Displaced families struggle to find housing after condominium fire in Oxnard

J. Rivera was at home with her kids on a recent Thursday when she saw flames.

Her husband had gone out to do laundry, and the landlord had brought a plumber to work in one of the bathrooms. She was checking in on them while her kids were in the living room when the fire started. In less than a minute, there was a lot of fire, Rivera said through a translator.

Her daughter and the plumber both dialed 911. Rivera evacuated her family, and the owner came with them but one of her sons stayed to help the plumber who was trying to put the fire out until the firefighters arrived.

Once outside, she said she “could see a lot of black smoke and flames.” Her husband returned to find them standing outside the building with over a hundred people.

At 7:10 p.m. on Dec. 7, the Oxnard Fire Department responded to what turned into a two-alarm attic fire in the 2400 block of El Dorado Avenue. Rivera and her family were among the 22 people displaced that night. The blaze broke out in a two-story multifamily building with five units.

At least three of the five units in the condominium complex were affected fairly heavily, according to Fire Chief Alex Hamilton.

“Once the fire was put out, our investigator determined that the fire was caused by unpermitted plumbing work,” Hamilton said. “Somebody was basically sweating pipes, so heating up the pipes to make a change behind the shower.”

The department was able to get utilities turned back on for some units and the residents were able to go home, but two units were red-tagged, meaning those homes were unsafe to occupy and needed extensive repairs, according to Hamilton. Rivera’s home was one of them.

“I was very scared,” Rivera said. “But I did find some relief to know that this happened during the day because if it had happened at night, that was where my children's bedroom is.”

That night, they were put up at a hotel by the Red Cross and the next day, the family found accommodation through an acquaintance. They are now subleasing a single room for $1,500 from a woman in Oxnard who has agreed to give them the space for the month.

They sent the receipt to their landlord who said he would help them once he heard back from his insurance. For their two-bedroom apartment, they paid $1,600 in rent.

Rivera and her husband have both worked as farmworkers in Oxnard for 20 years. Her eldest son doesn’t live with them and is currently serving in the Navy, but the other six children, between ages 10 and 20, are all living with their parents.

The unit that had the fire and one other unit in the condominium did not have working smoke detectors. Hamilton emphasized the importance of smoke detectors, saying that having just one smoke detector in a home cuts your risk of death in a fire by 50%.

“Landlords are responsible for the fire protection systems,” he said. “They are obligated to have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in any space they rent.”

Residents can call 805-982-7282 to get smoke detectors installed for free. In Oxnard, 7,500 smoke detectors have been installed so far and Hamilton believes “that’s nowhere near enough.”

Another one of Rivera’s neighbors who was displaced is staying in a hotel that her landlord helped her find. She said she has not paid for the hotel herself yet but does not know if the landlord will do so.

She paid $1,450 in rent at her El Dorado unit, and the hotel costs could go over $4,000. She and her husband are also full-time farmworkers, and they have three children, ages 10, 15 and 17.

For the condominium, each unit has a different owner so each family’s situation is different.

Both women interviewed by the Star asked that their full names not be used, saying they feared publicly sharing their identities might prevent them from securing housing in the future or could affect their ability to get work.

The owners have told renters that as soon as they fix the building, they are going to be able to come back. However, the families are skeptical about the three- to six-month estimate they have been given for repairs. They worry it may take years to get fixed.

The Oxnard City Tenant Protection Ordinance states that if a tenant is evicted for a no-fault reason, the landlord has to provide financial assistance in the amount equal to two months of the tenant’s rent at the time of displacement or $5,000, whichever is greater.

This would apply to the unit that had the fire, but because the apartments are all individually owned, it is not clear if each of the displaced families will qualify for the aid. The city’s housing department is gathering the facts required to make the determination, according to Hamilton.

Friends of Fieldworkers, a nonprofit that helps farmworker families in Ventura County through advocacy and financial assistance, also provided emergency funds to the families. In the days following the fire, the organization's workers spoke with the displaced families to find ways forward, directing them to Laundry Love to wash their clothes for free and sending them $100 Christmas gift cards for essentials.

“It must be devastating to not have a home,” said Martha Martinez-Bravo, the nonprofit's executive director and a Camarillo city council member. “The families displaced experience trauma, and they need to be protected at all costs.”

Martinez-Bravo also translated from Spanish to English the conversations with the two women interviewed.

Rivera hopes that her landlord also helps her find housing because they have applied for around eight places so far but have not been approved for any of them.

“I want this to come to the ear of landlords. I don’t want them to be afraid of us as immigrants,” Rivera said. “We are hardworking farm-working people. We pay rent, and we are responsible.”

Dua Anjum is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at dua.anjum@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Families struggle to find housing after condominium fire in Oxnard