Suit by residents of Cloverdale apartments says they endured black mold, leaking roofs and cockroaches

Aldys, who does not speak English, smiles sweetly as she welcomes strangers into her home.

She and her husband, Gerardo, a grape picker, live in their two-bedroom McCray Road apartment, part of a converted motel, with their two children, ages 6 and 7. They did not want their last names used for fear of retaliation.

They do the best they can for their children. They have chosen to put bunk beds in one bedroom (the one on the bottom is a double) so the children can have a playroom in the other bedroom. There is a small kitchen with a table where the children do their schoolwork and the family eats their daily meals and a living room.

Aldys, who works part time at a nearby restaurant, said the family has lived there for four years, dealing with the humidity that makes the walls sweat and the black mold that forms when it rains. Things were more difficult during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the children didn’t go to school, she said.

They are one of seven families who are part of a lawsuit that was filed in April against owners Joy Kane and Charles Traboulsi, who purchased the buildings in 2013 and own dozens of other rental properties in Sonoma County. The suit is still in the discovery phase.

After taking on the case in November 2020, sending the owners a letter and working with them for several months and “getting nowhere,” attorneys Edie Sussman of Santa Rosa and frequent collaborator Joshua Katz filed a lawsuit. They suggested their clients withhold rent until “a terrible lack of functioning heat, mold just everywhere and raw sewage coming into people’s tubs, showers and sinks” is repaired, Sussman said.

“It was appalling what was going on there,” she said. “But we’re suing not only to get damages but to get the whole place fixed.“

It wasn’t easy getting residents to agree to join the lawsuit or withhold their rent, Sussman said. They all feared eviction. Tenant Susana Alfaro talked to the families and convinced them that they would be protected by the attorneys, Sussman said.

On Oct. 15, she and Katz, who also practices in Santa Rosa, sent a letter to the county. They cited long lists of violations including missing weather stripping, rodent and cockroach infestations, multiple points of rodent entry, mold and elevated moisture levels in the bedroom and bathroom walls and baseboards, dry rot and bedroom electrical outlets “that show open ground,” and requesting an inspection.

As a result, a county inspector visited the property Oct. 27 and toured three units with Katz. They were cited in one unit for two leaking windows, noted “weather protection on the roof” indicating the tenant had to block leaks, holes in a wall leading to rodent infestation and soft flooring near a bathtub, chipping and peeling paint among other things. Similar violations were cited in two other apartments.

A notice to correct the violations was given to the owners that day, said Permit Sonoma policy manager Bradley Dunn.

The owner was required to remove and replace all existing windows with new double-paned insulated glass and vinyl sash windows in two buildings. The county also told them to remove and replace parts of the roofs in two different buildings, and to install a new hood exhaust, electric wall heater and ceiling fan in another.

“Clearly these are minor violations and we did find out when talking to the manager that these occupants had not paid rent for up to a year,” said Harrison, county code enforcement manager. “And there was some credible information that perhaps these tenants failed to do repairs, but we don’t care,” she said. By law, repairs must be made regardless of those things, she said.

Harrison said the owner has taken out building permits to remove and replace all windows, remove and replace the roof and replace all ceiling fans and lights. The inspector said they were told there were sometimes problems with getting access to the units to make repairs.

Sussman said it was “absolutely not true” that residents who are her clients hadn’t made their units accessible. She pointed out that the permits were taken out in February and August and nothing had been done.

On Friday, the co-owner of the apartments, Charles Traboulsi, sent a letter responding to the tenants’ charges and the items cited by the county through his attorney, Robert Farrell of San Francisco.

In the letter, Traboulsi said a leak in the roof of one unit was fixed within 48 hours, which he viewed as “the most important item” brought to their attention. Other repairs were made as required, he said, including “replacing siding, weatherproofing around doors, holes in drywalls, electric outlets, small plumbing leaks, roof eaves, window locks, etc.”

Traboulsi said the apartment complex is in a rural area, making it “more likely” to experience pest control problems such as rats and cockroaches. He said they have a pest control company treat the property every month.

In Alfaro and Lua’s apartment, he said the tenants had covered up the wall with duct tape and turned off the pilot light, telling them they did it “because they thought it smelled and it bothered their breathing.” The pilot light was reignited and the heater was operational, he wrote. The couple said rats were coming through the wall heater and leaving feces, so they bought a space heater.

“I present this fact to you,” Traboulsi continued, “because one of the initial claims made by the plaintiff’s attorney was that the heater wasn’t operational, which caused the unit to be damp and therefore allowed mold to grow. The catalyst was the tenants disconnecting a fully operational wall heater in the first place.”

A sewage backup at one point was resolved at the unit by snaking the line, he said. He submitted a photo of Alfaro and Lua’s kitchen, calling it “a fairly modern kitchen.” He said he had requested a return visit by the county code enforcement department to affirm the corrections had been made.

“These kinds of situations can be very contentious,” Dunn said. “Our job is not to adjudicate these cases but to ascertain the condition of the buildings and apply the building code. It’s not legal to rent an uninhabitable building. That’s why we have inspectors out there trying to help everybody involved.”

As a result of the rent strike, four families have been able to save money and move out. They also received help with paying first month’s rent and deposits from various charitable organizations.

That includes Alfaro and her husband, Luis Lua, who moved to a newer apartment in Cloverdale 11 months ago.

The two-bedroom apartment, which costs $1,700 per month, is light and bright and has hardwood floors.

“You can’t compare it with the other apartment,” Lua said.

But most of all, Alfaro said, “I can sleep and I don’t cough or get rashes anymore.”

And, she said, “my girls are happier and healthier.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com.

Editor’s note: Neither Joshua Katz nor Edie Sussman are Legal Aid attorneys. The story was corrected to reflect that fact.