Residents In 5-Bedroom Home Used As 28-Bed Flophouse Get Immediate Boot; Eviction Triggered When Cops Responded To Domestic Disturbance Complaint, Referring Observations Of Unpermitted Boarding House To City Code Enforcement Officials For Red-Tagging

In Monterey Park, California, The Pasadena Star-News reports:

• The city could sue the owners of a home on Newmark Avenue allegedly being used as an illegal motel/boarding house, it announced [].
  
  The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 312 East Newmark Avenue was filled with 28 beds in the house, garage and other temporary structures in the backyard, according to a city statement.
  
  Unpermitted boarding houses or “residential motels” typically come in the form of single-family houses or condos in which 20-to-30 people live at a cost of about $10 per day
  
  The city originally became aware of the potential boarding house when police officers responded to a domestic disturbance complaint at the home []. Monterey Park police found that the alleged disturbance had taken place the night before, according to the city statement.
  
  The responding officers noted the house looked to be an unpermitted boarding house, shortly thereafter, city code enforcement found multiple violations including unpermitted building construction, unpermitted boarding house activity and noncompliant garage and accessory structures, the statement said.
  
  By Oct. 31, the city building official had placed a red tag on the building, a designation indicating the structure was seriously damaged and unsafe, according to the city. The tag instructs anyone who would seek to enter the house not to until the tag is removed by the city.
  
  ***
  Edward Ortega has lived in the home across the street from 312 East Newmark for 55 years. He said he knew the home was being used to house more people than is legal, but he never sought to report them because they weren’t a nuissance.
  
  “They probably have no money and have to sleep on mattresses on the floor throughout the house,” Ortega said. “What can you do? That’s life. I feel bad for them in that sense.”
  
  Ortega said [] he saw police escorting residents out of the house, with many of them calling friends to pick them up.

For the story, see Monterey Park may sue owners of an alleged illegal boarding house.