A RESIDENT of Chong International Corporation building in Dandan spoke to Variety on Tuesday, Jan. 7 to voice the issues he and other tenants have with their apartment units.
Variety reached out to Gab D. Chong, the building’s operator, but she declined to comment.
Daniel Durkin, a third-floor resident, who earlier complained about the building’s water pressure issues, invited this reporter to tour his apartment unit and the building.
On the day of the tour, water pressure in Durkin’s apartment was extremely low, and he said it had not been addressed for “more than a week.” There was no running water in the bathroom sink. To ensure he had enough water to shower and flush the toilet, he covered the bathtub drain to collect enough water to fill a nearby plastic trash can.
Later, Variety was shown the building’s water pump on the ground floor. This reporter witnessed a leak coming out of the wall, and a debris-filled puddle of water on the ground. There were unused water pumps in the property as well.
“We need the water pumps to be commercial grade for a four-story building,” Durkin said.
He said whenever his landlady replaces the water pumps she does so with “cheap water pumps from Korea” that break easily, resulting in low water pressure.
Durkin said his roof leaks, which has damaged his electronics, including a 55-inch television and a soundboard and subwoofer. He said the building is suffering from rebar expansion, which has resulted in damaged concrete.
“The leak from the roof is not my doing,” he said. “It’s Mrs. Chong’s lack of responsibility for maintaining this building.”
Durkin said he has lived in his unit for around 11 years, and such issues have been frequent in his time there.
He said he brought the issue to the media because “government agencies don’t hold [the landlady] accountable.” He added that the condition of the building constitutes a “health violation.”
Durkin’s future at the apartment complex is uncertain as CIC is asking the court to evict him. CIC has filed a “Complaint for Summary Removal under the Holdover Tenancy Act” against Durkin.
Durkin said he believes Chong is seeking his eviction in retaliation because he reported her to the Mayor’s Office of Saipan for the shipping containers she was storing on her property.
He has filed “Counterclaims of Retaliatory Eviction, Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Breach of the Implied Warranty of Habitability, and Breach of the Housing Assistance Program Contract” in Superior Court.
Durkin said the ongoing court proceedings are drastically affecting his finances.
“My money is going to my lawyer,” Durkin said. “I receive $900 [in Supplemental Security Income]. $100 something goes to cellphone, then the power bill that is killing all of us here on the island. What’s left is a couple of $20 bills. If I’m lucky I got enough for some tuna fish. … This is the cold hard reality of dealing with a slum.”
Variety spoke with one of Durkin’s neighbors who asked not to be identified.
“The floor [of my room], when its heavy rain, the water is coming in,” the neighbor said. “Since my wife moved in here, we turn on the [ventilation] in the restroom. We’re not going to off it because the smell. It smells no good. Once you off the light the ventilation is not working. I think the septic tank is full,” the man said.
He said Chong knows about his issues but hasn’t fully addressed them.
He said he receives federal housing funds to pay for the apartment he lives in, and that it has been inspected, but inspectors “sometimes are not really checking” for issues, he added.
“The federal [government] is the one paying [for] this [unit], and it’s not safe for the family,” he said. “[The landlord] needs to fix it because the federal [government] is paying you and [there’s] a lot of people staying here. … Some people are running away because the unit is no good.”
Another neighbor also spoke to Variety on condition of anonymity.
Like Durkin, he complains about expanded rebars and flooding.
“Water comes out from beneath the [bathroom] wall and goes into a bedroom,” he said. “I showed her, I [said] I want you to fix this.”
Variety later asked Durkin why he doesn’t want to leave his unit if it has been problematic for 11 years.
Durkin said the issue is “bigger” than him. He has seen tenants come, stay, and then leave, all the while silently enduring infrastructure issues.
He said local leaders ignore him.
“Nobody understands what us poor people go through in life,” he said. “The people here have to deal with the way their government is and the government doesn’t put the local people first. That’s a problem for me. It’s not just the local people, it’s every [ethnic group] that’s here on the island suffering.”
He said his “end goal” is to have the building repaired and maintained for its residents.
“Look at what God has given us — a beautiful ocean view, but this landlady got to take accountability and fix this building and the apartment units,” he added.
Three tenants of the CIC building in Dandan spoke to Variety on Jan. 7 to voice the issues they face in their apartment units.
Daniel Durkin, a longtime resident of the CIC building, sits on his bathtub. He is going to court against CIC, which is seeking his eviction.
Exposed rebar is seen on the ceiling in the CIC building.
Plexiglass covers a crack beneath the stairwell at the CIC building.
While Daniel Durkin experiences low water pressure in his apartment on the third floor, this pool of water and a leak from the wall are seen at the CIC building.
A water pump, right, is connected to pipes at the CIC building. Nearby, are two other unused water pumps.
Water trickles out of this pipe in Daniel Durkin’s apartment. He pools water in order to transfer it to a plastic trashcan so he can wash and flush the toilet.
Daniel Durkin highlights a major crack on his apartment wall caused by expanding rebar.
“Look at what God has given us — a beautiful ocean view — but this landlady has to take accountability and fix this building and the apartments,” says Daniel Durkin.
In the apartment unit of one of Daniel Durkin’s neighbors, exposed rebar is visible behind the concrete.
