Residents to Help Senior Kicked Out of Home With Bake, Plant Sale

By Mirna Alfonso

This article was updated at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 21 to include comments from Brock Real Estate:

“Brock Real Estate did represent Good Form in the sale but had nothing to do with relocating Natalie Moore. The property was in REAP for several years.

“Ken Shapiro from Silverwood Properties represented the current owners with the purchase. Brock Real Estate and Good Form were not involved in the negotiations or relocation of Natalie.”

---Original Story:

A weekend Plant and Bake Sale Benefit is planned to help Natalie Moore, an 87-year-old being forced out of her home in Los Angeles.

The event is set for Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 22 and Nov. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 622 N. Coronado St.

Natalie Moore, 87, has lived at 624 N. Coronado St for 40 years. Though Moore would like to continue residing in her home, on Nov. 4, the Los Angeles Housing Department declared the building unsafe for habitation, and issued an order to vacate the building in 30 days.

Event organizers told Patch:

While she will receive some relocation money, it will not be made available to her until the day she moves out.

We need to raise money to help Natalie put a deposit on a new apartment, says Anne Hars, one of the organizers.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

• Bring plants and baked goods to the sale;
• Come buy baked goods and plants at the sale;
• Email HelpHouseNatalie@gmail.com with details on specific units that are currently for rent, are within five-block radius of 624 N Coronado St, accepts pets, and rents for $600/month or less
• Send a monetary donation (not tax-deductible) via pay pal to HelpHouseNatalie@gmail.com.

Hars wrote the following to Patch:

Just before Christmas, on Dec. 4, a long-time Coronado Street resident will be forced out of her home. Natalie Moore, 87, has lived in the fourplex at 624 N Coronado St for 40 years. You may have seen her walking down Coronado to the corner store at Temple, saying a friendly hello with her beautiful smile and long white hair, or caring for the plants outside her home.

Though Ms. Moore would like to continue residing in her home, on November 4, the Los Angeles Housing Department declared the building unsafe for habitation, and issued an order to vacate the building in 30 days.

The building has been in desperate need of repair for years, but the key structural issues that led to the Housing Department’s determination only occurred in July of this year when the previous owner—goodFORM, headed by Garrison & Patrice Leigh, and represented by Brock Real Estate—tore the roof off the building and gutted the other three units, all without a building permit.

This left the building, according to the recent order to vacate, “uninhabitable due to the severe demolition to the entire building involving removal of roof, . . . lack of fire warning devices, lack of weatherproofing, [and] vacant units open to the public,” among other things. When neighbors informed the Housing Department of the un-permitted work, the department issued a stop work order and forced goodFORM to erect temporary weather-proofing—a glorified tarp where the roof once was. goodFORM gave up on their plans to renovate the building and put the property on the market again after owning it for about 2 weeks.

Without conducting additional work, on October 1, goodFORM sold the property to 1 Valley View Group, headed by Brad Wiedmann, for $600,000—a gross profit for goodFORM of $160,000. One week’s worth of un-permitted demolition had somehow made the property significantly more valuable. Then, with the rainy season approaching and no progress on the myriad cited repairs, the Housing Department declared the building unsafe.

Now, instead of being allowed to return to her home after renovations to the property—as Housing Department regulations would have ensured—Ms. Moore was given 30 days to pack up and find a new place to live.

She will receive monetary relocation assistance from the current owner, but this money will likely not be provided until the day she is required to vacate the property, so it will not be useful in securing a new place to live with a security deposit or first month’s rent.

In addition, with the city’s affordable housing crisis and Ms. Moore’s fixed income, she will likely have to pay substantially more in rent than she can afford, and the relocation assistance may not last her very long in meeting this additional expense.

This situation raises serious issues about Los Angeles housing regulations that, though created to protect tenants, in this case have conveniently provided the owners a soon-to-be-vacant property with infinitely greater flexibility and profit-potential through renovation or demolition.

These regulations must be reviewed so that the Housing Department does not continue to inadvertently do the dirty work of unscrupulous developers.

And, no matter the regulations, the owners—past and present—have an ethical responsibility to care for their tenants, especially vulnerable senior citizens:

The current owners could come meet the tenants and provide their contact information, could provide temporary housing in the neighborhood for Ms. Moore, and could commit to re-house her at her current rent in a new or renovated unit on the same property.

The previous owners could contribute to Ms. Moore’s fundraising efforts below, could follow Housing Department regulations in the future, and could adopt more ethical business practices.

Brock Real Estate could contribute to the below fundraising efforts and advise future clients about Housing Department regulations and ethical treatment of tenants.