Illegal housing concerns addressed in Santa Cruz
As new details emerge about the deadly warehouse fire in Oakland last week, fire departments on the Central Coast are tackling local areas where people may be living in illegal spaces.
On Thursday, KION learned more about what’s being done in Santa Cruz and took a deeper look at the code enforcement process.
In the days following Oakland’s deadly warehouse fire that killed 36 people, the Santa Cruz fire and police departments, along with code enforcement and inspection teams, met to make sure what happened there does not happen here.
“We did identify a couple of places where we did have situations like that in the past and we’ve gone and actually investigating and inspecting those areas to make sure that something has been created that we’re not aware of,” Fire Chief Jim Frawley said.
Frawley said Santa Cruz is no stranger to people illegally living in warehouses, storage units and converted garages.
“We do regularly identify places like that here in Santa Cruz. We have had a warehouse that was kind of converted to a nightclub and a bar area and that came as a complaint to us,” Frawley said.
In that same industrial park on Coral Street, warehouse staff tell KION they have seen people living in and outside of the buildings.
“It used to be that I used to find one or two people underneath the awning or out here. And now I’m finding its like four or five people underneath the awning. It seems like its getting overpopulated, crowded,” said Cesar with Tile Marble Outlet.
Officials said the lack of affordable housing has a lot to do with people living in warehouses, public storage and other illegal spaces.
“Really what it is, is people just trying to make ends meet. They’re trying to have a place to live that’s safe and we really need to look at how we can provide those types of opportunities so that they’re safe–that they’re built to the codes and the standards,” Frawley said.
“I think the weather’s a big factor. It’s cold,” Cesar said.
Inspectors said the majority of their code violation cases come from complaints. Multiple departments take action and those places are red tagged and the people inside of them are removed.
“And they’ll either have to bring that space up to code or they’ll need to return it to its original use or they’ll demolish it,” Frawley said.
While outhouses, garages and the like are for rent on sites like Craigslist, officials said if they do not have a restroom, cooking area and safety detectors within the structure, they most likely are not up to code and unfit for living.
