Multiple residents at Evans Manor, an apartment complex owned by the Berkeley Student Cooperative, or BSC, have alleged that major habitability concerns throughout the building — including mold growth, maintenance issues, radiator leakage and tenant harassment — have gone unaddressed for months.
According to Peter Selawsky, a lawyer from theEviction Defense Center representing three Evans Manor tenants, the building has not been retrofitted since its construction in 1935, resulting in deteriorating living conditions for tenants. Evans Manor has approximately 50 residents at the moment, with a full capacity of 150.
The building was leased to an independent company, Victoria Associates, for 35 years before BSC reassumed management earlier this year.
“Even if the management company was being negligent … that ultimately comes down to the Berkeley Student Cooperative. It was their building that they were supposed to be maintaining, and they haven’t been,” said Evans Manor tenant Morgan Weltz. “We’re not being troublesome tenants, we’re just asking for the basic decency of habitable living.”
Formerly known as the co-op Barrington Hall, BSC intended to sell the building now known as Evans Manor in 1990 after decades of concerns regarding habitability, noise and rampant drug usage.
BSC subsequently repossessed the building after the sale fell through.
“BSC regained control of Evans Manor on April 30, 2025 … It was then that we discovered deferred maintenance we were not previously made aware of,” BSC spokespeople Joshua Fenton and Cam Lippincott said in a statement. “We have spent over $100,000 in maintenance on Evans Manor since we regained control of the building in April and will continue to address all concerns.”
Lippincott also works for The Daily Californian.
Despite a 2019 annual report indicating that BSC “hoped” to reopen Barrington Hall in 2025, the building was put back on the market for $12.5M this June through the Pinza Group.
The listing describes the building as a housing investment, advertising its development, location and income potential.
“The current tenants are far under market providing for maximum rental upside upon move-out,” the listing’s description reads.
Selawsky alleged that Evans Manor tenants and visitors have suffered as a result of the building’s conditions and have sought medical attention for coughing, allergies, asthma attacks, sore throats, headaches and flu-like symptoms, characterizing the environment as “an immediate, urgent and pressing health concern.”
“It’s a place that when I go there for visits, and when guests visit, they feel sick afterward. I think it must be a nightmare to live with that every day,” Selawsky said.
Per inspection documents reviewed by The Daily Californian, multiple strains of mold, including black mold, were found in the units and common spaces during inspections by Hazardous Materials Assessment Inc. in July and August. The company recommended remediative containment, as well as the removal of impacted windowsills and flooring.
According to Katherine Poltoratzky, the former maintenance manager for the Evans Manor tenants’ union, BSC attempted to coordinate spray cleanings without evacuating residents until tenants protested this action. Poltoratzky claimed a worker from the inspection company expressly said it would not be safe to do with tenants in the building. BSC has not taken any further steps to clean the mold, according to Poltoratzky. A BSC spokesperson did not directly respond when asked if further remediation steps were being taken.
Poltoratzky also echoed the ongoing health impacts on tenants in the building.
“The mold is literally under the rug — so figuratively speaking, it seems like management thinks they can kind of keep it at that level, under the carpet,” Selawsky said.
In February 2024, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Ridge House, a BSC student co-op, was also suffering from mold, asbestos and rodent issues, prompting inspections and concerns from the city. According to the report, a former BSC resident also claimed the Kingman Hall co-op building was impacted in 2023 from black mold and asbestos.
According to Selawsky, residents have also experienced a shortage of hot water and water pressure issues in the rainier months. There have also been tenant complaints of ongoing harassment, with Selawsky and his clients formally requesting security cameras and police meetings, which have yet to be implemented.
“There’s a campaign of harassing people — I want to be very clear, I’m not suggesting that management is behind that. I don’t think they are,” Selawsky clarified. “But people who are active (in the building) seem to be getting harassed one way or another, with sexual harassment or swastikas.”
The lawyer also alleged that tenants have complained of rodent and electrical problems, as well as defective smoke detectors. Selawsky claimed that the building’s conditions broke California’s implied warrant of habitability. “There’s a certain baseline level of health and liability conditions in a residential apartment building. (Not meeting that level) is a legal violation and a violation of the lease,” Selawsky said.
“In California, you have to have a working heating system, you have to have an electrical system, you have a plumbing system, and it’s supposed to actually work. If there’s trash piling up, if there’s rodents, these are potential habitability violations. … This is the law. Whether it’s in the lease or not, you can’t contract around it,” Selawsky explained.
Weltz said when he moved into Evans Manor in 2016, the conditions were initially liveable.
Weltz alleged that a hole in a wall in his original room, caused by softening drywall due to a rain storm four years ago, has yet to be fully repaired. When BSC moved him into a different room in June in order to carry out repairs, Weltz claimed he found mold in his bathroom, as well as water damage and an active leak in the ceiling. Since then, Weltz said, he has been in a back-and-forth with BSC maintenance’s staff.
“It’s been one non-issue to another — they say we’re going to fix it, but there’s a big problem with the piping, and we need to look into that first, and then we’ll fix it in a month or so, and then they’re like, ’Oh, well, we know that there’s asbestos in the building and we’re not trained to handle asbestos, so we’re going to get trained,’” Weltz explained.
BSC’s maintenance staff initially told him they would be trained in June, but in September, they forwarded him to an outside contractor who informed him he would need to leave his room for multiple days in order for repairs to be carried out.
“That was almost a month ago. … I’m ready anytime, but I’m waiting for BSC to reach out with the requisite documents — according to the Berkeley Housing Code — for relocation due to repairs. Unfortunately, I’m in a circumstance where I don’t have enough money to just pop off to a hotel,” Weltz said.
Upon reassuming management, Weltz claimed, BSC offered to rehouse student tenants in co-op buildings at market rate, which would double or triple their rent. The same offer was not made to non-student or working tenants, who, Weltz said, can not afford to leave or be evicted.
Weltz also alleged that tenants had been frustrated with reviewing BSC Board of Directors meeting notes, which only refer to the complaints regarding mold, leaks, bugs and “capability concerns” from Evans Manor as “small issues.”
“Even if the management company was being negligent, which they were, that ultimately comes down to the Berkeley Student Cooperative. It was their building that they were supposed to be maintaining, and they haven’t been,” Weltz said. “We’re not being troublesome tenants. We’re just asking for the basic decency of habitable living.
Christian Fernandez, another resident and senior campus student, said his room had not been too impacted, with the exception of recurring mold on his windowsill, but living at Evans Manor required constant upkeep.
“When I washed the floors (after moving in), they were ridiculously filthy.” Fernandez said. “No matter how much you clean, (the mold) comes back. … I try to maintain them myself. I feel like it’s a lot of elbow grease living there. Sometimes I get concerned about my health as well.”
Fernandez says he declined BSC’s offer to move him into co-op housing due to the attached rent increase.
According to Selawsky, the building was legally prevented from being a co-op after its Barrington Hall years, and current residents lack formal representation with the board, with which Weltz expressed frustration.
“I think these tenants are exhausted with this situation, and some of them are getting sick, and they’re really starting to feel hopeless. … They feel like the response from management is to close the doors that previously they had pretended were open,” Selawsky said. “I don’t like the idea (that BSC) can hide behind being a cooperative, especially when this specific building is not really a cooperative. … I want people to understand it doesn’t matter what you call yourself — it matters what you do, and right now they’re not doing right by these people.”