Judge Dale Reinholtsen today declined to block the city of Eureka’s order to vacate a dilapidated apartment building owned by Floyd and Betty Squires, meaning the 15 tenants of 833 H St. will need to be out by Monday.
The Squireses had requested a temporary restraining order to restrict city officials from entering any of the couple’s buildings and “disturbing or evicting” renters after the city condemned the H Street complex, citing “extremely hazardous electrical and other violations at the property.”
The residents — some with life-threatening conditions — have until Jan. 22 to leave. City officials told the court that all of the renters have made arrangements for where they will go when the deadline arrives after receiving $2,000 in relocation aid.
Today’s hearing in Humboldt County Superior Court was the latest chapter in a legal saga that began seven years ago this month when the city of Eureka filed a lawsuit seeking to wrest away control of 26 properties owned by the couple, saying their management was akin to that of “slumlords.”
While Reinholtsen appointed what’s known as a “receiver” in 2013 to oversee repairs at those properties, the city has argued that ostensibly little has changed in the interim, leaving officials no choice but to take proactive measures to protect the public’s safety.
While Reinholtsen told attorneys that he didn’t have anything before him to “issue a TRO at this point,” he did set a hearing for next week to discuss whether the city’s legal counsel from a private firm had previously agreed to seek his permission before making such a move.
Attorney Curtis Wright of the Irvine-based law firm Silver and Wright LLP, which is representing the city in the Squireses’ case, said the city would not have agreed to limit its ability to obtain court orders necessary to protect public safety.
“The city has proceeded with getting orders from this court, but not necessarily this department,” he told Reinholtsen during a phone appearance at the hearing.
The Squireses’ attorney, Bradford Floyd, disagreed, telling the judge that he also thought the city had subscribed to bringing all such actions before Reinholtsen.
“They are going against what they represented to us, they are going against what they represented to the court the last time, so that’s why we are here,” Floyd told the judge.
Reinholtsen requested a transcript of a Sept. 12, 2017, hearing be compiled to help determine the “propriety of the actions that occurred so far.” The judge said he thought the agreement reached by both sides — emphasizing that he did not request it — was that “all proceedings involving receivership properties would go before this court, this department.”
“Frankly, I don’t know if we have an effective court order,” Reinholtsen said.
He noted that the situation could be a matter of semantics or “maybe there was a misunderstanding by one or both of the parties or the court.”
The Squireses’ motion for the restraining order argues that the city has been sidestepping Reinholtsen, who’s had the receivership case since 2011, by going to other judges for inspection warrants.
The city has boarded up several other properties owned by the Squireses in recent months and torn down two others since August, citing public health and safety concerns.
According to a Facebook post today by Eureka City Councilmember Kim Bergel, some of the tenants have already moved out. Five found permanent housing while most of the others will be using some form of temporary shelter as they continuing to work with various agencies to secure a place to live.
The couple Don Brown and Debora Bronson, who were among those featured in this week’s Journal cover “Dying and Destitute,” were among those who found a permanent living arrangement this afternoon, according to city officials.
Meanwhile, the Squireses recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and have already lost some $19,000 in rent with the city’s code enforcement actions at other properties. That number will increase to more than $25,000 once the H Street property is also shuttered.
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This article appears in The Health and Wellness Edition.
They are going against what they represented to us, they are going against what they represented to the court the last time, so thats why we are here, Floyd told the judge.
Receivership: why would any case go before more than one judge after a disqualfication process has already come and gone?
Its bad enough that Reinholtsen is the only good judge on the bench, but to then allow the other judges who are lazy and don’t read case files is pathetic……..
Eureka is known for these shithole games in court……again, where is the Grand Jury inspections of site, how about human rights commission, etc…….
Inspections: if read correctly, the city is attempting to conjoin for denial a letter regarding permission to inspect (tenant arrangements) or permission by court to issue order (article poorly written as to “permission”) to some statement that says city won’t lessen its abilities….”…..interesting…..
Also, where is this secret list of repairs that is public information……what is soooooo major that repairs can’t be done with people living on-site? Everyday, electricians go inside living units to repair real bad issues…..life threatening issues……
The city is redevelopment greedy,running out of building lots…..needs to sabotage properties, attack all low income rental owners it can, motels and hotels……give new low income housing development away on freebie grants and public auctions if not by way of court bankruptcy……
Kim Bergel is clueless in politics, absolutely clueless……how the hell people voted for her is a miracle……but it is shithole Eureka…….
More proof DANCO AND EUREKA are running a racket for subsidized housing developments……read the words very closely and carefully in the article…..
Eurekans who are ok with public employees committing racketeering deserve a shithole city…..
….Humboldt County weighs short-term solutions in face of housing shortage
By: Will Houston (whouston@times-standard.com@times-standard.com)
POSTED: Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 – 7:46 p.m.
UPDATED: A DAY AGO
Humboldt County’s Housing First efforts to rapidly house homeless individuals have helped more than 160 people find housing. But there are still hundreds more waiting on the same opportunity because of the local housing shortage, according to local officials.
County Department of Health and Human Services Senior Program Manager Sally Hewitt said the county and other organizations have hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding each year that can be used to assist homeless or very low-income individuals to pay for rent and security deposits. However, Hewitt said there is not enough housing available for these funds to even to be used.
“There’s at least 300 people who are ready to go if housing could be made available to them,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt said part of the difficulty of finding housing for subsidized renters is that the housing must comply with federal quality standards, which Hewitt said many properties do not meet.
“We have been aggressively working to house a lot of folks and we aim at housing that is less than $700 a month,” Hewitt said. “Pretty much every affordable house that meets that we have rented.”
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In the meantime, local homeless advocates are calling for the Board of Supervisors to declare a shelter crisis on Tuesday to allow for emergency shelter construction to begin.
The board had delayed making a declaration at its Jan. 9 meeting, though some supervisors acknowledged that a crisis does exist. The board instead voted to form an ad hoc committee to review potential options and make a final recommendation at the upcoming Tuesday meeting.
Other stopgap measures are being considered in the meantime, such as the county Board of Supervisors investing $100,000 to the city of Eureka to find a location for donated Pacific Gas and Electric Company trailers that can be used as temporary housing.
The county and other local groups are also working to create a 40-bed winter shelter that would be open 24/7 and would provide access to services such as housing assistance, health care and employment assistance. Hewitt said the search for a suitable location is still ongoing.
But in terms of developing new housing, Humboldt County and the state as a whole are well behind, according to local officials.
County Planning and Building Department Senior Planner Michael Richardson said the county’s latest state-mandated Housing Element approved in 2014 required the county to identify property that can accommodate about 860 new housing units in the unincorporated area by 2019, about half of which must be low-income affordable housing.
Richardson said that the state projected 172 units of new housing must be built in the county each year, but only 74 were built in 2016, of which about 20 were for low-income and very low-income units.
At this point, Richardson said there is “no way” the county will be able to meet the required 859 new housing units by mid-2019.
“There is not enough housing being constructed to meet what our projected demands were supposed to be,” Richardson said.
Richardson said that the county doesn’t construct the housing units itself, but it has a role in encouraging development.
“Part of the responsibility lies with the county to make sure there are sites that are available that are properly zoned with the appropriate infrastructure to accommodate these units,” Richardson said. “Beyond that the county’s role is to just wait for a project to come into our door and run like hell to try to permit that project in a timely manner and hope they get developed.”
California would need to build about 3.5 million more units by 2025 to keep pace with population growth, but only one million homes were expected to be built by 2025, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report from October 2016.
Local housing development projects are in the works, including two Danco Communities projects in the city, according to Eureka Community Development Director Rob Holmlund.
Holmlund said the City Council has provided funding for a 40-unit senior affordable housing at the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Seventh Street. Another Danco Communities project would build 50 units for homeless veterans at the intersection of Fourth and B streets, which would include full-time staff for post-traumatic stress disorder counseling, life skills courses, job training and on-site security, Holmlund said.
“If it comes through it will be one of the largest buildings constructed in Eureka in decades,” Holmlund said. “More importantly I think it would provide much needed housing for homeless veterans. What’s really special about that project is it goes beyond providing housing.”
Holmlund said they are still assessing how much housing the city would need to build to meet demand, which he said would be completed in about six months.
Holmlund said that there is not much room to build in Eureka compared to other areas of the county.
“Eureka’s strategy is going to have to be different,” Holmlund said. “Our strategy is going to be based on infill, utilizing the infrastructure we already have and finding vacant and underutilized parcels.”
Holmlund said at least half of new housing units in the city would be built in the next 20 years would be in the city’s commercial districts. Holmlund said this would be achieved by having mixed uses, such as business on the street level and residences in upper floors.
Holmlund said that the state’s housing shortage as a whole will a greater affect on the county’s shortage, with potentially more people from Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area looking north.
“Even if 0.1 percent of people would start looking outside of those areas that’s a large number of people,” Holmlund said.
Richardson there is also a project in the works to build 66 multifamily units in the Myrtletown area.
Hewitt said that even if there are willing developers ready to invest in new housing projects, it would take at least a year before people could occupy it. There other options available, Hewitt said, such as renovating existing apartments to allow for subsidized renters, which take less time.
“There are alternatives to help,” she said. “Then there is what do we do with homeless folks in the meantime.”
Hewitt added she’s excited to see what the Board of Supervisors chooses to do on Tuesday.