Evictions were underway Thursday at the rental properties at 2009 and 2015 Norris Road that were declared dangerous and uninhabitable by the city of Vancouver last month. Several tenants told The Columbian they didn’t know what their next move would be.
Police, city building inspectors and a woman who said she was landlord Edwin Hiebert’s daughter were all on hand Thursday afternoon. The woman had no further comment and asked a reporter to step off the property. Hiebert has never returned calls from The Columbian.
In late March, a police sweep through the eight-unit complex and small freestanding house resulted in approximately 20 arrests on drug and property crimes. Police also invited city building inspectors to take a look; that’s what led to the determination that the place is dangerous due to rotting floors, water leaks, mold, improper wiring, boarded-up fire exits and other critical safety issues.
Tenants were instructed to vacate weeks ago by the city — which then bent the rules in order to give them more time. But everybody was supposed to be out by the end of April.
On Thursday afternoon, the place’s parking lot was busy with rented trucks and dumpsters. Tenants said that at least a dozen people were still there.
“There’s no way to find a place in that short a time,” said Debby Patterson, who has lived here with her daughter — who drives a cab at night — and three granddaughters since November. They used to live in Portland but had to move because of the death of her father, she said. She said she’s always been aware of drug dealing and prostitution in the complex and never let the grandchildren outside unless they were leaving the property.
“We wouldn’t be here if we had money,” she said. “We weren’t raised to live like this.”
Where are Patterson and her family going to go?
“No idea,” she said. “I am disgusted.”
Rickie Cellestine said his cousin had lived in the complex for five years and he’s been staying there too — in his car in the parking lot — after being displaced by a fire at his own apartment, on Northeast 57th Avenue, on Feb 1.
He said he’s got a rent voucher from nonprofit agency Share but cannot find a landlord who will take it. He’s never been evicted, he said, but having a misdemeanor on his record doesn’t help. Neither does the lack of affordable apartments in town, he said.
“My rent is paid. All I have to do is find a place,” Cellestine said. “But there’s nothing out there. I’ve been beating the streets.” He’s also been going semi-regularly to the emergency room for complications of diabetes and congestive heart failure, he said.
“See all these people?” he said of the busy scene at 2009 Norris Road. “Everybody is going to be in their cars tonight.”
