BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — One week after the electricity was shut off at the Country Inn Motel, residents are in limbo, unable to stay in their rooms but unable to collect their belongings. And some are hoping they can return
Roxanne Mirada, a resident of the Country Inn Motel was forced to leave last week after a fire broke out in one of the units, shutting off the electricity.
"We cannot stay here so it’s a grab-and-go. I just come and check on the room, on my children's belongings and then I leave."
Now, those who were living at the motel, roughly twenty people, aren’t allowed to stay overnight there because the entire motel was deemed unfit for occupancy.
"Our officers went to the site. They confirmed that there was no electricity on site. That is immediate cause for posting a structure unsafe for occupancy, which basically restricts the occupancy of the tenants," explained Al Rojas with code compliance.
Though residents had paid rent through July, a new owner took over the property and said he did not feel responsible for placing tenants into temporary housing.
Mirada and another resident were able to get temporarily placed into a nearby motel by the Kern County Department of Human Services for sixteen days because they have children. Those without children were not so lucky.
"So some of us went across the street just so that we could keep an eye on our belongings but there's a lot of residents here that literally have nowhere to go," said Mirada. "They’re just homeless since that day."
It's unclear when the electricity will get turned back on.
"For the last time, they said two weeks. We're going into that second week now, so what's going on," asked Mirada.
One resident, who didn’t want to appear on camera, told 23ABC her room was broken into Thursday night and some of her children’s stuff was taken.
"It's sad because, I’ve been placed, for now, with my children and I’m able to have somewhere to be but it's really sad because if you look around there’s people's belongings outside their rooms. It's sad because where are they going to go," continued Mirada.
As for Mirada, she’s not sure what she’ll do once she runs out of time at the motel she’s been placed in.
"I guess we have to wait and see what happens that day. Hopefully, by then, we still have another week. Hopefully, by then they will fix the electricity so that we can come back. This is home for us. We’ve been here."
Mirada said that right now all the residents have is each other.
