City letter, somewhat a formality, could help fire survivors find a new home

Today, while you’re shopping at Trader Joe’s, or figuring out what to do on New Year’s Eve, take a moment to remember the Aviles family, which lost three of its youngest members earlier this month–sisters Stephanie Aviles, 6; Jocelin Aviles, 7; and Jasmine Aviles, 10–following a fire Dec. 14 in their illegally-converted garage apartment.

In accordance with city municipal code sections 21.65.100 and 21.65.280B, the Aviles family must now vacate that garage today–that burned-out hull of a building in the 1000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

It sounds like a cruel joke. Family members were still red-eyed and mourning the deaths of three of their youngest on Friday, when I visited the front house on that property, a modest gray bungalow which they also occupy. How could they still be living in that garage?

They’re not, obviously. But on Friday–mostly as a formality–the city officially “red-tagged” the burned-out garage with a letter typed on white computer paper and addressed to its apparent landlord, Rosalina Ceballos.

City officials tacked the letter up next to the front door of the bungalow: an “Order to Vacate Illegal Garage Conversion.”

Family members–now all squeezed into the front house–said they were already looking for a new house or apartment which would be big enough for them all. So in reality, the red tag was good news–as good news as such a letter from the city can be.

“To be honest, it’s a mechanism to help them. What it does, it forces the landlord to help the family, which thus far they haven’t,” said John Edmond, who is chief of staff to Sixth District Councilman Dee Andrews. The Aviles family lives in Andrews’ council district.

Edmond said Friday that family members were actually discussing relocation expenses with their landlord before the garage was red-tagged–but they hadn’t reached an agreement on how much they would be paid.

“They’re entitled to relocation fees regardless,” Edmond said. And the Order to Vacate clearly spells that out. It says the landlord has two days from December 28 to pay “tenant relocation benefits of $3,796 due to household.”

“We want to make sure they are back on their feet as quickly as possible,” Edmond said of the Aviles family, which numbers eight people: five teens and adults, and three children. “We’re working on getting them job assistance, and the Mayor’s office is working with the family and they’re trying to help them find low-income housing.”

Then the Chief of Staff says something which rings true about the rise in charity every year around the holidays.

“There’s a lot of people helping them right now and that’s good. But this is a family which is going to need help six months from now, 12 months from now,” Edmond says. “You don’t just get over a tragedy like this.”

It’s true: sometimes you just move on.

Tags: California, City of Long Beach, code enforcement, condemned, Dee Andrews, John Edmond, Long Beach, Long Beach City Council, low-income housing, Mayor Bob Foster, Mayor Robert Foster, Order to Vacate, red-tagged, relocation expenses, Rosalina Ceballos, Sixth Council District, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas