C Street Inn, located between Sixth and Seventh avenues in San Diego.
The owners of a hotel that was sued by the city for allegedly unsafe conditions has been ordered to pay more than $300,000 to reimburse the city's costs to relocate the hotel's tenants, the San Diego City Attorney's Office said Friday.
The six-story building, which is located between Sixth and Seventh avenues, was built in 1913,
City officials alleged in a lawsuit that the C Street Inn, a six-story hotel located between Sixth and Seventh avenues, was unsafe due to fire hazards, infestations of mold and rodents, dilapidated stairs and other "building code and extreme fire safety violations," including:
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- a non-functioning fire alarm system
- fire escape routes leading to locked exits
- broken fire doors
- missing emergency lighting, exit signs,and smoke detectors
- non-permitted modifications to the sprinkler system
- uncovered electrical boxes, including one installed in a shower area
- dilapidated stairs and stairs without required guardrails
- expired fire extinguishers
- mold and rodent infestations
- openings in fire-safe walls that would speed the spread of flames, and
- numerous non-permitted modifications to the building and its water supply lines.
NBC 7 went to the C Street Inn in April 2022 and found code-violation signs posted on the doors by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
According to the city attorney's office, there have been 18 code-enforcement cases in connection with the hotel and police have responded there more than 220 times since May 2019 "to address criminal and nuisance activity."
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Last year, 66 residents were relocated. The city said each tenant was eligible for $4,270 in relocation costs.
Owners Jack Shah Rafiq and Jax Properties were ordered to pay more than $300,000 to reimburse the city, plus a $10,000 penalty for failing to timely pay relocation benefits and $11,022 in administrative costs, the City Attorney's Office said.
