HAYWARD, Calif. – Residents of a Hayward apartment complex, upset after a roof repair during recent storms led to flooding and damage in their units, are now being relocated to a hotel.
After KTVU reported on the flooding on Tuesday, building management at the complex on Garin Avenue near Mission Boulevard, said on Wednesday that they are paying upfront to move all tenants to a nearby hotel and for storage of their belongings while repairs are underway.
“Everything is better now,” said tenant Randall Drewes, who was on his way to a hotel. “The apartment complex is taking care of everybody. They’ve got temporary housing. They’ve got people going inside and fixing everything right now.”
The building is laying the blame on a roofing company, which they say began repairs at the complex in the middle of a recent storm. Water began seeping through the roof on Tuesday and dripping from light fixtures. Residents used buckets, bins, pots, and whatever else they had on hand to collect the water.
“I’m upstairs on the third floor, and I’m stuck,” said Kym Drewes, on Tuesday who has end-stage kidney failure and uses a wheelchair. Her building is now a soggy mess. “Earlier today, the elevator went out, so because of that there’s no way for me to get downstairs. I don’t walk,” she said.
Her husband Randall Drewes showed KTVU the extent of the damage inside the complex.
“The rain is coming through the roof and flooding down into a lot of apartments,” he said on Tuesday. “Some of the sheet rock is falling in, water is on the side like a waterfall.”
Workers from a restoration company spent the last two days doing clean up.
“There’s holes in the ceiling right now, there’s holes above you, and there’s water all over the floor,” said Calveena Roche, another tenant on Tuesday.
Building management says they are in the process of looking for a new roofing company, and that it’s unclear how long residents will be displaced