Toxic Lead Exposed Tenants Organize to Fight Developer, City

Tenant Blood Testing Reveals 300% Over Federal Safety Limit for Toxic Lead Contamination at Emeryville Residential Building

New Hollis Street Tenant Coalition Arises, Action by City Hall Demanded

Wareham Development Complicit in Urgent Health Issue Tenants Say

Tenants at 6221 Hollis Street have been doused with airborne toxic dust from a remodel project by Wareham Development Corporation causing widespread lead blood contamination up to 300% over the federal safety limit  the Tattler has learned.  The blood work done via a physician's order on some tenants at the building was performed after initial test results showed high levels of lead contaminated dust that had bypassed any mitigation measures by Wareham and settled into residential units and communal spaces in the General Cable Building, as it is known.  New testing of more comprehensive dust collection in tenets' units show the lead levels to be worse than originally had been suspected, with many locations over 1000% in excess of federal safety limits and one residential unit showing 2680% beyond the safety limit. 

The General Cable Building on Hollis Street
A biohazard says tenants.
Calls are for the building to be "red tagged".

The formation of a 19 member coalition of concerned tenants at the building has been announced in a July 15th letter to Council member Kalimah Priforce, a City representative that members say has shown determination and resolve to help.  The sole function of the coalition is to fight against an uncooperative Wareham Development and a recalcitrant City of Emeryville that has so far not risen to sufficiently address the contamination urgency one member of the group said.  Mr Priforce for his part, said he will continue to drive the City to better assist these and all renters whom he said are sometimes “treated like Emeryville’s invisible second class”.

The group has expressed a desire to have their members not be made public at this time, a request the Tattler will abide. 

In response to the increasing imbroglio, the City has issued a 'stop work order' against Wareham while the lead issue is investigated.  Tenants claim however Wareham has already violated the City order.  

The group, the 'Concerned Tenants of 6221 Hollis Street', say they want the City to ‘red tag’ the building, meaning all those living and conducting business at the building must stop until the issue is resolved.  Council member Priforce is attempting to help by getting the City to commit to an urgent temporary relocation assistance ordinance in addition to other city wide tenant protections he has been pushing for over the last year and a half.  So far, the rest of the City Council majority has flummoxed Mr Priforce's attempts by steadfastly refusing to entertain even any discussion of any new city-wide tenant protection policy.   

The Concerned Tenants' letter exposes a litany of abuses by Wareham so far including demolition activities such as jackhammering, wall and ceiling removal, and other heavy dust-generating construction,  “...all undertaken without visible or verifiable use of dust containment or mitigation measures, in clear violation of federal EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule guidance and CDPH protocols triggered by the building’s pre-1978 construction.” the letter reveals.   “The violations are flagrant, ongoing, and extremely troubling”, they add.  Expanding on the previous lead dust testing done by two residents in the building and reported in a May 7th Tattler story, the group states, “Numerous laboratory-confirmed dust wipe tests, taken by multiple tenants, now show widespread lead contamination throughout both inside residential units and throughout common areas. These samples far exceed federal safety thresholds and show clear evidence that airborne lead dust has saturated the building over time due to uncontained construction activity.” 

Many of the health effects of lead exposure,
particularly those related to
 brain damage, are not reversible.

The letter excoriates Wareham, attributing efforts to rectify the situation more to attempting to placate the tenants: “…no comprehensive abatement has been proposed, and Wareham Development has refused to cease operations or fully vacate the building during this ongoing hazard.” The letter continues,  “It is clear from their [Wareham’s] recent conduct that their plan is to abate ‘piecemeal’, cleaning one unit at a time, while leaving the rest of the building contaminated and active construction zones ongoing, thus exposing both current and future tenants to serious health risks.”

Sending their concerns to Council member Priforce over anyone else at City Hall, the tenants recognize a singular council member with empathy for renters, a fact Mr Priforce acknowledged to the Tattler, "No one should have to breathe in poison just to keep a roof over their head." he said.   I'm fighting for actual tenant protections for Below Market Rate and affordable housing residents because right now, they don't exist."  Mr Priforce celebrated the Hollis Street tenants organizing themselves and promised to support them.  They have a right to organize he said, "...without fear of retaliation from landlords or city hall."

Wareham Development and its CEO Rich Robbins, is long considered Emeryville City Hall's most favored developer, having secured more than its share of government largess over the years.  Even this specific project saw a roll back of parking regulation to Wareham's advantage in 2022 after then Emeryville mayor John Bauters intervened on Wareham's behalf at Mr Robbins' request.  

Mayor David Mourra did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

Lead Contamination in Human Blood Cells
Basophilic stippling is shown, characterized by
the presence of small, dark granules
(ribosomes and RNA remnants)within the cytoplasm.

Emeryville Developer Wareham's Lead Dust Makes Tenant's Homes "Unihabitable"

 Wareham Development Demolition Doses Tenants with Toxic Lead 

Lead Report Says Toxicity at "Dangerous Levels" in Homes

An Emeryville family was recently forced out of their Hollis Street home because their landlord, Wareham Development Corporation, has contaminated their unit with toxic lead dust from a large remodel project on their building.  The lead contamination has rendered their home “uninhabitable” according to a report produced by a lead abatement firm tenant Wendy Medeiros and her husband hired.  The couple alerted the City of Emeryville starting in March after what a neighbor called “constant disruptions” in dust and cuts to their water and power by Wareham and now the lead report that concluded the presence of “dangerous levels of lead” in their home and in the hallways and other rental units in the building.  The lead contamination and disruptions has contributed to an exodus of residential renters from the building neighbors say; just 16 out of 41 units are still occupied, a condition Ms Medeiros called “disheartening”.

Large scale demolition work has been happening on the
building since March.  No water spraying dust mitigation 
measures have been noted by the residents, a standard
method to keep dust levels low, especially toxic dust.

The remodel project is part of the controversial EmeryStation V, a new five story, 300,000 square foot R+D building with a nearly 500 space parking garage all attached to the existing residential building between Hollis Street and Overland Street at 62nd Street.  Wareham and its politically connected CEO Rich Robbins has developed more than eight large projects around the Amtrak station over the last 25 years, many with generous application of public funds.  

The first spate of demolition associated with the project, in 2024, produced a lot of dust says Ms Medeiros, but Wareham offered to clean up their apartment.  Wareham hired a lead analysis firm at the time and they reported “low levels” of the toxin she said.  However, Wareham did not make the findings known to the couple.  Starting in March with the latest demolition on the site and new clouds of dust entering their home, they hired their own firm, Alpha Analytical Laboratories of Petaluma CA.  After an onsite inspection and dust sample collection by a licensed lead abatement technician, the report concluded the lead contamination was acute and happened because of the demolition.  However Wareham is questioning the validity of the Alpha report the couple says. 

The tenant Wendy Medeiros told the Tattler after last year’s toxic dosing of her home by Wareham followed on by this latest onslaught now proved by the independent lead report, has left her at her wits end, “It is disheartening to find myself in a position where I must explain that my right to habitability, health and safety matters.  These are not privileges — they are the bare minimum of what any tenant should expect. Lead contamination is not negotiable.  Habitability is not negotiable.  No one should have to battle that, she said.  

6221 Hollis Street
Large amounts of toxic dust have entered 
tenants' living spaces, including in
the hallways.

A neighbor in the building, Sara Chestnutt-Fry who also has been living under the cloud of lead dust, agreed with Medeiros, “I think the saddest part to me is none us want to move. Everyone left in the building has lived here long term, some tenants for decades, and if we’re forced to relocate it will be devastating to our little artist community, Chestnutt-Fry told the Tattler.  “The most frustrating part is they could have done it right. All they had to do was be transparent and protect our health and safety”, she added.

The EmeryStation V Overland Project became known for having received an improper favor from then Mayor John Bauters wherein CEO Rich Robbins was allowed to provide an excess of parking spaces, above and beyond the official parking policy of the City of Emeryville.  The City Council give -a-way to Wareham is but the latest act of improper largess forwarded to Wareham by certain Emeryville elected officials over the years that has been shown to be a pattern and practice for the politically connected developer.

Wendy Medeiros spoke for the whole community in her building after the latest Wareham dust cloud settled, "It should not be up to tenants to insist on protections that are, by law, non-negotiable or be forced to defend what should never be up for debate in any landlord-tenant relationships”.   

Emeryville City Attorney John Kennedy indicated he would be willing to meet with the tenants to hear their concerns but he has not yet done so say neighbors.  

Wareham Development could not be reached for comment.

The Hollis Street front of the building.  Many people live or until
recently lived in this front part.  The demolition has occurred chiefly 
in the rear portion but inadequate dust mitigation by Wareham 
has allowed the dust to migrate into the resident's homes.