Inspectors find illegal housing

GLENDALE — Property owners have been illegally converting garages to reportedly make a profit off of some Glendale families, who were looking for inexpensive housing due to the economic downturn, city officials said.

So far this year, city inspectors found 25 garages in Glendale that the property owners had illegally converted to house families, said Sam Engel, the city’s Neighborhood Services administrator.

That is a sharp rise from last year, when inspectors were finding illegally converted garages at a rate of one or two per month, he said.

“This is Glendale. We have housing standards for all residents,” Engel said. “Nobody should be living in a garage.”

Property owners rented out the garages to families as a living space or leased the space to people who needed an additional storage locker, he said.

Garage conversions are illegal in the city, Engel said, adding that garages are supposed to be used only for parking vehicles.

“We are just so concerned for life safety,” he said.

A livable space must have permits, meet city codes, pass fire inspections and be safe for people to reside in, Engel said.

“It’s got to have the proper amenities,” he said.

Many of the illegal conversions don’t have smoke detectors or proper exits and have faulty electrical wiring, which can cause fires, he said.

The city is trying prevent tragedies such as a blaze that occurred in 2002 in Palo Alto, where two people died in a house fire that resulted from illegal construction, Engel said.

The illegal conversions not only lead to potential safety hazards, but also put more cars on the streets, he said.

Parking availability has been impacted because the cars are not parking inside a garage and are taking up space on city streets, Engel said.

“It’s a huge issue,” he said.

In converting the garages, property owners eliminate the parking spaces that the city requires them to have, Neighborhood Services Supervisor John Brownell said.

Residents’ complaints about a property often lead city officials to discover the illegal conversions, he said.

“People are very observant,” Brownell said.

The complaints are often about increased traffic and noise that came from the property with the conversion, he said.

When an illegal conversion is discovered, city officials tag the room as unlivable and give the property owner a chance to fix it to its original state, he said.

“People that do this just don’t understand the liability that they put themselves in,” Brownell said.

The city has housing available for rent and 7% of apartments are vacant, so people shouldn’t be renting garages, Engel said.

The city makes property owners relocate the family who rented the illegally converted garage from them to an apartment, he said.

“They are taking advantage of other people,” Engel said.

The property owners must pay all of the family’s relocation costs, he said.

“That family shouldn’t be penalized,” he said.