Home that burned is still a hazard, Sierra Bonita residents tell WeHo safety officials

A dozen or so residents circled around Danny Rivas, director of West Hollywood’s Community Safety Division, on the sidewalk outside 1030 Sierra Bonita on Tuesday afternoon, demanding answers about what will be done with the remains of the abandoned house that went up in flames last week.

The meeting was organized by Stefanie LaHart, who says too little was done to prevent the fire and too little is being done to stop another catastrophe. She’s set up a website detailing the state of the property before, during and after the blaze. 

“We are limited in what we can share because there is an open code enforcement case, so there is an investigation related to that,” Rivas said after LaHart introduced him. “What we are going to be doing is assessing the case in terms of the involvement, calls for service, whether it’s code enforcement or with the sheriff’s department. That’s going to allow us to work with our city’s office in terms of looking at what is going to be the quickest and most effective way to address the structures here. There may be a red tag or something that’s already been placed. We’ll use that from a building and safety perspective to work with our legal team to figure out the quickest and most effective way to address this particular property. That’s where we’re at right now. That is as much detail as I can provide at this point.”

Neighbors explained how they had been feeling unsafe for months because of the homeless people who relentlessly trespassed onto the property. Persistent calls to the sheriff have had almost no lasting effect. 

“I understand what you’re saying,” said one resident. “It’s not enough. The transparency you’re trying to put forward is not enough, and the city needs to be more expedient in what you’re not doing, because what you didn’t do is what caused this, and so there’s no responsibility placed upon the city for you to say that you’re doing something, because we don’t see it being done. And this is not acceptable. This is something that’s been going on. Everybody’s complained, everybody’s done their due diligence except for the city. And now that’s negligence on the city’s part, and that’s a legal issue.”

Even after the fire, homeless people are continuing to use the house as drug den, neighbors said. And the structure itself remains vulnerable to another potential fire, as does the overgrown and dry foliage around the property. 

“Every day, there’s someone who is living here, and they know it’s vacant, and they know they can,” another resident said. “They don’t care that it burned down. They’re still coming over. I don’t know what they’re doing. I suspect there’s drug activity. I feel so unsafe, and I have PTSD and anxiety. I’ve lived here for many years. We have a wonderful community. We all get along, but this is so unsafe and so wrong. Like, we called and called and called. We were told that the agency letter expired, and if we’re not the property owner, they’re not going to come. Like, what do we have to do? Okay, so after the fire, when is this going to be demoed? When? Because that’s the only thing that’s going to keep the situation of squatters and no property there. So I want to know when that’s going to happen.”

“There is a process, and once we have that information, we certainly will,” Rivas said.

“How do we make that more expedient?” a resident asked. “How do we put pressure on the developer? How does the developer have that property over there that he’s been developing for at least two years, and that property is being developed, and this one isn’t? Just because they do not have the finance to develop this property, that’s not our problem, but it’s become our problem. And now that it’s burned down, you’re going to have more people on that property because they don’t care. Yeah, they’ll come back. They already did. And I heard it. I heard anything. So why don’t we have safeguards for the residents who live here? Why are we safeguarding the developers?”

“So that’s what we’re focused on, focusing on the structures right now on this property,” Rivas said. ” The conversation that you just mentioned about the developers and the other properties, that is something that’s separate. But we hear you. We understand. We do have our other colleagues here from the city manager’s office here, as well as our neighborhood and business safety manager. And so we definitely will be taking that information back and assessing the other developments and the progress of the different construction sites here in this specific area. We do have our cops team from our West Hollywood sheriff’s station who are here present. This is one of their primary focuses, concentrating on vacant properties, doing patrol checks, and responding as quickly as they can. I would strongly recommend, and I can’t even imagine in terms of the frustration, but don’t engage with individuals that are on this property, even if it’s verbal. Just contact the sheriff’s station. There is a letter of agency that is on file. So there actually is a letter that’s in full effect. And that is in place. You’re seeing sheriff’s deputies that are nodding their heads as well. And so, you know, if you do come across another reason why we’re here as being the point of contact. So if you’re contacting the sheriff’s station and you’re hearing that response, let us know, let any of the cops team members here know, let myself know, and then that way we can communicate to figure out where the miscommunication is. But I am telling you that this property, this specific location, does have a letter of agency on file, and it will be responded to, and it is a priority.”

“I have my windows directly facing it,” said a resident. “I see the same people all the time. I’ve called probably twice a night, every single night, these… I’m so scared. I’ve had a guy with a big baton, from where the stairs are, my room…,and hitting it like he’s seriously gonna hit my window. I called the cops. At this rate, it takes a while. By that time, either he’s hiding, or if they get them, they remove him, then hours later, he comes back. I’m just like, I can’t even sleep in that room. It’s become such an issue. Like, it’s terrifying. And to think that, like, why aren’t they gonna be arrested?”

“Is there some kind of accountability?” LaHart asked “Because that’s why they keep coming back, and that’s why it keeps happening. Because nothing’s being done. They know that there is to be removed, and they’re gonna come back. That’s the thing, is I’ve seen them just literally just walk down the street, go to other places, and then they come back. I work from home. I’m here all the time. I see everything that goes on, and then they just come back. Kind of thing. I’ve had them like physically come and start threatening me on the street, because I see them walking, like, ‘Don’t go into that property,’ and then they come after me. Hello. I’m five foot one, you know, and this has been going on for a year, Danny, a year.”

The neighbors pleaded for some sort of safety measures from the city, but Rivas couldn’t promise anything.

“Fencing is a possibility, but we always steer away from that because when the sheriff’s deputies are responding in the evening hours, they want to be able to have a line of sight on a property. They want to be able to visually see what exactly it is that’s on the other side, as opposed to now creating a barrier and having people potentially jumping over and doing other things behind there. So, it is something that we could do, but to say that that is going to prevent 100% of individuals coming onto the property, based on our experience with other properties, it’s highly unlikely, but it is something that we can do.”

“So I get what you’re saying, but in the interim,” asked a neighbor, “as we’re waiting for all this legal paperwork, can we get light? Can we get something, get a security guard? There’s got to be something.”

“Security is something that we’re going to be looking at,” Rivas said. “Light, I can’t commit to you that that’s something that we’re going to end up doing because I don’t understand, you know, I don’t know what state that property is in, and I can only imagine, based off of, especially the fire. But, you know, the security is definitely something we’re going to be looking at in the interim, and that is a little bit of a process. So we’re going to go through that, and we’re going to look at everything on the table and address that as quickly as possible. I cannot commit at this point, because I don’t know which direction we’re gonna go towards. And so, if we end up pursuing, you know, a property like, you know, it all depends because you file something in court and then a property owner hires an attorney, and they can hold things up by filing motions, right? So there’s a process, there’s an appeal process. A government agency just can’t go on somebody’s property and start doing things. There are certain aspects of it where you can, and those are the things that we’re going to be looking at. But if somebody’s gonna be absentee, they don’t respond to our notices, right, a certain timeframe that’s allowed under state law for us to communicate to them that, ‘Hey, you have X amount of time to do that. If you don’t do this, we’re gonna do A, B, and C.’ Or we could do A, B, C, and so when we get to that point, if nobody’s appealing, things can go a lot quicker, right. But if that isn’t the case, and somebody wants to appeal, then that can hold up the process. So I wouldn’t want to commit to you right now and tell you, ‘Yes, all of this is gonna get taken care of in 60 to 90 days,’ when that can be prolonged. But in the interim, I hear you loud and clear in terms of the folks that are continuing to access the property, right.”