Fire and Liability Danger Cited : City Evicts 40 Residents of Dilapidated Motel

On order from city officials, the last 40 residents of a dilapidated Buena Park motel carted away their belongings Thursday as police stood by to enforce a 6 p.m. eviction deadline.

As the final tenants of the Melody Manor Motel left, construction workers used heavy chain-link fencing to seal off the 60-room motel’s graffiti-filled hallways. Other workers shut off the water.

Electricity at the motel--dubbed “Felony Manor” by its residents--had been turned off July 7, after owner Gordon Daskowski apparently failed to pay power bills. In a letter dated July 8, Fire Department Chief Samuel J. Winner ordered Daskowski to keep his tenants from using candles or lanterns.

“Failure to comply with this lawful order, on the first violation, will cause me to order the buildings vacated immediately and secured, regardless of the time of day or night,” the letter said.

The motel, located in the 8000 block of Commonwealth Avenue, was shut down after a surprise Wednesday night inspection by police and fire officials, who found tenants burning candles in their darkened rooms. Residents said the use of candles and portable stoves was common at the motel, which one city official said “defies description.”

Tenants were notified at 8 a.m. Thursday that they had until evening to leave, officials said.

“Some people have been using flashlights, candles, lanterns,” said tenant Belinda Adams, 23, as she stood by her family’s goods, holding a neighbor’s baby. “It wasn’t any fun.”

Melody Manor tenants originally were ordered to leave last March when the landlords at that time lost their liability insurance, but many tenants had refused.

City Manager Kevin O’Rourke said the city had been working with the residents in an effort to correct the health and safety hazards and relocate the families. Two months ago, an estimated 150 tenants lived in the roach-infested motel. Until Thursday night, between 30 and 40 lived in about 10 rooms.

“They’ve known this has been coming,” O’Rourke said.

City officials and police said the motel has long been troubled with building code violations and crime.

“One guy told me, ‘I’d love to leave, but I have nowhere else to go,’ ” Police Officer Terry Branum said. “There are a few decent people there who just can’t get together their first and last month’s rent and deposits to move. They pay $400 to $600 a month. Some of them share a room with two or three other people.”

Police were called to the motel “two or three times a night,” Branum said, on reports of prostitution, drugs, fights, child abandonment and disturbing the peace.

The Fire Department visited the motel “twice a week on drug overdoses, assaults, fires” and other health problems, Branum said.

“It’s a crime haven, “ he said. “The pool looks like a lagoon, and if someone fell in there you probably wouldn’t be able to see them.”

Activist Groups Concerned

But the motel has provided shelter for the mostly unemployed tenants, Branum said, and several activist groups are concerned about the city’s action.

“The Fair Housing (Council) people have been calling today saying, ‘You can’t just dump these people onto the streets; they have nowhere to go.’ The Red Cross says they can’t really help in this situation because it doesn’t (constitute) a disaster,” Branum said. Most of these people are living on welfare anyway.”

The city, he said, “is damned if they do, damned if they don’t. We’ll be bad guys for kicking these people out on the street with no where to go, and if we let this go on, and two kids burn in a fire there tonight, the city will be liable.”

City Manager O’Rourke, however, said that all of the residents had found some form of shelter by Thursday night.

Paramedics Called

Brenda Adams--with her husband and three children--will go to her mother’s home in Bellflower. Another tenant, Marquitta Elderson, 52, was taken by private ambulance to a nearby apartment, where she will stay with her roommate. Elderson, who suffers from edema, must use an oxygen tank at all times.

Paramedics were called to transport Tami Widner to the hospital because the pregnant woman in her 20s apparently went into labor while packing.

The only enthusiastic participant was Rick Byers, a Newport Beach real estate broker who said he offered Thursday to buy the building for $1.1 million. After 60 days and $250,000, he said, he would be able to turn the building “into whatever the city wants to make it.”