The Pismo Beach City Council will submit a $5 million grant application to help People’s Self-Help Housing make upgrades to an apartment complex the nonprofit was recently sued over.
During a May 22 council meeting, council members voted to unanimously approve a grant application to the California Department of Housing and Community Development under the Competitive Permanent Local Housing Allocation to assist People’s Self-Help with the rehabilitation work for the Sea Haven Apartments in Pismo.
“Eligible activities for the grant program include substantial rehabilitation of multifamily housing projects where households are at or below 60 percent of area median income,” the staff report stated. “The city is an eligible applicant for funding under this project. The minimum application amount set by the state Department of Housing and Community Development is $500,000 and the maximum application amount is $5 million.”
Rehabilitation work for the Sea Haven Apartments comes a few months after three residents filed lawsuits against People’s Self-Help Housing for negligence, alleging a lack of proper maintenance.
Steven Duke, Rose Salitore, and Gregory Hood were all residents at the apartment complex who alleged that they experienced a decline in their health due to conditions in the complex. The lawsuit alleges that People’s Self-Help failed to have timely or proper inspections, maintenance, management, and repairs that caused an “unsafe level of mold spores, mycotoxins, endotoxins, bacteria, MVOCs, viral compounds, asbestos, lead, dust mites, and other toxic or allergenic contaminants, which caused his residence to become uninhabitable,” Duke’s lawsuit states.
Hood moved into the Sea Haven Apartments in 1992. He alleged that when People’s Self-Help Housing purchased the property in 1997, the organization knew the place was plagued by water issues, bacteria, mold, lead, and asbestos, but didn’t perform proper testing to ensure that they were cleaned.
That led to his daughter, Anasuya Jasmine Hood, experiencing health complications, according to the lawsuit.
“After moving into the property, plaintiff discovered water leaking through the ceiling and subsequently discovered mold and began to suffer adverse health symptoms, including kidney failure,” the lawsuit states.
The city’s grant application is due June 6. Δ
This article appears in Summer Guide 2024.
