Angry tenants demand answers from management after high-rise flood makes building uninhabitable
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Angry residents confronted management demanding answers Monday after being forced to leave their San Francisco high-rise apartment more than 72 hours ago when a broken pipe flooded the building.
It was around two p.m. on Friday afternoon when a water main broke at the very top of 33 Tehama, sending water shooting down 35 floors of elevator shafts and fouling the electrical system
"We were asked to leave the building. I grabbed my cat and dog and didn't even grab my wallet. I came out here. Folks who left their cat were not allowed back into the building that night and a lot of folks were upset that they had their pets still up in the building," said displaced resident Tyler Patterson.
"If anything, they should be paying us $4000 a month for this experience right now," said displaced resident Austin Caldwell.
There is currently no timeline for repairing and reopening the 400-unit luxury building. Residents were evacuated and moved to hotels around San Francisco. Monday morning, those residents began getting notices to vacate those hotel rooms.
"By one o clock today we have to leave, because Tehama ain't figured it out yet. We're still down here waiting," said displaced resident Mona Thomas.
Later Monday morning, that upset boiled over to anger as residents demanded answers and communication from Hines, the Houston-based owner of 33 Tehama. Residents are worried about where they'll sleep tonight.
"Communication, that's all I want. Communication, that's it. Just the communication, that's all. I got kids. They gotta go to school, they gotta go to work. I'm a mom, I'm a single mom - I just want the communication line to be together. I don't want to be out here like this." Thomas said.
Hines senior managing partner Paul Paradis says that the RSA convention hitting San Francisco has made finding consistent housing for flood displaced residents tricky.
"Because of these conventions, etc. we weren't able to book rooms on a long-term basis. We are basically doing this day by day to be able to find hotel rooms. We are going to have places for people to stay everyday, unfortunately we can't guarantee that it's in the same place," Paradis told KPIX 5 via Zoom.
Paradis says communications have been strained because the flood took out phone lines.
"The only way we can take incoming questions is through our email address and we have people checking this constantly."
Residents dispute that statement, saying email updates are hours apart with no new information.
"The fastest method of communicating is the email they've given us - that they don't reply to, ever," one resident told KPIX5.
