Dozens of families displaced, given only 4 days to move out of San Bernardino apartment complex

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Dozens of families in San Bernardino are temporarily homeless after they were forced out of their apartments Monday.

After living at Brentwood Apartments on East Date Street for many years, residents say they were given just four days to move out.

"Who in their right mind is going to leave in four days and find somewhere to stay when you have a family," said displaced resident, Alicia Garcia. "You don’t have that kind of money…"

Roughly 60 families are now homeless and scrambling to find an affordable place to live.

"What they’re doing is making more homeless people… they’re making us homeless," said Markelle Reiken.

All the residents at the complex received a notice last week, stating that all tenants would have to leave by March 2 because the complex would soon be condemned. However, residents think there is a more sinister reason.

"They wanted to move everybody out, get a better income classification," said displaced resident, Andrea Lewis. "That’s all they want — more money…" 

The tenants admit there were problems with the complex but they say those problems could have been fixed. 

"The buildings were not going to collapse, I mean I know that there was a lot of situations going on but I believe that if the city would’ve came and seen that they could’ve fixed a lot of the problems," said Garcia. "I mean people were here paying rent, our rent was not cheap here. We were not paying $50 or $500 we were paying $1,000.” 

FOX 11 contacted the Stapleton Group, the company managing the apartment complex. We were told over the phone that the city ordered them to evict the residents.

"For them to kick us out with kids... it’s not right," said Norma Gonzales. 

Each tenant received a check for $2,500, but they say that’s not enough money to find a new place on such short notice.

"Our homeless count has increased all in one week," said Darrell Frye with Community Action Partnership.

Frye is coordinating a meeting on Friday to help the displaced residents. 

“We’re here to give motel assistance, we’re here to help them identify new housing, we’re here to even give them supportive services… anything they need to make sure they’re stabilized tonight," Frye said.

FOX 11 contacted the City of San Bernardino Code Enforcement and the Mayor, John Valdivia, but no one has returned our calls.