Twenty-six-year-old Jocelyn Lopez leaned on crutches in the living room of what, until a week ago, had been her home.
She said she fractured her ankle trying to escape when the water suddenly began filling her Highland Avenue apartment.
Her mother-in-law cradled Lopez’s 4-month-old baby, who smiled, oblivious that she had no clothes left to wear.
“Todo va a estar bien,” the mother-in-law said again and again to Lopez, who wiped back tears. Everything will be OK.
Mud marked a line on the apartment walls a foot high. Furniture, clothes and baby shower decorations sit waterlogged. Only children’s art, hung high on the walls, seems to have escaped the damage.
A red notice from the city hung on the door: “Danger, Unsafe,” it read. “Unlawful to occupy.”
The landlord already sent some residents letters terminating their lease.
Lopez braced to receive hers.
Ever since the flood, she braced for unseen disasters. Every little noise woke her.
“My cat jumped on the fence and she made, like, a sound — like if it was like water rushing in. And I got so paranoid that I (stood) up,” she said, remembering. “And I started having, like, an anxiety attack.”
Four other children were in her care before the flood. She sent them to various family members. For now, she stays with her mother-in-law and baby in an apartment on the second floor.
“If you don't come from much, like us, then you would understand how hard the situation is with very little stuff that we had, but very valuable to us,” Lopez said.
She said many of the tenants have lived in that complex for more than a decade. That is their community, but they can’t afford to return if the landlord remodels and hikes the rent.
“It’s like tearing up the family that we have built here for many, many, many years,” she said.
National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez said nearly 100 units were destroyed within the city.
The council is expected to declare a state of emergency on Monday, making the city eligible for county, state and federal funds to assist landlords and tenants.
Rodriguez said he plans to pursue an eviction moratorium and halt rent increases.
“This has really upended families, blocks, neighborhoods,” he said.
Legal Aid Society of San Diego’s directing attorney Gil Vera said they’ve had “a big uptick” in calls since the flood.
Vera said landlords are responsible for providing safe housing until repairs are done.
They can only terminate a lease after a valid notice has expired, and the eviction has gone through court, he said. The process can take months.
The only exception for immediate termination, he said, is for units that were fully destroyed, not just damaged.
The only person who can physically remove a tenant by force or change the locks, is a sheriff with a court order, he said.
“The fact that this was caused by rain doesn't absolve the landlord of what those normal responsibilities were,” he said.
Lopez has a message.
“I just want people — and specifically management — to understand that we also have feelings,” she said. “We're of value to this world as well. Please don't leave us in the dirt.”
