #216: Holes in walls from rodent infestation; mold and mildew from water leak in shower.
	03/10/2014	1401080	Housing Habitability Complaint	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, Oakland CA 94612	roof leaking, ceiling has holes, mold & mildew		Pending Investigation	roof leaking, ceiling has holes, mold & mildew
	06/10/2013	1303097	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, OAKLAND CA	UNSANITARY CONDITIONS, FECES, URINE, MOLD WOMENS QUARTERS, KITCHENNO HANDICAP ACCESS, LEAKY PIPES THROUGHOUT BUILDING	Enforcement Record	Abated	UNSANITARY CONDITIONS, FECES, URINE, MOLD WOMENS QUARTERS, KITCHENNO HANDICAP ACCESS, LEAKY PIPES THROUGHOUT BUILDING
	05/01/2013	1302329	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, 211, OAKLAND CA	CEILING LEAKING FROM PIPES (POSSILBY A SEWER LINE) OVER KITCHEN ANDOTHER SPOTS THRU OUT UNIT	Enforcement Record	Abated	CEILING LEAKING FROM PIPES (POSSILBY A SEWER LINE) OVER KITCHEN ANDOTHER SPOTS THRU OUT UNIT
	02/19/2013	1300990	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, 223, OAKLAND CA	NO HOT WATER OR HEAT INSIDE UNIT	Enforcement Record	Abated	NO HOT WATER OR HEAT INSIDE UNIT
	01/28/2013	1300557	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, 319, OAKLAND CA	LEFT BEDROOM DOOR JAMB DAMAGED.	Enforcement Record	Abated	LEFT BEDROOM DOOR JAMB DAMAGED.
	11/07/2012	1206002	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, 317, OAKLAND CA	FLOOR IS SLATED AND BUILDING STRUCTURE IS UNSTABLE.	Enforcement Record	Abated	FLOOR IS SLATED AND BUILDING STRUCTURE IS UNSTABLE.
	04/04/2012	1201446	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, OAKLAND CA	GRAFFITI ON STORE FRONT	Enforcement Record	Closed	GRAFFITI ON STORE FRONT
	11/01/2007	0708176	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Blight	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, LOWER, OAKLAND CA	EMPLOYEE COMPLAINT - MOLD AND MILDEW AND DUSTY VENT IN THE HOUE.	Enforcement Record	No Violation Found	EMPLOYEE COMPLAINT - MOLD AND MILDEW AND DUSTY VENT IN THE HOUE.
	10/31/2007	0708155	Enforcement/Private Property/Facility Complaint/Housing	2551 SAN PABLO AVE, LOWER, OAKLAND CA	TENANT COMPLAINT - MOLD AND MILDEW AND DUSTY VENTS IN THE HOUSE.	Enforcement Record	Closed