A Seaside family’s search for a healthy home reflects the human cost of the housing crisis.

On May 10, a family of nine people – six of them undocumented immigrants – were evicted from their two-bedroom apartment in Seaside at San Pablo by the Sea, a 10-building apartment complex on San Pablo Avenue and Baker Street.

In the days prior to that, the family – the last names of whom the Weekly is not disclosing because of their immigration status – had already moved out, because the apartment had become a hotbed of black mold: On a visit to their former home May 8, after the family had moved out but still had keys, the smell of the mold was so bad it was dizzying, and mold was growing along every wall in the small apartment, for which the family was paying $1,595 a month.

Speaking through a translator – Seaside resident Guadalupe Perez – Jorge, the father of the family, says they kept the windows open day and night, “even in the dead of winter.”

He says there was no reason given for the eviction notice, but he suspects it was because he’d complained to management about the mold, which he believes stemmed from a plumbing leak in the apartment above. Jorge’s 15-year-old daughter, Wendy, says it was “like rainfall” in the roof above the shower whenever the upstairs tenants were showering.

At one point, part of the ceiling above the shower came down into the bathtub, and while it was later patched up, the family says the leak was never fixed, and the mold continued to proliferate. At another time, Jorge says, the management painted over the mold on one wall, but the wall was so moist the paint slid down and didn’t dry in place.

For the last few weeks, Jorge and his family have been living out of a hotel room provided by the Monterey County Department of Social Services, and he’s put in applications to several apartments in hopes of finding one before his family becomes homeless.

The situation his family finds itself in highlights challenges in a region with ever-increasing rents, and where some tenants either may not know their rights, or may fear speaking up because they are undocumented.

David Little, a building official with the city of Seaside, says it’s important for residents to put any complaints in writing, and that if a landlord doesn’t remediate the problem within 30 days, the city can get involved if it’s a building code violation – like in this case, presumably, a leaky pipe.

Things like mold or cockroach infestations fall under the purview of the County Environmental Health Bureau. Marni Flagg, a supervisor in that department, says the county works with landlords to make sure a solution is found, and stresses that whether or not a resident is undocumented is irrelevant to the process.

Mold is a particularly tricky issue, Flagg says, because “there’s no legal threshold” for what is considered uninhabitable. “Each individual person has a different reaction to mold,” she adds.

Jorge shared his family’s medical records with the Weekly, which show his daughters have suffered respiratory problems. The report for his 3-year-old daughter, Linda, states “patient will cough persistently, then will vomit.”

Management at San Pablo by the Sea did not respond to a request for comment, and the owner of the building, Arizona-based 1050 South 12th St. LLC, could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE 5/29/18: Jorge's and his family are no longer able to cover the costs of a hotel, and are currently homeless. He has set up a GoFundMe page to for those wanting to help his family find shelter.