Residents facing eviction at senior living complex in Citrus Heights

By Mike Hazlip—
Residents of a low-income senior living complex in Citrus Heights are claiming they are being evicted from a place once described by the recently arrested former CEO of the regional Goodwill Industries as “a space for people to live out their dreams.”

Eviction notices and documents obtained by The Sentinel show multiple residents owing between $6,000 to more than $8,000 in back-rent for most of 2023.

The Sentinel first became aware of the evictions when former residents of Auburn Oaks came to the Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART) for help. A nearby business also previously contacted The Sentinel with concerns centered around a perceived lack of security at the facility.

The property, located at 7501 Sunrise Blvd. near Old Auburn Road, has two main structures for residents. One is a two-story apartment building at the north end with units for independent living. The other is a series of single-story buildings that were once used as a skilled nursing facility at the southern end of the property. They are connected by an entrance and common areas.

The Sentinel reached out to six residents in the south side facility for comment. Three residents did not return a request for comment and one did not want to be identified. One resident, Brenda White, was willing to be identified and said she was never notified that the housing assistance she and her husband relied on had ended. White was initially hesitant to be identified fearing repercussions, but later agreed to make her story public in the hopes it would help others like her.

White said she and her husband are being hit with eviction notices stating they each owe $6,180 for a time period from February 2023 to September, 2023. The Sentinel obtained additional eviction notices for other residents totaling the same amount for the same time period.

Auburn Oaks is managed by Next Move Homeless Services, a part of Goodwill Sacramento Valley and Northern Nevada, which was formerly under the leadership of Richard Abrusci.

Next Move Executive Director Debbie Hughes responded to a Sentinel email inquiry last month, saying that Auburn Oaks is not part of any assistance programs and that residents are responsible for paying their rent.

“This location is not a program of any type and is only a regular apartment complex. Tenants are in leases and required to pay rent for their unit,” Hughes said.

Hughes denied that Auburn Oaks receives any type of funding, saying “Since it is an affordable apartment complex, there is no federal, state, or other funding for the complex. It solely operates on the rent collected from the tenants.”

The rent for the single-occupant rooms is $772 per month, Hughes said. She could not confirm how many tenants have been evicted or how many remain, citing confidentiality reasons.

White said she and her husband moved to the south facility under Project Roomkey, a statewide project launched during the pandemic to provide non-congregate shelter options for people experiencing homelessness. The couple live in two one-room units joined by a bathroom, with heat centrally controlled from outside the room and food provided in a common dining area with portions that White called “child-size.”

Living conditions at the former skilled nursing facility have been poor from the start, according to White, with brown water coming from the bathroom fixtures and pest problems. A video White shared with The Sentinel dated Sept. 5, appeared to show small organisms swimming in toilet water that had leaked onto the bathroom floor. Maintenance workers did replace the toilet and sink in the unit, she said, but White still refuses to use the water.

“Everything that we do is out of the bathroom,” she said, noting the unit does not have a kitchen. “We have to wash, we don’t drink the water, we have to buy water. I don’t even trust bathing in that water.”

Another resident who did not want to be identified said her health had declined after living at Auburn Oaks.

“I’m dying because my kidneys are going because there’s no water,” the 70-year-old woman said, who also alleged sexual abuse at the property and said food was being withheld from her. “The water is bad here, we can’t drink and I don’t have the refrigerators and all that kind of good stuff, so my kidneys are going and I can’t get my food stamps.”

In response to those claims, Hughes said Next Move is not aware of any sexual assault incidents and all residents are provided with food from the cafeteria.

“We are unaware of a sexual assault and we do have 24-hour security, 365 days of the year to maintain a safe environment,” Hughes said. “We also encourage, refer, and assist tenants to make reports to law enforcement if needed.”

White confirmed there is a single security guard at the entrance, but said it is not enough to ensure the safety of residents.

Sentinel staff visited Auburn Oaks on two occasions since learning of the evictions, during which a reporter observed one security guard sitting at a folding table in an otherwise empty entry room. The cafeteria was sparsely furnished and the corridors were mostly empty, with few residents appearing to remain at the facility.

The two rooms occupied by the White’s were observed to be connected by a bathroom that had newer fixtures. Each single-occupant room was lit with a sole overhead light, with no kitchen facilities in the rooms.

The Sentinel was also previously contacted by a nearby business with claims that individuals under the age of 55 were being allowed to live at the facility and were known to behave aggressively at the business, but this was not able to be confirmed. Some shouting was overheard in a hallway during one visit by The Sentinel, and one woman contacted at the facility said she had been “couch surfing” in the area, but did not live there.

In a prior news article, The Sentinel reported that a vehicle fire in a parking lot at Auburn Oaks in May 2022 was found to be arson, with the suspect being arrested several days later.

Records obtained by The Sentinel appear to show the skilled nursing facility at Auburn Oaks was vacant before residents moved in under Project Roomkey. In a Dec. 22 statement to The Sentinel, Public Information Manager for Sacramento County Department of Homeless Services and Housing, Janna Haynes, said the county worked with Next Move to make the vacant units habitable prior to housing residents.

Reconstruction was completed by early 2021, Haynes said. Funding for the project was tied to a limited time rapid re-housing that ended in June of 2022, according to Haynes. Residents received full rental assistance including deposit, rent, and utilities until June of 2022. Residents were then referred to other programs or opted to not pay rent, she said.

“All tenants were informed that their rental assistance would end in June of 2022 and that they would be responsible for the ongoing rent,” Haynes said. “Some of the tenants who were unable to pay their rent were referred to other programs that were able to assist. There were tenants that opted not to pay their rent and were subject to California state regulations on tenant evictions.”

City Spokeswoman Marisa Brown said there is no record of recent code violations at Auburn Oaks. The city previously referred a tenant to Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment after reports of cockroaches in the unit, Brown said. A Dec. 21 inspection that was conducted the day following a Sentinel request for comment showed no additional concerns, and Brown said the manager was willing to increase pest control services at the facility.

The Sentinel previously reported that Auburn Oaks was up for auction last year, after closed-door negations between the property owner and a potential buyer were unsuccessful. The city played an advisory role in the negations, according to Councilman Tim Schaefer who was mayor at the time. Schaefer did not respond to a Dec. 20 request for comment.

A representative of property owner Oracle Properties Development Inc. told The Sentinel in a Dec. 18 phone call that the auction was not successful and that Oracle remains the property owner. The representative said Oracle Properties is not aware of any eviction notices, and forwarded all further questions to property management organization Next Move Homeless Services.

An article from CapRadio in June of 2021 highlighted the role Auburn Oaks played in housing people experiencing homelessness who were exiting Project Roomkey. Richard Abrusci, then-CEO of Goodwill Industries of Sacramento Valley and Northern Nevada, told the news outlet that Auburn Oaks would be a “stepping stone to long term housing.”

At that time, CapRadio reported that Goodwill refurbished 82 single-occupant rooms at the facility, calling Auburn Oaks part of a “patchwork of properties across California” housing residents from Project Roomkey.

CapRadio said Abrusci promised residents would receive assistance with resumes, job applications, and would have a say in designing the program.

“This is a space for people to live out their dreams and desires,” Abrusci told CapRadio.

Abrusci was later arrested Dec. 7, 2023, on a federal fraud indictment, ABC10 and other news outlets reported. Abrusci was terminated by Goodwill in the summer of 2021 after an audit by the organization found that he had used fraudulent invoices to collect money for services that were never rendered.

The Sentinel could not confirm if Abrusci’s indictment had any connection to the alleged problems White and other residents are facing.

For White and her husband, she says the maze of agencies and programs tasked with assisting the low income elderly have done more harm than good at Auburn Oaks Senior Living.

“If you count how many people came in, how many people got bullied out, how many people mentally just said, I can’t deal with this, how many people went in the hospital, how many people died, how many people were kicked out. They had more people that they hurt. They cause more harm than they did house people,” White said.

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