The Oakland Station was supposed to be a quiet and affordable home to live out their golden years. Instead, dozens of Oakland seniors say they’re living with roaches, garbage and unsafe conditions — and are now banding together to demand change from their landlord and the city. “I wanted to be around my senior people, play some bingo, do some line dancing,” said Linda Wade, one of the building’s tenants. “However, that wasn’t the case. It didn’t turn out that way.” The building opened in 2021 as an affordable housing community for seniors, but tenants say the building is already falling apart, and living there has become unbearable. “I’ve never lived under these conditions before in my entire life, and I refuse,” said Wade, who moved in about a year ago after her son died in the Oakland apartment they used to share. “I came here for senior living, for safety, for peace of mind.” The building sits at the intersection of 105th Ave and E. 14th St. in East Oakland. It’s owned by Oakland Pacific Associates and managed by a company called CONAM, which market the Oakland Station on its website as a “luxury community” in “Oakland’s most desirable area.” But the tenants say reality inside the Oakland Station doesn’t match the glossy online photos. NBC Bay Area found live and dead roaches, fluorescent lights flickering over stained carpets, and wires hanging from holes in the ceiling. “Roaches race down the hallway,” Wade said. “They will race you to your apartment and beat you there. It’s just that bad.” Wade is hardly the only one raising concerns. Inside her Oakland Station unit, Isabelle Ruiz holds up a jar of dead roaches as proof of the infestation for building management. “In fact, I put one in there just a few minutes ago,” Ruiz said. “This one was in my sink.” Tenant Isabelle Ruiz holds up a jar of roaches she’s caught in her Oakland Station apartment She also pointed to a large bruise on her arm, which she said was the result of tripping over one of the loose floor panels in her unit. She wants to leave but feels stuck. “I’ve been looking, but my problem is my income,” she said. “At the places I’m looking at, I have to make three times the amount of rent. I’m only on social security. That’s all I have.” Chaney Turner doesn’t live at the Oakland Station, but her parents do. She visits nearly every day to care for her mother with dementia. “The elevator, the hallways, everything smells like urine,” Turner said. “The entire place smells like urine and feces and trash.” Photos from tenants – and NBC Bay Area’s own cameras – captured piles of trash throughout the building and several instances of what appeared to be feces in the carpeted hallways. Tenants say piles of trash throughout the building are a common problem. Turner said she and other tenants have reported the conditions to building management and the city over the years, but not much has changed. “This area is not a priority,” Turner said. They also cited as persistent issues broken heaters, flood damage that hasn’t been repaired, and elevators with expired permits or that don’t work at all. “What are you going to do when there’s a fire?” said tenant Shari Williams. “You’ve got people in wheelchairs on the sixth floor.” So, Turner said she reached out to the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), a nonprofit that helps marginalized communities organize around major issues such as housing and affordability. “This is one of the prime examples of why we do this organizing,” said Valarie Bachelor, the organization’s Oakland director. “There are some real concerning things happening in this building.” Bachelor said roughly three dozen seniors living in the Oakland Station have joined forces to demand improvements and implore city officials to hold their landlord accountable.  Their new wave of complaints is starting to get traction. Oakland code enforcement has opened investigations and ACCE said three city council members have come to see the building for themselves.  The city said code enforcement inspections in May led to notices of violations, including for pest-related issues, and they plan to come back for further inspections.  The tenants, alongside ACCE, outlined their complaints in two separate letters sent to CONAM and Oakland Pacific Associates earlier this year. Neither company responded to NBC Bay Area’s requests for comment, but in a response to one of those letters provided by ACCE, they said “management remains committed to operating the property in compliance with applicable laws and lease agreements.” They told tenants the building’s heating system has been fixed and that common areas are regularly cleaned. But Wade and other tenants say most of their concerns still haven’t been addressed, and they continue to organize. Standing in front of the building, Bachelor pointed out a large garage door she said has been stuck open for months. Tenants say the open gate allows strangers to come into the building. “A lot of squatters,” Wade said. “People breaking into the laundry rooms, the yoga room.” Tenants say strangers enter the building through a garage door that’s been stuck open for months Inside the building’s mail room, Bachelor said mailboxes have been pried open and some no longer lock. “These are seniors,” Bachelor said. “Many women, folks of color, and it’s concerning when you can’t feel safe in your own building.” Adding to the tenants’ concerns: The building began accepting tenants of all ages last July, which many senior tenants said isn’t what they signed up for when they moved in. In their written response to the tenants, building management said the property has a security team in place, though it’s not in place at all hours of the day. They also told tenants the building’s owners received permission to open the building to people of all ages. Linda Wade said organizing with her neighbors has brought them closer together. She once planned on moving out, but now wants to keep fighting. “We’re human beings who want to be treated like human beings,” Wade said. ...read more read less